What will I give up?

This pandemic experience could cause us to give up some things forever. Some things, because we’ll have no choice. Others things, by choice. 

We should consider those choices thoroughly and carefully.

Marie Kondo became an international celebrity for spreading a simple observation: most of us spend most of our time accumulating stuff, but more stuff doesn’t always make us more happy. Just the opposite — it can suffocate our growth. 

Do we put enough care and attention into pruning our consumption? Not so that we end up with less. But to help us flourish.

If there are better choices we can make for ourselves, now may be the best chance we'll ever get in our lifetimes to discover them and make them. 

Let’s not waste this chance.

Whatever, Whenever?

The clearest choices before us all concern our consumption habits. This global health crisis has revealed some good reasons why we might choose never to go back to old habits of work, travel, shopping, eating, entertainment. And it has shown that very different choices are possible. In market economies around the world, this pandemic has broken some of the most basic rules about “the consumer.”

One rule is that we are free to consume whatever we want, whenever we want. The only limit is our income (and some laws).

This pandemic has suspended that policy (in most places). Sellers cannot simply sell because they see an opportunity. Buyers cannot simply buy because they want to. That simple policy is too dangerous. Public health has to be considered, too.

Is public health the only other trade-off we face, each time we choose to consume? Of course not. The environment immediately comes to mind. Three more potential trade-offs are obvious right now (but maybe don’t get the reflection they deserve)...

Interested on the subject? You can read a longer version of this article on my website.