Consumerism's Quiet Disempowerment

A close friend once told me, "Consumerism disempowers people," and it’s lived rent-free in my head ever since.

Everything has a price tag now. It’s not just food or shelter; we’re buying time, effort, and even the "vibe" of our relationships. Feeling lazy? Grab delivers. Want to shed pounds without the grind? Ozempic promises a bypass. Need an idea? AI will generate one. Consumerism sells instant fixes for life’s friction, but those shortcuts mask a much deeper cost.

The real price isn't measured in dollars only, but also in our mental space and our way of living. These "solutions" often just invite new anxieties—promising peace but delivering dependency. We chase the next product for relief, only to loop back: disempowered, empty, and primed to buy again. These things work just enough to give us temporary relief, but they can't sustain us. It’s a lot like caffeine dependency. Coffee gets the task done today, but it’s just borrowing energy from next week. You keep drinking it to stay energized, but eventually, the debt comes due. When you hit a wall, no amount of espresso can fix a burnout.

I get the appeal. Saving time and energy feels like a win. But in the process, we’re actually losing those very assets. By bypassing the time spent fumbling, failing, and learning, we’re unravelling the fabric of daily life. Resilience fades without the struggle that forges it. Critical thinking and soft skills atrophy when we start paying for shortcuts to avoid discomfort.

In this fast-forward culture, therapy can feel frustratingly slow, hard, and uncertain. But that’s the point—therapy is supposed to mimic life. We can buy our way out of some discomfort, but we can't "buy out" the fundamental limitations of being human. Consumerism can't hack our 24-hour days, the pull of gravity, or the sun’s path. In the grander scheme of things, we are still limited, and we still have very little control.

"We are just brief flickers of life, occupying a tiny corner of a vast and ancient universe."

The irony isn't lost on me: I’m using AI to refine these thoughts while critiquing the very shortcuts it provides. Consumerism is so embedded in our lives that we’re trapped in a "can't live with it, can't live without it" bind. The goal isn't to go totally off-grid; it’s about vigilance. We have to stay aware and retain our agency—before we wake up and realize we’ve outsourced our souls.

A final "grass-touching" thought: The most powerful things in your life right now are likely the ones you couldn't pay someone else to do for you. Your push-ups, your grieving, your learning, and your presence.

How does it feel to look at your "to-do" list and realize that the most "inefficient" things on there might actually be the most important?

Moment like this that no amount of money could ever buy, and I wouldn’t trade them for anything.