I was walking through an airport in the early morning, and wanted to get a cup of coffee to wake me up. But then I saw a long line at Peet’s Coffee, and decided I didn’t need the coffee to be awake, happy or alive. When something becomes a need, a requirement, it locks us in. We have to have it, which means we start structuring our lives around it. For lots of us, it’s more than just coffee: we ne

There’s a tendency, even among those who are trying to buy less stuff, to call everyone “consumers”. The company needs to please its consumers … we consumers need to vote with our dollars … we need watchdogs to protect consumers … consumers are buying less during the recession. Let’s stop that. We are not consumers. We’re people. When we allow ourselves to be branded with these types of corporate