William Shakespeare waxed on it. George Carlin joked about it. The economy is built on it.

What is it?

Why, stuff, of course.

Since the first humans began coveting nonessential objects, the pursuit of pleasurable stuff has been part of daily life.

Americans arguably have more stuff because they have a lot of discretionary income. Go to any shopping center and look around. How many of the wares offered there are truly necessary?

Television stokes desire with extravagant odes to home, life and auto. TLC’s “Clean Sweep” may rid people of their junky stuff, but “Trading Spaces” replaces it with cooler stuff. “What Not to Wear” helps regular folks exchange their bad fashion choices for good fashion choices – more stuff. There’s MTV’s “Cribs,” CMT’s “Trick My Truck” and on and on and on.

Whether viewed as a force behind “progress” or as a burden to be shed, humanity’s long and complicated relationship with material possessions can’t be denied. But perhaps it can be better understood.

As an American studies teacher at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, Janet Rose tells her students that attitudes about stuff are ultimately tied to feelings of self-worth, including the wish to be superior.

For example, mortgages.

“For 100 years we’ve all had this grand belief that owning a house in the United States made you solidly middle class,” Rose said. “So if I go deeply in debt and owe $400,000 on my $480,000 mortgage, I am good. You, on the other hand, have charged too many pairs of jeans on your MasterCard. You are bad.

“And, obviously, all that does is make me feel good. It’s that classic thing where people try to justify their own consumption by pointing out the deviance of the consumption of others. So the real truth is that it’s people making judgments about other people.”

“All your house is, is a place to keep your stuff while you go out and get more stuff.”

-Comedian George Carlin

Wanting makes the world go ’round

Trying to offer a judgment-free zone for stuff is veteran flea market retailer Rodney Hartle of Overland Park, Kan. On weekends, he convivially occupies his Westport Flea Market booth, which is stuffed with sports memorabilia, books, records, gold and silver coins, diamonds, designer plates, dolls, Elvis items, religious icons, lingerie, glassware, salt and pepper shakers, Christmas ornaments and loads of jewelry.

“I’ve got 16,000 pieces of jewelry that women have to have,” Hartle said. “Women like to look good, and I’m the guy who likes to make them look good.”

Many of Hartle’s customers are glad to buy stuff that they couldn’t afford earlier in life. But sometimes even those purchases require a certain rationalization.

“When you get to the point where you can afford it, you really may not want it,” Hartle said. “But you still think back, “Well, when I was a kid, I wanted that.’ I want that. Wanting is the thing that makes this world go around. If you don’t desire things, you’ll never accomplish anything.”

One thing Hartle doesn’t desire, however, is people overspending.

“One lady who buys jewelry from me will say, ‘I don’t really need this ring, but I’ve got to have it,”‘ he said. “So I set it back for her. She comes in and pays me $10 a week. And every time she comes in, she says, ‘Boy, my husband, he’s going to be upset with me.’ So I try to figure out a way to help. I say, ‘Well, maybe you can’t afford it.”‘

Does that ever change her mind?

“Never,” he said.

Hartle counts himself among the impetuously stuff-hungry. It’s why he bought a new truck.

“I had to have a new truck because my next-door neighbor had one,” he said. “I had to beat him. And then he moves away, so I don’t have anybody to compete with. That’s bad. That’s a lesson learned.”

“The road to happiness is not paved with simple pleasures.”

-The Dalai Lama

Thinking of fellow man rather than things

Kevin McGriff of Kansas City, Mo., has learned from his Buddhist faith that material things aren’t important.

“I don’t need to accumulate a lot of stuff to make myself happy,” McGriff said. “I am not in this world to make myself happy. I am in this world to help others alleviate their personal sufferings.”

According to the teaching of Buddha, life is permeated with suffering caused by desire, and suffering ceases when desire ceases.

McGriff blames “so-called modern society” for the “over-bombardment” of stuff. But he came to that conclusion over time.

After being raised a Mormon, McGriff wanted new answers to such questions as “Who am I?” and “What am I supposed to do while I’m here?”

As a student at Rockhurst University, he found an intellectual mentor in his philosophy teacher, Sister Rosemary Flanagan.

“She opened my mind and allowed me to explore,” McGriff said. “She helped me understand the question … in ‘Alice in Wonderland,’ where Alice states to the Caterpillar, ‘I’m not myself, you see,’ and the Caterpillar’s response is, ‘Well, then, who are you?”‘

McGriff began researching Buddhism, eventually taking up the faith that keeps him tied to his fellow man rather than stuff.

“If you look at it from the standpoint of ‘I don’t need it,’ you’ve alleviated that suffering and you no longer have that desire,” he said. “And you no longer have the internal stress that’s associated with ‘How can I figure out how to get it?”‘

But the pervasive power of advertising is difficult to escape, said William McIntosh, professor of psychology at Georgia Southern University in Statesboro.

