Wanting to Be a Minimalist in a Capitalist World

In a world of money and capitalism, minimalism seems like it’s going against it all.

Every time I go outside, I keep finding myself overwhelmed by the sheer amount of stuff we’re surrounded by.

Going to fashion school is what really kickstarted this. I wouldn’t necessarily call my family poor anymore, but I didn’t come from a family that could afford all of the clothing I saw some of my peers in. Some girls would fill the entire dorm closet, drawers, a clothing rack they had brought as extra room, and still didn’t have enough space for all of their clothes. It really struck a chord in me, because that was when I started going out into the world and realizing what a privilege all of this was.

Americans really have a serious problem with consumption. This is seen when there are big sales, particularly for Black Friday. But, especially, I saw this in my own home. My father is a hoarder. He never gets rid of anything, he has clothes in plastic from 20+ years ago, and he lives surrounded by piles of things. His definition of cleaning up is buying more storage bins to fill. And, as we kept throwing away moldy food because he had overbought yet again, it also got to me, especially as I came home from college.

It’s a bit disturbing when you take a closer look and see about how everything around you is about money. People aren’t being paid properly because there are people at the top, who historically have the upper advantage, who want to be filthy rich. Companies are exploiting countries that were once colonized, basically creating these systems that are essentially a form of contemporary slavery. The United States is a pill culture because doctors and pharmaceutical companies want to make money.

It seems impossible to break out of this system, but, at the end of the day, with the advent of the Internet, we are better equipped than ever before. Something I always say is that I refuse to go into marketing because I don’t want to make someone they feel like they’re buying something they completely and utterly need. Truth of it all is that we don’t need the vast majority of what we own. But, once upon a time, these products were made with natural resources that could decompose. We didn’t have cheap tacky plastic decor in the 1800s.

On the flip side, we have better conservation efforts and knowledge, but it’s cancelled out by the sheer amount of products we consume. It’s time we need to do something about this, because eventually there will be nothing left to save.