5 things that have been commodified

When abstract ideas become marketable goods

“When everything is for sale, living itself becomes a form of shopping.”
— Benjamin R. Barber

Recently while scrolling on YouTube, I came across a post about the dwindling population in Japan and how some people have gone to the seemingly extreme to rent families — from friends to uncles and even to whole families. This broke my heart coming from someone were having 100 cousins — for my generation (Millennial- GenX) was very common. In fact, my grandmother uses to say there was no need for us to bring non-blood relative home as friends because we already have so many cousin-friends. And she was serious. I expect so many of us take such things for granted but do not stop to think that this is but one experience.

But how did we get here? How are such sacred things as family gone the way of reification — the process of turning familiarness into marketable commodity?

We do not often stop and think about our society and the growing disconnection that…