There's been a bit of interest in the Compact (and this article about it) around the internet lately, and it's been popping up here and there all year long. And while I wholly advocate used vs. new (considering that the vast majority of my furniture did not originally belong to me), and while it's good to cut down on consumerism (because we are steeped in it in this country), I'm really not sure what the fuss is all about.
So you buy nothing new for a year, save for food, medicine and essentials--like brake fluid, and underwear. You buy local whenever possible (that's a bit easier to do in SF, I imagine, although having a garden does help.) The kids get used toys for Christmas (okay, fairly easy, there, hello Freecycle!) and you make Christmas presents (with used or recycled supplies, I imagine, okay...) and you feel like you're doing something to help the environment. Right?
But...
"But Perry has not veered once from the Compact rules. His bathroom sink has been plugged for months, and it'll stay that way until he finds a drain snake at Thrift Town."
Hasn't he heard of calling up the neighbors and asking to borrow theirs? This is just gross.
Somehow, I'm just not getting the last part. Do you need Manhattans?
And then we have Judith Levine, who decided to buy nothing except necessities for an entire year, and then wrote a book about it. I might have to buy it to read it (although I'm afraid it's going to be as bad as Nickel and Dimed to Death--which wasn't a bad book, only not a true picture of how it is to live on minimum wage in this country at all) but I think she had the better idea. If you're going to go for it, then go all the way, in my mind.
I don't think the Compact is a bad idea. I'm all for consuming less. However, because of the way society is set up, it's very easy to take that 'buying new' expectation and just turn around and apply it to something else--in their case, buying used. Sure, they saved money, even if that wasn't their complete intention of starting the Compact in the first place. But they still consumed. And therein lies the problem.
So you buy nothing new for a year, save for food, medicine and essentials--like brake fluid, and underwear. You buy local whenever possible (that's a bit easier to do in SF, I imagine, although having a garden does help.) The kids get used toys for Christmas (okay, fairly easy, there, hello Freecycle!) and you make Christmas presents (with used or recycled supplies, I imagine, okay...) and you feel like you're doing something to help the environment. Right?
But...
"But Perry has not veered once from the Compact rules. His bathroom sink has been plugged for months, and it'll stay that way until he finds a drain snake at Thrift Town."
Hasn't he heard of calling up the neighbors and asking to borrow theirs? This is just gross.
Somehow, I'm just not getting the last part. Do you need Manhattans?
And then we have Judith Levine, who decided to buy nothing except necessities for an entire year, and then wrote a book about it. I might have to buy it to read it (although I'm afraid it's going to be as bad as Nickel and Dimed to Death--which wasn't a bad book, only not a true picture of how it is to live on minimum wage in this country at all) but I think she had the better idea. If you're going to go for it, then go all the way, in my mind.
I don't think the Compact is a bad idea. I'm all for consuming less. However, because of the way society is set up, it's very easy to take that 'buying new' expectation and just turn around and apply it to something else--in their case, buying used. Sure, they saved money, even if that wasn't their complete intention of starting the Compact in the first place. But they still consumed. And therein lies the problem.
Comments