“We’re definitely being lied to in a very basic way,” he said. “The message we’re getting is that this stuff will make us happy. But the underlying message is that consuming will make us happy, even though there’s lots of research that says, no, absolutely not.”

A chronic error that consumers make is confusing pleasure with happiness, McIntosh said.

“If you’re getting that buzz from buying whatever it is you’re buying, you’re getting momentary feedback that something’s pleasurable,” he said. “We almost consider it a signpost toward happiness mistakenly. So you’re thinking, ‘This is making me feel good, so I’m going in the right direction.’

“But in psychology, it’s also been likened to an addiction. We can’t stop, even if we say, ‘I know that this isn’t going to make me happy’ or ‘I know that I can’t afford this.’ There is this compulsion to continue consuming.”

“Though I am grateful for the blessings of wealth, it hasn’t changed who I am. My feet are still on the ground. I’m just wearing better shoes.”

-Talk-show host and richest woman in the world Oprah Winfrey

‘101 Things to Buy Before You Die’

In her own way, Maggie Davis, consumer editor for Time Out magazine in London, wants to relieve the stress of stuff with her book, “101 Things to Buy Before You Die.”

Davis takes her mission, if not the book’s title, completely seriously.

“The title of the book is quite tongue-in-cheek,” Davis said from London. “But it’s meant to be an inspirational guide to the best of the best – and that’s not always the most expensive thing.”

Davis and co-author Charlotte Williamson tell how to achieve high-end satisfaction from such stuff as olive oil, perfume, vodka, silk, stationery, cuff links, pianos and even boxer shorts.

“Shopping can be very shallow if you do it badly,” Davis said. “It can be like reading trashy novels or watching really bad TV or eating junk food. But if you shop well and you really buy quality things, you actually can improve the quality of your life. But there’s also aspiration and dream involved.”

Janet Rose, an American studies teacher at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, also sees stuff as being used to address both corporal and metaphysical needs.

“It’s kind of an identity prop,” Rose said. “I mean, most stuff is kind of like the beginning of (the Steve Martin comedy) ‘The Jerk,’ when he sees his name in the phonebook and he goes, ‘My name’s in the phone book – I’m somebody!'”

“Stuff has a certain characteristic like that. It’s a frame of reference for us. You feel your new couch. You drive your car. You look at your comic book collection. It’s a compass point for who you are and where you’ve been.”

Rose maintains that the “material fondle” of stuff can also be found in cyberspace. Even if you download a song for a buck, there’s a thrill of acquisition.

“It gives you kind of a little high,” she said. “There’s a certain ecstasy in that.

“And then, when you actually have that thing, you know you can go back to it and fondle it and sort of feel it. There’s a lot of stuff going on there.”

But whatever someone else may think of your stuff, remember, it’s your stuff, author Davis said.

“If you love something, keep it,” Davis said. “Even if it’s taking up space and getting dusty, if that’s your passion, if that’s your love, then there’s nothing wrong with letting it hang around. In 10 years time you could think, ‘Damn, I wish I still had that.”‘

The stuff we love

John Sobczak, 53, Winnipeg, Manitoba

Last stuff you bought? It was a golf shirt.

How much? Eighty bucks. That’s a fair amount for a golf shirt, but it said “PGA West” on it.

What’s better, your stuff or other people’s? Probably other people’s, until I get it.

Do people have too much stuff? I know I do. You change a car, you hang onto the tires. You change furniture, you store the old stuff because it might come back into style. And then as soon as you get rid of it, you want it.

Feel guilty about having stuff? Sometimes. It’s like why do I have all this? Why do I have seven pairs of shoes?

Favorite stuff? It’s an SUV that I just purchased. It’s a used one, but it’s something I wanted and I bought it.

Ever argue about stuff? Yes, with my better half, about the tires in the garage for the last five years. They may be good. I may be able to use them someday.

Stuff advice? There should be a purging every so often. A move is a good reason to purge.

But you don’t, do you? No. I end up boxing it and taking it with me. I don’t practice what I preach.

Cedric Jackson, 22, Kansas City, Mo.

Last stuff you bought? A pair of Team Jordans. They were $102 with tax. I was with my sister, and she was shopping, so I just was like, “Hey, since I’m out here, why don’t I just grab me something, too.”

So it’s her fault? Well, yeah, to me it is.

Whose stuff is better, yours or other people’s? Other people’s stuff is always better. You’re always trying to fit into what society shows you. Like if your friend has a new car or a new pair of shoes and the only way you can fit into that group is if you’re up to par with what they have. It’s like keeping up with the trend that’s going on.

