Recently my husband and I have been looking at possible flats to rent. Living in inner-city London this is no easy task. The options we were presented with were far from ideal given our budget. After the viewings I found myself thinking: ‘If only I earnt £100 or £200 more a month, then we could get something better. We could move to a bigger place, have a second bedroom and even a garden’. Wanting just a little more is a common, modern-day complaint, regardless of where we sit on the pay scale. Whether we’re after a better house, faster car, trendier clothes, more exotic holidays or just that little bit extra to ease the financial pressures every month, what we have rarely seems to feel enough. The only way to get those things is to work harder, find a better job and so get paid more at the end of the month.
This is the way our current economic model of consumerism works: advertising makes us feel inadequate if we don’t have the product they are trying to sell to us, whether that’s face cream or the latest pair of trainers. I often have a nagging voice in my head that says, ‘One day I’ll be able to afford great clothes,
