Story by
Aleksa Costa


The other day I wasn’t very happy. I wanted a new camera, my computer was crashing, my car batteries 
were dead, and my Ipod was outdated. I looked around my room and thought, “But I have so much stuff, why 
do I want more?”

We all have too much stuff. In the past 10 years I’ve had: two computers, 15 cell phones, three iPods, four TV’s, 
three DVD players, two cars – and the list can carry on forever with clothes, cosmetics, books etc. 
So where did all my stuff come from and where did it go? Why do I keep having this feeling of 
dissatisfaction? 


What goes into my stuff?


First of all, materials are extracted, then the product assembled, and then transported to the shelves where I can buy.
Extraction, or natural resource exploitation, has consumed 1/3 of all resources in America in the past 
decade. Today, the U.S. has less than 4 percent of its original forests. To compensate for the loss, we have 
gone to Third World countries to finish exploiting their resources, so now, 80 percent of the planet’s original 
forests are gone, all in all, destroying the planet.


To complete my product, the iron was probably extracted from South Africa, the petroleum was drilled 
from Iraq, and the final product was assembled by some kid in a factory in Mexico.  
When I go to Best Buy to get a new television, I am contributing to this system of trashing the world! 
Kids in Mexico, Congo, Taiwan and Guatemala are risking their lives and childhood so I can get the latest 
digital camera. And for how long will it be the latest? In the United States, 99 percent of the products we buy from the shelves are in the trash after six months of use. 


Trained to comsume

The truth is, American society is driven by consumption. Today we consume twice as much as we did 
50 years ago. We get depressed when our phone doesn’t take pictures, we get frustrated when we can’t 
Twitter, check our Facebook, and chat while sitting through a lecture. 


Are we really to blame? In the U.S., each of us is targeted with more than 3,000 advertisements per 
day. All day we are told that what we have is wrong, and we can make it right by buying something new, and continue to contribute to the system of consumption. 
So right now I don’t really have the urge to go out, replace my batteries, get the latest Macbook, get a 
new SUV or change my Nano to a Touch. I’m going to try and perpetrate this feeling of satisfaction and turn 
my TV off, so I don’t get low again, feeling sorry that I don’t have enough. 

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