What to do if your income depends on others consumption?

[BBC]

After reading MMM for a while now I am stuck in a loop on something.  I work for a Fortune50 corporation.  The corporation makes lots of profit from people buying new versions of something to replace a version that likely still perfectly fine for everyones normal usage.  Any slowdown in this replacement results in terrible stock price declines.  And on top of that the market is driving the corporation to get into different types of products that are of higher growth volumes and get replaced probably even faster than the original products.   

How can I, as a person, walk the MMM path when my income is directly dependent on others consumerism?  Aren't I just part of the problem?  But I know if everyone followed the teachings of MMM I would probably be out a job.  I don't like being a hypocrite. 

[Shor]

You are hired and paid to perform a job.
The product produced by that job might not be completely in line with your own specific personal beliefs or goals.
If you did quit, the company would replace your position with another worker more willing to do the work.

Until you change the habits and beliefs of the consumers themselves, there is still a very real demand for this product of yours, and so long as people are willing to fork over money for it, the company will continue selling to them up until it is no longer advantageous to do so. The standard is set by the consumer and what they are willing to withstand, and not by the corporation.

Best you can do is do your time, build your stache, and retire early, happy, and wealthy. The rest of the economy will continue humming along with or without your personal opinion / mindset.

Think of it as leveraging your available skillset to achieve early retirement. Once you are cleanly broken away from the obligation of work then you can start considering how to spread your anti-consumerism message without crimping your own source of income.

[AccidentalMiser]

I work at an electric utility.  My bread, butter and retirement depend upon people using electricity.  Many (most) people waste 75% of the power they use.  The leave lights on, leave their TVs on all night, take long showers with their electric water heaters and keep their houses at 75F in the winter and 65F in the summer.  If it wasn't for the wasteful people wasting, I would be out on the street.

But, so what!  The electricity will be wasted whether I work there or not.  If I go to work at a retailer, people are going to buy crap they don't need.  If I go to work at a car plant, people will buy cars more frequently than they need to.  And so on and so on.

Unless you are morally opposed to the product your company makes, then you aren't a hypocrite for working there in my opinion. 

Like my wife and I say to each other frequently, there are a heck of a lot of businesses that would be out of business if they depended on us to make ends meet.

If it really bothers you, though, by all means find something more in line with your life's goals.  Perhaps there's a bigger question in your question?

[the fixer]

Like my wife and I say to each other frequently, there are a heck of a lot of businesses that would be out of business if they depended on us to make ends meet.

There are also a lot of businesses that are doing very well thanks to people like us. Places like thrift stores, RetailMeNot, and Costco. A Fortune 50 company basically chooses what markets it wants to be in over the long term, and yours has chosen not to cater to our market. That's a business decision that it sounds like isn't up to you, and there's nothing wrong with that.

(...unless you think there is, in which case you're probably better off going into business for yourself)

[sol]

The OP's question gets at the heart of a debate that has been simmering here, in various forms, for the past two years.  Namely, is the system broken?

Everyone here is trying achieve financial independence so they can be free of money worries and focus instead on their real priorities.  But the way we go about doing that is to focus primarily on money worries, even at the expense of their real priorities. 

Search the forums for terms like capitalism, ethics, evil, social funds, distribution of wealth, and you'll find many long running conversations about whether or not profiting from the suffering or stupidity of others is right.  Lots of people here have chimed in on both sides of that argument, and I generally think we're each obligated to follow our own moral conscience.

If your moral conscience thinks it is okay to get rich by strangling kittens, that is your decision to make and my opinion of it shouldn't really matter.  I see only shades of gray between kitten stranglers and derivatives traders.  Deception and exploitation are the very basis of capitalism, the most successful and prosperous economic system in recent history. 

In this game, the cheaters win.  You get decide how important "winning" is to you.

[ritchie70]

This is something I've been struggling with a bit lately.

I work for a Fortune 200 company that treats its front-line workers horribly and its products are largely unhealthy - to the point that I try not to use them myself.

Have to admit my conscience is starting to bother me a bit. When we're protested (we literally get picketers out front) I uniformly sympathize more with the protesters than the company.

[AndrewJackson]

I don't personally think it is bad to work for a corporation or organization that provides non mmm products. If your business pulled out, someone would fill the void in a less efficient manner or at a more expensive price (not entirely desirable). As long as people are demanding it, there is not a lot that can be done to stop it. The only thing that will end the rampant consumption/waste is by forced negative circumstances or by changing their hearts and minds.

One thing I would also note about this topic. Some people would argue that if everyone turned to a mmm philosophy, the economy as we know it would devolve into a perpetual abyss. This is so false it isn't even funny. If society as a whole vastly cut expenses and focused on pursuits/products that truly enhanced their lives, our collective productivity would be zeroed in on things that really matter (food,energy,transportation,etc). The goals of our best and brightest would turn from producing iphone apps to designing fuel efficient homes or economizing global food production. The results would be a massive decrease in the cost of living and a huge surge in free time (for those that wanted it). The regular work week would drop from 9-5 to 11-2. But, alas, that would disrupt the work to spend hampster wheel so we can't have that now can we ;(.

[Big Boots Buddha]

The OP's question gets at the heart of a debate that has been simmering here, in various forms, for the past two years.  Namely, is the system broken?

Everyone here is trying achieve financial independence so they can be free of money worries and focus instead on their real priorities.  But the way we go about doing that is to focus primarily on money worries, even at the expense of their real priorities. 

Search the forums for terms like capitalism, ethics, evil, social funds, distribution of wealth, and you'll find many long running conversations about whether or not profiting from the suffering or stupidity of others is right.  Lots of people here have chimed in on both sides of that argument, and I generally think we're each obligated to follow our own moral conscience.

If your moral conscience thinks it is okay to get rich by strangling kittens, that is your decision to make and my opinion of it shouldn't really matter.  I see only shades of gray between kitten stranglers and derivatives traders.  Deception and exploitation are the very basis of capitalism, the most successful and prosperous economic system in recent history. 

In this game, the cheaters win.  You get decide how important "winning" is to you.

Hey Sol, Bravo. Nice shooting. Do you have a blog?

The choosing becomes even more difficult in other cultures where "right" and "wrong" are less defined. Bribing people in offices for them to do there job, since they have a job for life and can't be fired. Sadly, I don't have that kind of job, but if I want to do MY job, I need to bribe people to do theirs, so I can get mine done.

[Leisured]

Andrew Jackson is partly right; if everybody became Mustachian, the economy would change its product and service mix. Same thing happened in WW2; military consumption displaced a large part of civilian consumption.

On the other hand, if everybody was saving and investing a third of their incomes, this would slow the economy, but investment which goes into plant, equipment and buildings is a form of consumption.

Another point; wasteful consumption of mobile phones, light enough to hold in the hand, is nowhere near as bad as wasteful consumption of cars.

[SnackDog]

I dare someone to start a business and to advertise "Don't buy our products unless you really, really need them because they are probably a waste of money!".   On the other hand, I work in the energy industry and we do preach conservation and alternatives quite a bit because we get to see first-hand how limited the options are for satisfying demand.