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Old 06-22-2019, 11:55 AM
PHC1 PHC1 is offline
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Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Pa
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If I may interject and add just a few philosophical thoughts on this trend...

One of the things that I do agree on with the millennial's is their concern for our planet. Our generation (Baby Boomers and Gen X) didn't care too much for the well-being of our planet. Our excessive consumption and consumerism has caused tremendous impact on our planet. In our quest to earn and spend on accumulating and collecting "stuff" we have managed to pollute the crap out of our planet. As the household items changed from those that can be reused to those that are disposable, we have managed to cause excessive deforestation to complete trashing of the oceans.

There is a swath of plastic waste that is bigger than the state of Texas floating around in the Pacific Ocean. Deep in the Mariana Trench, the crustaceans have been discovered to have plastic in their bellies and that's as deep or deeper than the typical airline flight is as high above the earth at 30,000 ft.

Don't agree? How much stuff have we accumulated over the years? How much of that gets actual use anymore?

From bins of VHS tapes, to Laser Discs to hundreds or thousands of CDs that are collecting dust or the vast vinyl collections of which only a hundred or so are actually getting played on our systems.

The plastic industry made everything cheaper and disposable. Most of that stuff over the last 3 or 4 decades eventually gets thrown out to be dumped on land or winds up in the ocean. Some plastic takes over a thousand years to biodegrade.

So besides wasting money on "accumulating" stuff that is barely ever used and eventually is disposed of, what is our obsession with surrounding ourselves with "stuff". Is it a psychological blanket of comfort? Can't take it with you when you go anyways. Does it bring more happiness to have thousands of CDs on the shelves collecting dust? I don't think so and I was of the old school, accumulation habits as well.


Everything will change in time. Even car ownership will eventually cease to exist as we know it and replaced by autonomous car hailing/sharing/on demand. Don't think all those parking facilities and their owners in large cities are not thinking ahead. They already have plans to convert the millions of square feet to eventual shopping and movie theaters. Not that retail stores or movie theaters are doing their best with the likes of Amazon and other online retailers and movie going is being replaced by on demand at home movie experience...


Digital delivery is clean, it leaves a very small carbon footprint as it streams the digits back and forth and it is clutter free, as well as being more economical and liberating with the endless choices of music to listen to. So what's the downside to that I ask?

Last edited by PHC1; 06-22-2019 at 12:00 PM.
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