alt Hacker News> If everybody bought only what they needed and ignored all the advertisements, our present level of economic activity would plunge.
Why would it plunge instead of re-focusing on things that are intrinsically important?
> If everybody bought only what they needed and ignored all the advertisements, our present level of economic activity would plunge.
Why would it plunge instead of re-focusing on things that are intrinsically important?
> Why would it plunge instead of re-focusing on things that are intrinsically important?
Because a lot of the economy is focused on creating and maintaining a surplus[1]: make people buy things that they don't really need, make them discard and replace things that they've been convinced are no longer worth it.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surplus%3A_Terrorized_into_Bei...