There is probably no better day to write about the return of thrift than on Christmas day.  This year many cut back their spending and probably feel badly about it.  Why do we feel badly that we can’t spend more money on our loved ones?

If you ask your grandparents, or even those over the age of 30, presents weren’t something that filled up entire living rooms unless our parents were stinking rich.  Generally we got one big toy and a bunch of clothes and that was it.  We aren’t depriving our children if we give them the same – we’re teaching them how to be healthy consumers both for themselves and the planet.

The following video, a BBC documentary called “The Century of the Self – Happiness Machines”, goes into the whole history of modern marketing and how its fathers used psychology to turn “wants” into “needs”.  It’s a bit of a long haul, but you’ll find it extremely fascinating.  What’s really scary is that it isn’t even a conspiracy theory – it is how we ended up in the consumerist mess that has created the ailing portions of our economy.

A new economy is emerging even as we speak.  Social media and the internet have created a transparency and accountability to the modern consumer that did not exist even five years ago.  In this new economy, businesses that make quality products over mass-marketed schlock will succeed, because friends will not just tell friends about them, they will post blogs about them.  The consumer is being given back the power that Bernaise and his cronies wrested away from them when they started using psychological methods to repattern our thinking.

Part one of the video is posted below.  To see the rest click on it and you will be taken to its YouTube page where parts 2, 3, and 4 are listed down the side.  Enjoy.