by Maria C Collins

Created on: January 16, 2013   Last Updated: January 17, 2013

Senseless spending is spending mindlessly, buying things for the sake of doing so rather than because you need them. Economists, banks, and businesses have sold consumers the myth that constant consumerism or greed is good. People think that buying things improves their standing in society, their self-esteem, or their lives.

People buy items needlessly in blind panic sometimes, one observer saw people mindlessly buying meat and other perishable goods in New York in preparation for Hurricane Sandy. Their politicians and power companies had warned that power outages were expected and indeed occurred. How did those people believe they were going to store or cook such perishable food when the hurricane put the power out? Had they considered their purchases more carefully they would have bought canned and other non-perishable foods?

People update their mobile telephones, when a new and improved telephone hits the market, not because they need the new, improved features, it provides but because advertising hype tells them that they must have the latest ‘phone or they are insignificant. For example, 'G' excitedly told her sister about all the features on her latest mobile telephone. G’s sister asked what she actually used the telephone for, and G replied voice calls and text messages. G never did use all those marvelous features on her new mobile telephone a basic mobile telephone would have suited her needs.

Other people buy items because of the label they bear rather than because they are quality items that will last. In another example, X’s two workmates showed her the designer handbags they had bought. The bags were four hundred pounds each but they were poor quality plastic. The stitching on one was beginning to unravel, and, on the other, was not even straight. X knew that the women had spent nearly half their month’s wages on these items and also knew that for a quarter of the price she could have bought a good quality leather handbag that would last four times longer than these poor items, but they were happy because they bore a famous designer name.  

Many people treat shopping for food in a similar way, which is why British and American people waste so much food. Some people walk around the supermarket in a dream, picking up all the brightly coloured packets and putting them into their trolleys without a thought. They do not think about whether they will actually use that food. They have little idea what they already have in

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