Comment by chneu | Hacker News Reader

Comment by chneu | Hacker News Reader

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Americans often have to rent multiple storage units to store their stuff. This happens after their garages begin to overflow with junk. Id say like 75% of Americans don't use their garage for their car, it's just storage for shit.

A lot of Americans also buy 5th wheel recreational vehicles(caravans) that they can't store at home so they have to store them at designated facilities. It's extremely common to see run-down caravans parked beside houses or in the driveway, too. It's crazy. People buy em, never use em, and then they rot. Same with boats and off road vehicles; sitting there rotting at storage facilities or next to the garage.

Americans own an INSANE amount of stuff. I'm American and I find it crazy how much shit people own. Remember that per capita Americans are the highest consumers in the world and it's not even close.

It has to do with the American exceptionalism thinking. That Americans are special and therefore more entitled to over consume. Manifest Destiny baby, god chose America! The extreme capitalism in America reinforces this mentality. The amount of crap an American owns is a status symbol. A lot of Americans are proud to own stuff they never use.

In the spring time, when folks start opening their garages, i like to see how much winter junk people have accumulated. A month or two ago it was comedic watching people move stuff out of their garages to reorganize so they could then put it all back.

> It has to do with the American exceptionalism thinking. That Americans are special and therefore more entitled to over consume.

This is quite a leap, and you're giving people too much credit for "consumption as a guiding principle".

Most people just have extra income and are bombarded with messages about how something will make their lives better. They try it out. They're stuck with it.

They try it out because Americans love owning stuff as status symbols. Gotta keep up with the Joneses with our "grass fed" steak dindins, 3rd truck, boat, rv and garage full of junk. We are hyper-capitalist and we use the manifest destiny/conquerer mentality to justify it. Advertising drives this mentality into people from a young age to the point they don't even realize it. The word "deprogramming" might be apt here.

Even if one doesn't consciously think about or admit this, it is everywhere in American culture, especially in rural-cosplaying folks. If someone isn't aware of it, and working to check their consumption, then they're probably engaging in it, unfortunately.

Americans have endless excuses for our overconsumption because it allows us to either justify or ignore the consequences of our actions.

Even mentioning overconsumption will result in many Muricans getting mad because you're challenging their privilege.

A really great example of this is the typical american's reaction to environmental causes. Look at how american media portrays environmentalists and reacts with pure vitriol most of the time (fortunately this has changed quite a lot in recent years but it's still pretty bad). Environmentalists challenge the privileged mindset of american culture. What did american culture do? We pumped up beef and dairy production while portraying it as "the natural way", "the carnivore diet", the "caveman diet" etc as if overconsumption is how it should be and has always been. Then American culture portrayed vegans/vegetarians as anemic weaklings, which is basically an attack on people challenging the privilege to overconsume. Make the enemy look bad instead of addressing the issue.

Once one starts to look for this stuff they'll see it is everywhere in US culture. I grew up in a town of 500 people on a farm/ranch in the US West. I was very conservative. I bought into all this shit for 20+ years. Then I traveled and talked to people outside the US with different viewpoints. It is really obvious how bad it is in the US once you start to pay attention and stop buying into this privileged mindset.

We can't begin to improve this until we can even acknowledge it. There are many forces in this country working to prevent people from even acknowledging this. Look at conservative media, especially. It's suuuuper obvious.

There's a lot to unpack here.

In my opinion (and observation), the majority of the population worldwide wants a boat. Whether it's attainable or socially acceptable depends on where you live. In America it is attainable and mostly socially acceptable. You can't fault people for grabbing their dream when it's within reach. Most immigrants want to move to the US because they can "buy a boat". It's literally the point.

People really really love meat. They don't need much persuasion to resist any message that says what they love is bad. Like, people love meat so much that it's probably something our bodies want and need over other forms of sustenance.

I'm not sure why so many people think that there's an effective brainwashing campaign behind all of this. I think it's just what individual, free thinking people want.

Again, WHY do people want things they don't need? Because advertising tells them to. Because culture tells them to. Because propaganda tells them to. Because nationalism tells them to.

