Gear Acquisition Syndrome: Do You Really Need All That?

[cce]

I think many people mistake "having lots of stuff related to a hobby" as being the best way to enjoy it. Over time some will come to realise the value of quality over quantity.

 

[The History Man]

Or the value of quality and quantity of quality

 

[highlandsflyer]

140' garden six sheds and no worries thank you very much! If you didn't have to pay for it like the "shoppers" did then whats to stop you from having a few too many projects on the go at once. Yes there's stuff that you really don't need (NOW) but it may come in handy sometime later......
As for surviving a nuclear winter I don't think I could be bothered.... But camping in the snow is cool if you gotta solid canvas tent, raised sprung bed and woodburning stove....

Amen to that. Snow, canvas, wodburner. I'm there!

 

[The History Man]

I'd say that a large number on here take a fetishistic approach to one or more of their hobbies including the retrobikes. I like the justification of curation, preservation and variation but saw one 'mr gumby' with eight virtually identical bikes plus others. Merely an observation rather than a criticism.

Beats football cards or top trumps!

 

[Neil]

I care!

Consumerism is ruining the country, mark my words!

I think this is a good, fair, point - I also believe consumerism is ruining society.

Yes, yes, yes, some people will always bang on about how the market knows best, and how it's all good in the hood - but all the same, it's not.

Whilst Tyler Durden in Fight Club may have been something of a caricature antithesis to consumerism - there is a point - people just become victims to it, and economies become more than dependent on it, are predicated on an improbable, untenable prospect of continuous growth.

There's this notion - this idea, that human psychological maturity shows that gratification can be delayed - well we're moving beyond that, right back to: want now, have now - that's having all sorts of impact, not least on economy, but on society (look at all the theories postulated on the riots of a few years back), as well as general behaviourism, aspirations, and the vacuousness that tends to pervade, these days.

 

[MikeD]

Britain used to be the epicentre of innovation, I reckon the trend to just buy everything stifles creativity.

Someone somewhere has to keep coming up with new stuff for people to buy, though.

Dunno. I find it hard to get particularly worked up about how other people spend their money.

 

[unkleGsif]

...

 

[We_are_Stevo]

The 'great Council House sell off' and the rise of the Yuppie was the beginning of the end...

...before that a house was something you bought to live in; if your family got bigger and you needed more space you bought a bigger one (or a caravan if you had a big back garden!). Then, when you got a bit older and didn't need all that space you downsized to a nice little bungalow in the suburbs.

Now, thanks to Maggie and Sarah f*cking Beeny, society has plumbed new depths of greed and unfairness! :x

 

[legrandefromage]

I had £120,000 of home cinema kit once

 

[We_are_Stevo]

Was that the Odeon or the ABC?