Reply To: Junkyard World

Common saychel “One person junk is another person’s treasure”

-that is true and I believe in that as well but now we are going into more of a recycling or reuse of resources. But why is so much junk produced in the first place? People are consumers of everything and more and more useless litter is produced. Amazon is full of Sellers from China selling things that are low quality and made to stop working after a short period of time. The clutter we have in this world is beyond belief since its so much cheaper to make everything than it ever was.

If you read a few books about minimalism or watch some videos, it discusses how having only the things you need and about how it makes a person so much more productive, clear-minded and life so much better. Really when you think about it all the useless junk and clutter we collect just weighs us down. It increases our worrying about our possessions, many of which we wouldnt know are gone if we were to get rid of them. Has anyone looked into this concept or try it and notice a difference. Part of the problem nowadays is the marketing, consumer culture, and trying to keep up or outshine everyone else simply because the marketing companies told us it would.

Pirkei Avos tells us the one who is rich is the one satisfied/happy with their share. How do we apply this to our times? Also is it fair to say that if we choose to live a simple life (in terms of materialism) we are looked down upon by others as if we simply cant afford say a brand new lease, or the latest iphone, huge house etc.? Many will just dismiss your simple living or satisfactory materialism by saying you are just using it as an excuse because you are bitter. Its also brought up (Pirkei Avos?) that you should not dress to fancy due to haughtiness but on the other hand you need not dress in rags due to others poentially disrespecting you or looking down upon you since a person needs to have self respect and dignity. So maybe there is something to having to own certain things or dress a certain way (for others) in order to not be looked down upon?