Why do so many people want so much stuff? It’s like a satisfaction. It kind of fills something that’s been lost. Like when I was growing up, we never got new things. It was always poverty in the household. So I kind of make up for it now. I have two jobs. That’s why I make so much money, so I can kind of fill that spot that I lost when I was younger.

Feel guilty about having stuff? Oh, yeah, like I have a pair of Oakleys, a brand of expensive shades that cost $100. It’s like, why do I have a $100 pair of glasses when I could have used that for brakes or a tune-up on my car or food for the week? But you have to uphold the image.

Favorite stuff? My ’84 Oldsmobile Cutlass, my home stereo, my car stereo and my shoes.

Are younger people more spoiled by stuff than older people? Yeah. For instance, my stepdad has been wearing the same pair of shoes for probably six months, and in that same time I’ve probably gotten 10 pairs of shoes. He’s at the age where’s he’s comfortable. The young generation, we’re always trying to figure out who we are. And when you’re trying to find your niche, you go through different stages. And different stages cause you to get a new look. And new looks cost money. Everything is like that.

And you’re OK with that? Believe it or not, yes.

Kim Gordon, 38, Muskegon, Mich.

Last stuff you bought? I bought $400 worth of clothes because the airline lost my luggage.

How do you feel about that? Pretty good, because I think they’re going to reimburse me.

Why do so many people want so much stuff? I think because we all hate our jobs and kind of hate our lives, so you know what we do? We say “I deserve this. My life sucks so bad during the day that I deserve to come home and have everything I want – stuff.” We’re trying to make ourselves feel better.

Do you have too much stuff? I probably have more than my fair share.

Feel guilty about that? Maybe a little, yeah. Other people don’t have food.

Ever thought about getting rid of your stuff? I did. I thought about getting rid of everything – selling the house, living in a trailer and just having my job and taking all my money and putting it in the savings account so that in eight or 10 years I could retire.

So what happened? I bought more stuff.

Are older people or younger people more spoiled by stuff? Oh, younger people. Like my kids are totally spoiled. Because we give them everything they want. We feel so guilty because we work all these hours so we can give them stuff and then we never see them.

Malisa Wacker, 43, Parkville, Mo.

Last stuff you bought? A couple pairs of trousers, a couple shirts and a sweater vest. It was around $500. I went to Brooks Brothers. They were having a sale. I just didn’t buy what was on sale.

And how did you feel about that? I feel like I paid too much for it. But I loved it. It was fun.

Whose stuff is better, yours or other people’s? Other people’s stuff, because I don’t have much cool stuff.

Favorite stuff? Watches.

How many do you have? Probably less than 50.

Do you wear them all? No, I can’t keep up with the batteries.

Stuff you’d be better off without? I probably have too many clothes. I know Oprah says you’re only supposed to hold onto stuff for two years and if you haven’t worn it, throw it out.

Then why hold onto it? Because people like their stuff.

Ever argued about stuff? Yeah. My partner says, “Get rid of your old police officer uniforms and your Air Force uniforms.”

And what do you say? I’m keeping that stuff. It means something. I want to show my kids.

Who’s more spoiled by stuff, younger or older people? I think every generation saves things. It’s just different stuff.

Rashell Kimball, 20, Kansas City, Mo.

Last stuff you bought? A Louis Vuitton purse. It was $50. I’m very happy about it.

Whose stuff is better, yours or other people’s? My stuff, because I bought it.

What stuff are you looking for? More clothes, more shoes, more cars. Everything.

Ever feel guilty about that? Sometimes when you buy everything and the money’s all gone. But, no, not really.

Favorite stuff? My collection of purses.

How many? 10 or 15.

And growing? Yeah, growing. I just like the new purses that come out. I have small purses and big purses.

Ever argue about stuff? My boyfriend wants me to get rid of my short skirts. I don’t like that. I guess (he’s worried) that everyone will look at me.

Stuff advice? If you want it, get it. Just make sure you take care of business first.

Bill Norden, 77, Mission Hills, Kan.

Last stuff you bought? An iPhone for my wife.

For yourself? I just got some orchids.

Whose stuff is better, yours or other people’s? Mine, because I like it more.

Do we have too much stuff? Probably, but so what?

So you have too much stuff? Of course, but I’m not going to get rid of it.

Because? Because I love my stuff.

Favorite stuff? Oh, probably my car. It’s a (2007) Lexus. It’s got every gadget in the world on it.

Ever feel guilty about having stuff? No.

Every feel guilty about not feeling guilty? No.

Why not? I work for it.

Ever argue about stuff? My wife says that I should get rid of my stuff, but I’m deaf.

Is it true that younger people are more spoiled by stuff? That’s true. But we had a lot more stuff than our parents. So every generation gets more stuff.