The people of today are constantly feeling pressure to prove their wealth to others by buying things they don't need, which creates a larger Carbon footprint in the big picture. This desire to buy expensive and showy items is called materialism. For example, it is unnecessary and materialistic to purchase a Gucci belt solely for the purpose of showing it off. Marketing businesses prey on those who care about their status. Nobody truly needs a fancy belt like that, but many people want it, so the production of these items increase, which causes more Carbon emissions to be released into the atmosphere. An experiment was held by an organization to see who would be more hesitant to cut down trees and this is a conclusion that was drawn, "We found that materialists desired to gain more profit for themselves by plundering more forest resources without considering environmental consequences" (Frontiers in Psychology). To conclude, even in a world where people feel so inclined to prove their worth through the quality of inanimate objects, it is crucial to consider the effects that the purchase will have on the planet. One solution is to make an effort to support small businesses rather than large corporations because they usually have much less of an impact on the Carbon footprint.

Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10 … 00790/full

I am in complete agreement with you. I often buy a name brand item rather than a cheaper, more inexpensive one. However, sometimes, name brand is better. If a company is trying to modify a name brand's product slightly to avoid a lawsuit, they may be taking away the purpose of the product. I understand that it is a lot easier to buy whatever you want and not read the labels. But sometimes, the reason a more well-known brand is expensive, is because they put a lot more effort into what and how they're manufacturing. For example an eco-friendly brand may cost two dollars more than most conditioners because it uses recycled plastic and other materials for their packaging. Or maybe even organic ingredients. A box-store brand may see an opportunity to make some money off of their product. So they remake the product and place it directly next to the more expensive product. Which one do you think most people will buy? In conclusion, maybe it's worth spending a few extra dollars to lessen your carbon footprint rather than going for the most wasteful products. Or even maybe meet in the middle. You don't have to completely change your lifestyle in order to make a difference.

I completely agree! Materialism is bigger issue than what meets the eye. Not only does it greatly affect your carbon footprint but also hurts your own well being. Studies have proven that materialistic values have presented more negative emotions, depression and anxiety. In addition, physical health problems, such as stomachaches and headaches have been correlated like feeling less satisfied.  Continuing, materialism hurts our relationships, and pushes us to become less friendly, empathetic, and likable, and to add more it also makes us anxious, depressed, and selfish. Materialism is just all around bad. It can affect your morals or your goals. The New York Times talks about how people pursing material goods believing in a positive come out like happiness is actually damaging because it hurts you since your denying better routes towards happiness. In other words it may lead to a road of In addition, it damages relationships by creating a toxic and competitive relation. All in all, similar to you, materialism is bad in a multitude of ways, especially mentally.

Soucres: https://www.vox.com/2014/12/24/7447727/ … psychology

I totally agree with all of you. It's promoted and advertised all over the internet and social media of rich people buying lots of things just for kicks which creates a larger carbon footprint. It wouldn't be as much of a problem if rich people didn't promote this behavior that when you're rich you must buy stuff that is overly expensive. I believe people are doing it to show their worth/ an attempt to gain recognition. Also buying fancy expensive stuff can put people into a bad mindset when they see those less fortunate that can't afford what they have making them feel superior. Furthermore, most of these products they buy they never even use and they end up going to waste. However, I believe if rich people moved to a smaller organization and started buying their products then everyone else would shift over and morph that organization into the large you don't want to buy from. All in all, I believe if expensive and fancy items weren't promoted as it is now on social media materialism would not be as big of a problem as it is today.

I completely agree with all the above comments. I feel like buying secondhand or thrifting has such an unnecessary negative stigma around it. The Huffington Post says that the average American throws away 65 pounds of clothing every year. Many of these clothing items are perfectly new and could be enjoyed by someone else. According to The Telegraph, the average 10-year-old owns 238 toys but plays with just 12 daily. This statistic proves how wasteful we can be, it is completely unnecessary to buy these things for a child if they do not even pay attention to it. This problem is especially terrible in the United States. Although only 3.1% of children live in the US, they own 40% of the world's toys (according to UCLA.) The issue of materialism is becoming even worse rather than improving. This is a great time for people to start thinking their purchases through more thoroughly and only buying what they need.
Works Sited:
https://www.becomingminimalist.com/clutter-stats/

People are always researching new products, fashionable products or pseudo-innovating products and for sure this is a huge problem for the society because it improves inequalities and non-sense consumption. But if in the future everyone start to buy only second hand products or products that they really need,  it will be really problematic for the economy and if the economy is in crisis because the wants’ market is empty, there will be no gain for the society because we will assist to a huge rise of unemployment. It is necessary to assist the environment by reducing our consumption and our desire to buy everything but we must continue to buy products which are only useful to maintain the economy system otherwise our problem in the years to come will be much bigger because we need the economic system to support the ecology.

I totally agree with Tchoupi, the issue is not as simple as that and we have to consider the economic side of the problem. It is useless to reduce our carbon footprint if we crash the economy. Moreover, people are not ready to give up superficial products, which are, most of them, made in China, what makes explode the carbon footprint. I think each person should buy in priority products which are made in their own country to deter companies to relocate and then, reduce their carbon footprint.

I agree with Tchoupi. Another aspect of only buying second hand products or products that we really need is that there won't be anymore innovation in term of technology or social improvement. But I also agree with the fact that we need to reduce our consumption of items that we don't need since all the money spent goes straight to companies' wallets and is not used to improve economic situations of countries. Last but not least I don't really agree with the fact that well known brands items have a better quality than others. We can take grande couture brands as an example. A 100% cotton shirt is still a 100% shirt even if there is written Gucci on it. No need to spend an irrealistic amount of money just for a brand's name.

I agree with this, I think that people are over buying product to show their wealth that they don't really need. By reducing the amount of buying product can help to reduce the emission.