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This is a timely article. I have been pondering this very topic for a while. What leads some people to attempting to endlessly accumulate more, bigger, and costlier things? I don’t have much desire for expensive items, nor filling my home with junk (it still gets too much), but when meeting others they’re often continually desiring new things. A new car, a bigger boat, a new stereo system, a larger house with more whirligigs.
When does it stop and how do people reach a place of contentment?
I like having systems and resources that are sufficient, not endlessly bigger. I have no idea why I’m this way, but my neighbors seem to have an ever burning desire for a truck that’s bigger with more dashboard features.
It’s known as the “Hedonic Treadmill,” and I have posted about it here. People get a small rush when they acquire something new, and mistakenly believe that larger/better acquisitions will result in better/longer good feelings. Really, it’s the novelty of the thing that makes us feel that way, and novelty inevitably fades. The thing is, many people never realize this and end up chasing that feeling for their entire lives, hence: eternally walking on the Hedonic Treadmill that takes them nowhere.
Some people are less susceptible to this than others. If you don’t have a particularly addictive personality, or if you are not in the fog of consumerism as a positive thing, you will probably not struggle with this as much as someone who has one or both of those traits.
Hedonic Treadmill is a great term for it. Thank you for passing that along.
I definitely know the feeling.
It would also make a great band name.