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Comment by vital101 | Hacker News Reader

Let me elaborate. I have a nice laptop because I need one to do my job effectively. Want isn't actually the correct word. I have some desire for materialistic things (as most do), but I don't see them as things that define my life.

I believe that most of the people here on HN would like to "make their mark". Starting a company is one way to do so.

As far as things moving away from materialism, I doubt it. I feel that as we get older we learn to value the less material things. Look at the nearest teenager and you'll see what I mean (or even look back at yourself as a teenager).

This is all dependent on where you're from too. The US is extremely materialistic. Historically, what you own is a measure of how successful you are(Or how big of a mark you've left). The metric for rating the size of your mark needs to change before we can even begin to move away from materialism.

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I am very curious as to your last point: "The metric for rating the size of your mark needs to change before we can even begin to move away from materialism". I think you're onto something as studies show that it's not how much money we make that affects our happiness as what those around us have. So it seems our tendency to compare ourselves to others is an important point here.

What do you see as the metric for rating the size of our mark currently? Our toys: home, car, etc.? Do you have any vision of what it could change to? Are there any elements of a Green New Deal, or even a Green American Dream that could come into play?

Since we tend to compare ourselves to others, if in at least some communities, the idea that it's not cool to just want stuff takes off, then can this attitude become infectious for the rest of the country?

I see small things changing in small pockets of the U.S. Like my sister lives in Seattle and I was talking about green cleaning companies and she said "Who doesn't clean with green cleaning products these days?". In her community, at least (not necessarily all of Seattle), that is what she sees so it's become her norm. A small example.

Currently, I think others rate us on the things we own (cars, houses, businesses, etc). Ideally, people should judge us by the content of our character rather than the material things we own or have earned. I don't know how the American Dream is going to change, but it's different for everybody. People will always be driven by the need to earn and accomplish.

America is a capitalist society, so the next "American Dream" will probably have some quantifiable aspect to it (ex. "How many people did you save?", "How many vaccines did you purchase for children in Africa?"). That's just a thought though.

I'm sure the idea of not wanting stuff could take off, but people like convenience, and more over, people like stuff, and will probably be unwilling to give it up.

As far as your example goes, I think the "Green" thing is just a trend. A good trend, but probably still a trend. People are capitalizing off it all the time. For instance, credit card companies probably don't care about saving trees. But since you go paperless, they get to call it "Green", and then also save a ton of money in the process.

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