Why Buying More Never Satisfies

By and large, people love buying stuff. From old-fashioned marketplaces to shopping centers, we’ve always spent time browsing for things to purchase. And today, we scour Amazon and Temu from the comfort of our homes, with packages arriving at our doorstep. But not every purchase is the same. In many cases, we buy something we truly need. In other don’t need, but may be useful someday. And sometimes, we buy things for the sake of buying, until our homes fill up with useless junk. The act of buying isn’t bad in itself. Often, it’s necessary. But when shopping becomes excessive, it comes with real consequences. Philosophers of old, particularly those from ancient Greece, were already critical of the human tendency to accumulate material possessions. They had insights we can still apply today, helping us understand why buying things we don’t need can become problematic. This video explores why buying more stuff doesn’t make us happy in the long run, and how buying less can lead to more freedom and contentment. My name is Stefan. This is not an AI voice, I’m a real person. Subscribe to my newsletter on Substack to stay updated on all my content. You can also support my work on Patreon and find my books on Amazon. Thank you. And I hope you’ll enjoy this video. Shopping isn’t always necessary… or harmless. Often, we buy unnecessary items: impulse purchases, gadgets we saw advertised somewhere, or fancier cars just to keep up with the Joneses. More people fall for the ‘will-to-buy’ than they want to admit. Buying stuff is directly connected to concerns beyond survival; think status, prestige, and social recognition. Philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer was very aware of people’s perceived “place in the estimation of others,” as he called it. To his astonishment and disdain, people are often more concerned with how they look in the eyes of others than with their own happiness and well-being. (I recently made a video about his views on external validation, if you want to know more. ) But the will-to-buy comes with sacrifice. Shopping requires money, money requires labor, labor requires time and energy. Some people look to bypass this mechanism by taking loans or buying on installment plans, so they can have what they cannot afford. Yet now they have taken on the burden of debt, which still requires sacrifice to resolve. And what to do with all the stuff? Material possessions need maintenance, which often costs money, time, and energy; the same resources we needed to buy what now demands our care. Also, we often get attached to our stuff, even the inessential things, loathing the idea of losing what we own. And often, quite subtly, we let our possessions decide our lives. For example, why adopt the healthy habit of walking to work if we have an expensive, fancy car to drive us there? But at least owning stuff makes us happy… right? Not really. In one of my older videos on the question of whether money can buy happiness, I mentioned psychology professor Dr. Thomas Gilovich, who conducted a 20-year study on the subject and concluded that buying stuff could make you happy, but only for a while. The thing is: We quickly get used to new possessions, then look for something better. And when we get that, we get used to it too, and start looking for something even better. The will-to-buy is an insatiable need that promises much but delivers little, always demanding more, and never really ending. So, what happens when we stop buying stuff we don’t really need? Many centuries ago, there was a philosopher we could easily call one of the purest anti-consumerists humanity has ever known. He didn’t just talk the talk; he lived his philosophy… to the extreme. His name was Diogenes, and he lived in a barrel on the streets. He owned almost nothing and rejected social norms, luxury, and status. Diogenes was a pain in the butt for the people around him because he just didn’t care what they thought of him. He once urinated on a man who called him a dog. He also spat in a rich man’s face, saying that house, there was nowhere else to spit. And when Alexander the Great (who actually

admired him) asked if there was anything he could do for him, Diogenes simply replied, “Yes, step aside, you’re blocking the sun. ” Diogenes did and said whatever he wanted, because he had nothing to lose. And because he had no attachments, nobody could truly harm him. Sure, I admit, Diogenes’ example is extreme. But the essence of his ‘lived philosophy’ is that the less you have to lose, the more freedom you experience. When we own a lot of stuff, we also have much to lose, thus, much to worry about. And when our identity is tied to status and wealth, we’re always afraid of not having it. And so, we always feel pressure to maintain and upgrade our lifestyles, especially when those around us do the same. We feel the need to wear certain brands to belong. We need German cars because our neighbours have German cars. We need the latest iPhone because all our friends have one. But Diogenes would say: screw it. Let it all go. Stop needing stuff, stop needing validation, stop needing approval. Not needing all these things sets you free in ways many others are not. So, how can we decide what to buy and what not to buy? Around twenty years after Diogenes’ death, a man was born on the Greek island of Samos who would become one of the most influential philosophers of all time: Epicurus. Epicurus took a more moderate approach. He developed a hedonistic philosophy grounded in reason, a practical path to happiness that remains popular today. And his path is more than relevant when it comes to combating what I’d call ‘toxic consumerism’. Consumerism rests on a simple delusion: that buying things makes us happy. But the evidence suggests otherwise. As mentioned before, the happiness that comes with purchases is not only short-lived; buying stuff also creates the desire to buy more things we don’t need. It’s a double whammy of insatiability and nonessentiality. And so, Epicurus was insightful in distinguishing between natural and vain desires, and in making another distinction between necessary and unnecessary natural desires. Epicurus argued that following natural, necessary desires is sufficient for happiness. These desires are easily satisfied, widely available, have a natural limit… and we experience pain when they are not met. They include the desire for food, water, shelter, clothing, social connection, and wisdom. Unnecessary natural desires include things like luxurious food, fine drinks, or an expensive house. They may add to our pleasure, sure, but they are not required to relieve pain or to live contentedly. They’re okay to follow, as long as doing so doesn’t generate pain. “He who is not satisfied with a little is satisfied with nothing,” said Epicurus. And here’s where the vain desires come in. Vain desires usually bring more pain than happiness, such as a strong urge for wealth, power, fame, or prestige. What characterizes these desires is that they are insatiable; it’s never enough, we always need more. So, they never really fulfill. (To go deeper into this, I made a couple of in-depth videos on Epicurean philosophy, which you’ll find in my Epicurus playlist. ) Now, here’s the kicker: Most, if not all, of our purchases fit in one of these categories. And from an Epicurean viewpoint, we should focus on the first category for contentment and pain relief. We could dwell in the second one too, but with caution. And we must avoid the third one. If we look closely and honestly at our purchases, we might conclude that many of them may add to our pleasure but aren’t really necessary. We might not need a better car, fine dining every week, or branded clothes. Many purchases are driven by vain desires for prestige, wealth, or the need to show off. We don’t need these things; we want to be seen, admired, to feel like we matter. And that’s a slippery slope, because desires like these have no limit; they can never truly be satisfied and often depend on the opinions of others. Moreover, when we look closely, we see that these purchases add little to our actual well-being

while costing us significant sacrifice, and may even lead us into debt. So when it comes to status, prestige, and excessive wealth… is the juice really worth the squeeze? What these ancient Greek philosophers got right is that they ‘managed’ their desires. They discovered that we don’t need much to be happy. And so, many desires are unnecessary, and some may even do more harm than good. We can apply this simple philosophy to consumption as well. Many, if not most, of the stuff we buy is not needed for contentment. And those who buy compulsively are more likely to get into trouble than to get satisfied. The ancient philosophers were clear. The less you need, the freer you are. Needing little alleviates the burden of having to buy more and all the sacrifices that come with it. It reduces the anxiety of losing what we have, of not being able to acquire more, and of keeping up with the neighbors. And it frees up time, space, and energy for the things that actually fulfill us. Thank you for watching.