Analyzing Daniel Quinn's 'Price Of Materialism'

Iulian Dutu
Mr. Frengos
ENG 4UI
July 23, 2014
Finding Happiness
“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not every man’s greed” (Gandhi). The world will be a better place when people will come back to the real values of life. People wrongly associate their wellbeing with material goods. Materialism does not create happiness but instead gives adverse health and mental effects. The return to a simple lifestyle based on necessities and keeping good relationships with family and friends will enable people to live a better life.
People negatively associate their wellbeing in life with material goods. In the video The High “Price of Materialism”, Tim Kasser states: “the good life is obtainable through the goods life, by making lots of money and spending it on products that claim to make us happy, loved

Our national happiness peaked in the 1950’s, the same time that this consumption mania exploded” (Leonard). The same idea is developed in Daniel Quinn’s Ishmael, when the Gorilla Ishmael states “The story the takers have been enacting here for the past ten thousand years is not only disastrous for mankind and for the world, it’s fundamentally unhealthy and unsatisfying. It's a megalomaniac’s fantasy and enacting it has given the Takers a culture riddled with greed, cruelty, mental illness, crime and drug addiction” (Quinn 87). Daniel Quinn points out that the state of health and security of the society are greatly diminished as a result of the addiction to materialism. In a study, psychologist Galen Bodenhausen of Northwestern University found out that people who depend on constantly feeding their consumerism, buying expensive cars, electronics, jewellery, luxurious properties and the latest modern fashions, rated themselves higher in depression and anxiety compared to people that invest their time in prosocial activities (like working for a good cause) (Bodenhousen). Anxiety and depression leads people to a never-ending cycle of exhaustive work