I would like to extend a very warm welcome to our newest MySietch Member, Red State Green. She has been blogging for a few days, and has some very interesting and intelligent things to say. I found her recent post on owning too much “stuff” particularly elegant.

Do you want your own blog? Not afraid of a little beta testing? Give MySietch a try. You will have your own blog, to do whatever you want with, and if you write something cool I will feature it here for everyone to see.

The whole time we asked each other, “Why did we buy all this stuff?” Half the time, we couldn’t even remember.

Why do we collect stuff we don’t use, wear, or in some cases, want? There are so many kinds of things. Stuff from Christmases past that you didn’t like and couldn’t figure out how to regift, things you bought and didn’t fit (and you lost the receipt), a shoe you keep meaning to get fixed.

Grandma dies and leaves you stuff, and you feel guilty at getting rid of it. Toys the kids never played with, or that broke after one game. Stuff that was ON SALE! that you didn’t need and never used. Stuff from old hobbies. Stuff belonging to people who used to live with you that have moved on.

Worst of all is the stuff you hang on to because “you might need it someday”. Unless it’s the thing to repair something you already have, use, and need … why?

Read the rest of this great article here.

Greenspree has once again produced a thought provoking article about the role of economic theory in our ecological actions.

I’ll admit to not being any sort of expert or even novice at economics and economic analysis, but to me it seems that Keynesian economics, not the cheap prices of oil, spurred the levels of consumption and technological advancement in the 20th century. This says to me that if we want to save the world from environmental and sociological failure, we need to find alternative economics as well as alternative fuels. Consume less!

Read the rest here.