Hi Ausgirl - I totally feel what you are saying. I feel exactly the same way. I really feel like our society is currently set up so we just spend more and more (often when we can't afford it) on 'stuff'. It is as if we are looking for happiness in a box. I am very worried about humans living within their biological means. I think we are living on environmental credit that we won't be able to pay back because the interest will be too high, ITMS. Every item comes from somewhere and ends up somewhere, and even if you can financially afford it, can the world afford it? A good example is all of the technology that is so standard in an Australian home, but the problem of electronic waste is a very real environmental and health issue.
I think Jennifer has made some good points as well.
I've been reading a bit about Buddhism lately and my amateurish stab at a Buddhist perspective would say that we will be happier when we recognise that the things we think we want won't make us happy. I guess it would be better to spend our money ethically though where possible. I tend not to dwell too much on the spending money side of things but think about how I can live with more loving kindness in my heart.
We are in a world driven by comercialism and are consumers by nature, i think it is put in our brains from a young age to spend.
is it ethical? who knows, but would it be better to be paying for a service/product and in turn helping someone else earn a wage or just to sit on the money and let it sit covered in dust for a "rainy day?"
if you find it ethicaly wrong, then by all means do what you feel is right to do with your money, it is after all yours.
ETA: is it a feeling of guilt for the ethical side, or a feeling of guilt buying something you KNOW you dont necisarily need?
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