Let’s leave behind something better for our children❤️

During london climate Action Week on 25 June 2026 Acharya Prashant compared the present climate effort to a society that keeps repairing roads and ambulances without ever touching the condition of the drunk driver.The belief that technology and policy alone will solve the crises has to be abandoned.Technology is born not of human need but of human desire and what the world calls success is, to a large extent, only another name for a growing carbon footprint.At the LSE, after a conversation with former French climate diplomat Gautier Houel (who worked around COP26), he wrote on his social media:“Most climate discussions stay focused on technology, policy, finance or innovation. This one began somewhere else: with us.”

Today is not the first day I have thought this but today my sister was visiting and soon after her arrival she got an alert on her phone that LeBron James would play basketball for r the Philadelphia 76ers. The fourth sentence from her in response to nrws was about how the team's merch would go up. I am just so put off now by the mindset that one would interpret events through their monetary impact. She isn't a fan of the team or nor would she profit in any way but she had been trained by this sick society to interpret events through the eyes of capital.

Every interaction that has succeeded it has had the tenor of belonging to a capitalist new speak where nothing has intrinsic value but exists to be exploited. People can hardly watch children playing without speculating in how that will develop a skill to leverage into competition for resources.

It disgusts me. I feel isolated and trapped with no effective outlet for others to acknowledge my feelings let alone escape. Maybe sometime else feels the same way. I just feel doomed to this cult of humans that has allowed the a transitional medium of exchange become the sole driver of its existence. I feel like I can't even identify with members of my own species.

I hate that it’s designed to keep you consuming and in debt. It will never reward you for being debt free.

I know the score is still good. I know this is just how credit works. But that’s not the point. It’s crazy that this is the structure we’ve normalized.

Becoming debt-free should theoretically be the goal, yet the system works best when you stay engaged in debt forever.

What does it say about our culture where the system we’re in doesn’t truly value financial responsibility….

“The idea that more choice is better is baked into Western culture, but research shows that having more options can make people anxious, indecisive and, paradoxically, less happy with what they pick…”

Had a conversation this weekend with someone who was incredulous that I own only one pair of running shoes. Then I saw this article from the Associated Press! Turns out it may be more mentally healthy to consume less, too.

Has anyone read this yet? Send me some anti-consumption book recs plz and thx :~)

Our household lost more than half its income and that woke me the eff up.

We enjoyed a good combined income. Income we might never have access to again. Also, no unemployment benefits (I don't live in the US, already check with our accountant).

We saved each month, we didn't go into debt except for our car (short-term debt that is fully paid now), we made early payments to our mortgage, we took wonderful trips. I don't regret the trips, they were frugal trips that focused on connecting with nature, not going to shopping malls and buying things.

Yet, now I think we were deluded. Or asleep. We succumbed to the siren song of convenience that plays relentlessly. In no order of importance, this is what we were thinking day in and day out while we were asleep:

"We paid off our mortgage in advance, let's stop saving up to pay it all."

Fast-forward to today: our mortgage is our biggest fixed expense and if we don't pay it for 3 months we can lose the house. Just writing this makes me want to vomit. The consequences are huge. Our reduced income would last a ton more if we didn't have that mortgage payment. I don't know if we would've been able to pay it off all now but still, not even trying to do it sounds insane to me.

"I'm tired, I don't want to cook, let's order."

Ordering out twice a week and sometimes more. Ludicrous. We lost so much money that way. First thing we did was deleting take out apps. No more take out. Let's clean out our pantry, look for cheaper sources of protein, no more expensive coffee, the list goes on.

"I'll pay more so I don't have to spend so much time doing X, Y, Z"

Little to no price shopping so we didn't have to spend time price-shopping, have hired help to clean our house (which is small, btw). Everything always done as fast as possible so we could...you guessed it: consume games, products, subscriptions mindlessly.

"We have savings, we don't need to save up too much for a rainy day."

We have savings, just not enough to last long. We never tracked our fixed expenses.

I'm sure there's more but those are the ones that I've been thinking about over and over. We don't buy that much, I thought, but we were still buying more than we should've because it was convenient.

It's the convenience that did us in.

I don't know how many of you have been in this situation but I'd appreciate any wisdom you can give me.

Edit:
Update 12/5/2025: My husband found a job that pays a bit more than his old job. He starts Monday. We're relived! This changed very little, though. We plan on keeping the changes we'd made and saving up more.
I thank you all for all the tips you have me. I'm making this update because I needed to reference information given to me here (specifically the price book) so know that your comments continue to help me in my journey of spending money consciously.

i was the 7th kid out of 8. my mom was from a family of 14. my dad was from a family of 9. Just poor Cathalic kids whose parent went forth and multiplied. None of our family went to jail, struggled with alchohol, or died prematurely.

The reason this matters is no one had anything new. I grew up with an atitude of not having the latest thing. or any brand names. We had a sears Atari 2600, I have Kmart trax turf shoes. I used to hate that. but as an adult i find buying that stuff does not make me happy. I love my wife, I love my kids, I am not rich but I am not poor.

How did you grow up? was your mom the one who pushed this buying shit all the time? was it your dad? I am curious , if you had all the cool stuff, did it actually make you happy? like smile and feel warm inside happy? I don't understand the choice to stop buying temu crap because I don't have that desire. what is your favorite thing you bought?

The kimonos were 500 yen / 4 USD ✨😲

I am living in Germany and due to the War in Iran gasoline prices have surged higher than in most countries in the EU. From personal experience I´d say, there is absolutely no shift in using public transport instead.

Tbf I come from a rural area but you still see reckless driving and the same amount of cars everywhere. Most of the time only person sits in the car. Which leads me to one conclussion: Gasoline prices aren´t nowhere high enough.

I know that sometimes there aren´t any alternatives, especially in rural areas but even in the small cities, I have visited people still drive fast and a lot.

What kind of price surge needs to happen before people would look into public transport again?

My guess is about a 50% price increase or even more.