Buy Nothing Day Essay

As a consequence of online shopping, increasing production of goods, and an exponential growth in demand, the world has become extremely dependent on consumerism and consumerist culture. As consumerism continues to grow, so does opposition to it, resulting in the creation of a “Buy Nothing Day.” Buy Nothing Days are designated days where people are encouraged to not buy anything, as suggested by the name. However, consumerism is a growning problem and requires a solution much bigger than a single day of the year; Buy Nothing Days may raise awareness and could potentially disrupt harmful consumerist practices, but consumerism is a hefty problem and Buy Nothing Days don’t have large enough of an impact to fix it. Buy Nothing Days are good in some aspects, and are extremely beneficial in raising awareness towards consumerism and its downfalls. Consumerism issues aren’t at the forefront of very many

The need to buy an extensive amount of goods all the time has led to inhumane practices like sweatshops, child labor, and animal testing. In our current state, there really isn’t a completely ethical way to consume anything without there being some sort of malicious practice going on behind the scenes. Buy Nothing Day is a one-time, short-term solution to a long-term problem, and it’s not enough to do any kind of substantial damage to consumerism itself. Massive problems require massive solutions, and Buy Nothing Days are quite possibly the opposite of massive. In order to actually make some positive change without involving the government and without having to wait for Buy Nothing Days to actually become popular, there needs to be something more substantial done. A few people refusing to buy things one day out of the year isn’t doing much, and that will continue to be the case if Buy Nothing Days stay at the level they are now. I don’t have the solution to consumerism, and although Buy Nothing Days are a good start, they’re not