In the US, and other hyper-captalist countries, this is in overdrive. It's reinforced by the propaganda we're given as children that the US is the greatest country to ever exist and that justifies our insane consumption. God chose america to be great and lead the world, therefore any destruction we do is justified. This isn't an original idea by me. You can find people talking about this going back over a century.

You seem to be confirming what I'm saying because you're making excuses for overconsumption without admitting that all people are influenced by media/advertising/propaganda. Denying this is denying reality. We are all influenced by these things to some degree. The important part is being able to recognize it and be honest about your justifications for your consumption. That's the issue; people don't reflect on these things because they feel bad or it challenges their privilege. This "sunk cost guilt" is discussed frequently in psychology circles.

I have a lot of international friends from all walks of life. This is something I talk about regularly with people. Americans(and folks from other hyper-capitalist countries) really struggle with this. It's really frustrating talking to Americans about this because they just deny it and make excuses. Meanwhile, people who are aware of it are making fun of Americans for it. There's a reason americans are seen as loud, ignorant, over consuming fools to much of the world.

You are right though, there are plenty of people who see the overconsumption in the US and want it. No denying that. But again, why? Lots of media telling them america is the greatest country that's ever existed or will exist and if ya move here you too can consume as much as you want. Becoming a US citizen, for many folks, is gaining that right to overconsume in ways that are often looked down upon in their home countries.

Again, the question is not IF you're influenced to overconsume, it's to what degree are you influenced and whether you can recognize it. If you can't/won't recognize it then you can't begin to check that consumption. In much of America this is the norm. If something challenges that overconsumption, say an environmentalist group, they will be attacked for challenging America's greatness(which is the right to overconsume/conquer/destroy). Why do you think it's the norm for Americans to shit on people who care about the environment? Because those people challenge their right to overconsume.

Trump literally ran on this premise and won. So any denial of this premise is denying an obvious reality that we are living through.

Drill baby drill! Let's bring back great american coal! Let's conquer more lands because America is the greatest thing to ever happen. Make American Great Again! (sarcasm)

Americans really struggle to even recognize this concept.

This is not an original concept by me. This is discussed all over the place. I first learned about it almost 15 years ago while attending a speech at MIT.

https://sites.uab.edu/humanrights/2023/10/24/the-excessive-n...

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13569317.2022.2...

https://bppj.studentorg.berkeley.edu/2020/11/12/the-dangers-...

https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/664594

https://yalebooks.yale.edu/2017/02/28/a-brief-history-of-ame...

https://www.collegiatetimes.com/lifestyle/wryly-reilly-the-m...

Then you have this blatant propaganda from the Heritage Foundation: https://www.heritage.org/american-history/lecture/why-americ...

Also somewhat related, the podcast "Our Fake History" just finished up a multi-part series that talks about the concept of the "Spartan Myth". The Spartan Myth is the way that nearly all nations have used sparta in propaganda. They do this with misinformation, misinterpretation, etc of spartan history. Sebastian brings up many great points that are relevant to this discussion. The series is worth a listen.

https://ourfakehistory.com/

At the very least, I hope my comments here will make people reflect on the ways we are influenced. If we can't even recognize that we're influenced then we can't begin to account for it. A lot of people cannot even admit they're influenced because of their ego. But yeah, at least entertain the idea.

The point is that you _can_ buy a boat. That's freedom. That's what people love. Some realize, correctly, that it won't make them happy. What people love about America is the freedom to choose. That's the philosophy that they fight for.

>Id say like 75% of Americans don't use their garage for their car, it's just storage for shit.

>A lot of Americans also buy 5th wheel recreational vehicles(caravans) that they can't store at home so they have to store them at designated facilities.

I am involved in this business and I assure you you are vastly over estimating the fraction of the population that pays for storage.

I think you're misinterpreting what I said.

I said 75% of people with garages likely don't put their cars in their garages.

This is unrelated to the number of RV owners who store their caravan at a storage facility. I didn't talk about that and didn't specify a figure there. I just said people buy RVs and some people pay to store them.

I meant to quote the first and fourth sentences, not 3rd and 4th.

>Americans often have to rent multiple storage units to store their stuff.

>A lot of Americans also buy 5th wheel recreational vehicles(caravans) that they can't store at home so they have to store them at designated facilities.

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