“The Creation of Discontent,” connects how people take advantage of materialism and how people's

exploitation in materials results in the decline of happiness. Schor mentions about how people work
hard and struggle more to maintain a lifestyle that makes people so unhappy. Comfort in our own lives
is harder to come by when the money that each person makes is all going back to the economy.

What three suggestions can you make to stop the cycle of keeping up with the Joneses?

Statements from the article:

- In an era when the connections between perpetual growth and environmental deterioration are
becoming more apparent, with the quality of public life declining in many areas, shouldn't we at
least step back and re-examine our commitment to ever-greater quantities of consumer goods?

- In a Mother Jones article, writer Katy Butler eventually realized that more money was not the
answer. As she acknowledged: "Discontent was cheating me of the life I had." Capitalism's
Squirrel Cage Itis widely believed that our unceasing quest for material goods (and its attendant
discontent) are part of the basic makeup of human beings: We may not like it, but there's little
we can do about it.

- Faced with the need to sell to a middle-class whose basic needs had already been met,
advertisers had to persuade Americans to buy things they didn't really need. The general
director of General Motors' research labs, Charles Kettering, described the challenge baldly as
"the organized creation of dissatisfaction."

- Keeping up with the Joneses: to show that one is as good as other people by getting what they
have and doing what they do. people trying to keep up with the Joneses by buying expensive
cars and clothes that they can't afford. If you say that someone is keeping up with the Joneses,
you mean that they are doing something in order to show that they have as much money as
other people, rather than because they really want to do it.

- The inability of the consumerist lifestyle to create durable satisfaction can be seen in the
syndrome of "keeping up with the Joneses." This competition is based on the fact that it is not
the absolute level of consumption that matters but how much one consumes relative to one's
peers.

- If everyone's income goes up by 10 percent, then relative positions don't change at all. No
satisfaction is gained. But in the choice between income and leisure, the quest for relative
standing, based on visible commodities, has biased us toward income. If Mrs. Jones works long
hours, she can buy the second home, the designer dresses or the fancier car. If her neighbor
Mrs. Smith opts for more free time instead, her two-car garage and walk-in closet will be half
empty.

Know what you really want. Know your worth, and know what really makes you happy. At the end of the
day, if you don’t get clear on your own values and just keep getting what others have, you will not attain
true happiness even with lots of money.
Know what really makes you feel wealthy. Wealth is not all about Mrs. Jones’ second home, designer
dresses or fancier car. She can have all that but still get a lot of debt and not really happy in life. That is
not the essence of wealth. You can achieve wealth like Mrs. Smith whose two-car garage and walk-in
closet is half-empty, but gets to spend more quality time with herself and her loved ones. You can still
be happy even when sticking to a budget, because sacrificing one’s financial security is much worse.

Create a better and healthy environment. Don’t let yourself feel pressured by your friends, neighbors, or
loved ones to live outside of your financial means. You have your limits, and if they can’t respect that,
then settle things through or let them go if it already affects your mental health. Don’t hold on to things
that will stop you from growing.