LIVE A LITTLE, GIVE A GOAT

Meet the transumers. They value travel, adventure and personal growth over bigger and better hi-fi systems, cars and houses, and, in the US, spent double the amount on ‘luxury experiences’ in 2005 than in 2004. In the words of Trendwatching.com, they are “consumers driven by experiences instead of the ‘fixed’, by fighting boredom, who increasingly live a transient lifestyle, freeing themselves from the hassles of permanent ownership and possessions”.

Sounds great, no? More evolved, somehow. Except that all that keeping up with the Joneses was also about building a home, providing for your children and saving

for the future. Dull, but essential. Anyway, ‘living life to the full’ might be better than ‘buying stuff’, but in terms of ‘what’s the point of us?’, ‘service to others ’ is better than both.

Personally I’d like to replace a ‘be good to yourself’ pedicure with a ‘give a goat’ Oxfam Christmas present. I’d like to stop assigning moral value to, say, taking exercise and start putting it where it belongs - call it ‘making a difference’. Not that I do, yet, or only in a hindering sort of a way. But my four-year-old goes to school next year and I’m running out of excuses fast.

Laura Tennant

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