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Comment by warlog | Hacker News Reader

"To live more sustainably, if you don’t need it, don’t buy it."

This.

But it flies in the face of sustainability(TM), which has been captured by corporations and is the new new for capitalism.

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Very much this. I learned that life lesson a little late. Prior to moving I gave away 98+% of my things to neighbors and friends. I moved into a small home and forced myself to keep it free of clutter. I did not need all that stuff.

Buying and using less is not an option in our consumerism-centric world. Companies want to always sell you more, not less. So they are just adapting their products to be or appear more “sustainable”, however it fits their business, in order to keep selling more of the same stuff.

If you don't keep spending your entire income the interest rate will fall below zero. Our enlightened society has decided that an interest rate below zero is apparently defrauding savers while they can just get a certificate of deposit at 0% interest and therefore demands endless growth fueled by government debt.

The best part is that the very same people demand that the government pay its debts back, at very high interest of course, which is completely illogical because paying debt reduces interest rates.

Certainly a good idea, but the average estimates I am seeing for the footprint of goods is 14% in the US[1]. So you wouldn't want to stop there.

1: https://www.nature.org/en-us/get-involved/how-to-help/carbon...

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