Good food for thought on the manufacturing of excess 'stuff', but I guess I'm not as anxious about it. It is less of an issue down in the lower income brackets where homes are only so big and budgets only go so far. (Though we all know of many a heavily cluttered small dwelling).

As income inequality grows, I think a lot of stuff is getting recirculated as hand-me-downs, donations and garage sale material.

In my travels I am staggered by the amount of fuel we consume, and the sheer volume of food and goods that get shipped around. As the population grows, one wonders how we can outfit and feed 8+ billion people decently, including those in the third world who have rising standards of living, and need to have more and more goods.

The suburban 'aspirational' buyer is easy to sell to, and they are piling up hoards of extra stuff; Christmas china, a dozen bins of Halloween decor, always some new cute stuff to acquire, closets full of fast-fashion. This is the group which needs to experience some king of shaming about their excess, but if the 'minimalist' movement didn't work, what will?

On the thrift shop front: found a decent used furniture shop, got a great and very needed floor lamp and bookcase. At the thrift, got a $5 DVI monitor small enough to keep in the rig for use when traveling with my tiny PC, in lieu of ponying up for a new laptop. And lo and behold, not only does it still work great, the weighted base from the olden days means it will not fly around or tip over.