WHAT THE ANTI-CONSUMERISTS DON’T UNDERSTAND: Stuff Sparks Joy. While moralists on the Left and the Right denounce Americans for buying too much stuff (and not recycling enough of it, those wastrels!), Marie Kondo knows better. On her Netflix program, she shows people how to declutter their homes — not because she thinks stuff is inherently evil, but because some wise editing lets you enjoy it more. As Katherine Mangu-Ward writes in Reason: 

In almost every episode of Kondo’s Netflix show, there is a cameo by a box of cables. No one knows what they are for, yet they lurk in hall closets and file cabinets. These cord collections are a relic of a time when such stockpiles were rational. A missing cord or adapter could render extremely expensive electronics useless, and replacements could be difficult or impossible to source. Today, thanks to cheap imports from China and elsewhere, electronics are cheap and replacement parts are instantly searchable, then deliverable right to your door.

In this sense, Americans’ homes are crowded with too much stuff not because they’re too rich but because they’re still thinking of themselves as too poor. This seemingly counterintuitive notion is on display in the difference between the homes of the wealthy, which are nearly always large but devoid of visible extraneous objects, and the houses of the working class, which are much more likely to be crammed to the rafters. Poor people tend to keep everything. But the desire to hang on to lots of stuff originates in fear, not joy.

You don’t have to tell Venezuelans that it’s good to have stuff. And it’s even better when you can afford to send some of it to the landfill (and learn to ignore the recycling scolds). Read the whole thing.