Rentalisim, the new Consumerisim?

Posted on | January 12, 2009 | No Comments

Some people bemoan the death of consumerism as the downfall of our economy.  That if we, as a people, are not willing to spend all our money to acquire things we’re causing this economic strife.  Now let’s set the record straight, we here at Crowd Rent are not against consumerism.  We buy things too!  We love flat panel TVs and new computers and a good kegerator in the garage.  Trust us, we consume.  That being said I don’t own an extension ladder, a radial arm saw, or a party tent.  Why not?  Don’t need them that often.  I have a two story house, an extension ladder would be handy, like once a year.  Mainly if I ever put up Christmas lights.  The other 364 days out of the year it’s taking up space in my garage/basement.

So while we’re all about capitalism and consuming we think we’ve over consumed as a country.  I’ve got friends who own everything.  The money was flowing in and so were the toys.  Look at Best Buy’s tag line, You, Happier!  The know that buying things makes us happy so the cater to that.  And not to pick on Best Buy, they just have the most egregious example of consumerism.  Home Depot will tell you that you need to outfit that nice new three car garage with every power tool under the sun.

My dad owned a radial arm saw my whole life growing up.  It didn’t work most my life.  It took up space in their garage and I think it’s still there.  He’s a handy guy who can do great things with some lumber and power tools.  He built platform beds for me and my brother.  A whole playhouse for us as kids.  Now that being said, did he ever really need to have the saw for years?  No, he could have rented it from someone else.  Or lent it out to his neighbors and made it make money for him.

So to clear this up, we’re not tree hugging hippies although we do think trees need love too.  We’re red-blooded capitalist Americans who love to buy stuff but we think we should be more sensible about it at the same time.  Our desire to consume has pushed the personal savings rates to negative at some times but they’re down to 2% or so according to the BEA.  Save some cash, make some cash, live your life.  Personally, having some savings is “me, happier” but that’s me.  If being broke as a joke with tons of stuff makes you happy, more power to you.

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