I saw this announcment by Fairphone today. In it, they critize Black Friday and corporations spending billions of dollars to push people to buy more and more stuff. Stuff they don’t really need.

I agree here with Fairphone. Looking around and seeing so many people buying so much stuff is perverse.

However, it’s hard to believe that this is genuine from Fairphone and not just marketing. I believe that Fairphone is better than many other companies when it comes to pushing consumerism, but in the end their business model is also producing and selling stuff. Companies might start out with the right motivation, but as long as their financial and social incentives are not aligned, the financial incentives will win every time.

Another good example is Patagonia, a brand I personally love and buy. They are better than many other brands that don’t give a shit about the environment, but in the end they exist because a lot of people buy their stuff.

In the end, convincing people to just not buy stuff would be the best thing to do. It’s fine if you sell stuff, and even finer if you do it in a responsible fashion. But please don’t try to play both sides.