Stuff We Don't Need

An article at the Wall Street Journal says Americans spend $1.2 trillion annually for things we don't need.

As it turns out, quite a lot. A non-scientific study of Commerce Department data suggests that in February, U.S. consumers spent an annualized $1.2 trillion on non-essential stuff including pleasure boats, jewelry, booze, gambling and candy. That’s 11.2% of total consumer spending, up from 9.3% a decade earlier and only 4% in 1959, adjusted for inflation. In February, spending on non-essential stuff was up an inflation-adjusted 3.3% from a year earlier, compared to 2.4% for essential stuff such as food, housing and medicine.

Minnesotastan wonders how we define essentials and non-essentials. There are a lot of items that can be defined either way. Braces for teeth? Books? College tuition? Lawnmowers? Where do you draw the line? Link

Interesting to see some numbers for this. I have always suspected that complaints about the cost of living going up, and complaints that "families NEED two incomes to get by these days", had more to do with the increased standard of living rather than the economy. Maybe we shouldn't complain about taxes, inflation, or the cost of gas, as long as 10% or more of our spending is for stuff for we don't need.