Materialist World & it’s so called Possessions

Have we (in the developed world) become greedy, self-obsessed, collectors of ever more material possessions? Is it possible to “want more” and still lead a spiritually and intellectually fulfilling life? Given that around two thirds of a modern economy is made up of domestic consumption, what do you think it might mean if we ended our apparent obsession with material possessions?

Materialism & Bias
On a regular day I often meet people telling about some of the problems they encounter at home, workplace, social life, etc., these are the people who are better off in their life, at least financially. This indicated that when a person starts gaining more income than required, then it has no effect on happiness. Easterlin Paradox states that income has different effects on people at different times. This means that even when you have the reach to all the materialistic things in life, you are still unhappy. Moreover, majority of the conflicts arise in families, due to the materialistic attitude. Yes, we have become greedy, self-obsessed, collectors of ever-more material possessions and this materialistic approach would always lead to unhappiness and disordered families but would give persistent materialistic growth. Smith supports the argument in “The Wealth of Nations” that we should not be greedy. However, this materialism maximizes the society’s utility in terms of using resources.

Self-Economics
If we ended our material possessions, that is, limit the consumption to a reasonable limit and is able to make a choice of “have’s” and “have not’s”, then the evils of the society would diminish and would mean that we are leading to economic prosperity in attaining happiness by de-voiding human values. The materialistic things are there to make our life easier and which it does. However, it does not make our life better. Tim argues that it is our attachment to the material things and the way they influence our thinking, defines our lives. The obsession of perceived wants converted to perceived needs is misleading, for e.g. Australians took loans to buy products and services worth 10 billions and never use it, an oniomanist attitude.