alt Hacker News>That in aggregate makes the economy much worse.
Does it really? A lot of our problems seem to stem from conspicuous consumption. People will still need things (food shelter clothing) and that will motivate purchasing. "Oh n0es people won't buy flavor of the month consumer garbage, what ever will we do" just doesn't track.
> Does it really?
It does, really.
Conspicuous consumption is a miniscule part of the economy, and for every person whose conspicuous consumption drops, you'll have 5 people who can no longer afford food and shelter.
If you'd like to learn more, I'd encourage you to take an economics class at any local community college. Intro level should teach you about lots of new things including this, much more than you'd learn reading HN comments.