this post was submitted on 13 Jul 2025
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[–] JennyLaFae@lemmy.blahaj.zone 24 points 2 days ago (9 children)

The majority of brands are involved in a scheme where their products lead to more consumption of another product.

Deodorant makes your armpits smell worse, needing to use more soap and continue to use deodorant.

Shampoo makes your hair need conditioner, and needs more products to look nice again needing to wash more frequently...

Soda makes you hungry and don't rehydrate, snacks make you thirsty and aren't satiating.

Food isn't nourishing, take these vitamins.

Clothing is getting made from materials that hold onto smells and wear more from washing, needing to be washed more often and washer needing repairs and buying new clothes.

Apps need more resources so you need the new phone to run them.

[–] VinesNFluff@pawb.social 18 points 2 days ago (3 children)

That's just capitalism

You're describing capitalism

And pretty much everyone knows that's how it works, the disagreement is that some (very odd) people think this is a good thing.

[–] obsoleteacct@lemmy.zip 2 points 2 days ago (2 children)

It's just consumption in general. It predates capitalism (as we know it). For thousands of years humanity has been using beer and wine to cut the fat, sugar, and salt on our palate so we don't feel too full or sate and can eat more.

[–] VinesNFluff@pawb.social 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Humans being gluttonous motherfuckers who will consume stuff until we're wrecked is indeed older than dirt. Some of the oldest records we HAVE of humanity involve people committing excesses of the sort.

-- Having a bunch of organisations driven by profit independently come to the conclusion they can exploit this flaw in human persons to maximise their profits, leading to a systemic vicious circle where we consume more, so they create more artificial needs for us to consume, so we consume more, so (...) -- Is, in fact, a product of capitalism.

[–] Cataphract@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 day ago

My rebuttal is that only those examples of greed are celebrated and honored in the capitalistic age. There are plenty of examples of people living in a form of harmony with nature and some current countries like Bhutan who are doing better. I imagine at different points in time you had a majority of populations living this way but those histories weren't preserved (like Native American) as well or taught as much.

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