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"Consumerist" redirects here. For the Consumerist blog, see Consumerist (blog).
Consumerism is the equating of personal happiness with the purchasing of material possessions and consumption.[citation needed] The term is often associated with criticisms of consumption starting with Karl Marx and Thorstein Veblen.[citation needed]
In economics, consumerism can also refer to economic policies that place an emphasis on consumption, and, in an abstract sense, the belief that the free choice of consumers should dictate the economic structure of a society (cf. Producerism, especially in the British sense of the term).[citation needed]
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Although consumerism is commonly associated[attribution needed] with the Western world, it is multi-cultural and non-geographical, as seen today in major cities throughout the world. Consumerism, as in people purchasing goods or consuming materials in excess of their basic needs, is as old as the first civilizations (see Ancient Egypt, Babylon and Ancient Rome, for example). Since consumerism began, various individuals and groups have consciously sought an alternative lifestyle through simple living.
While consumerism is not a new phenomenon, it has become widespread only over the course of the 20th century and particularly in recent decades, under the influence of neoliberal capitalism, which has made the citizens of capitalist countries extraordinarily wealthy compared to those living under other economic systems.
Webster\'s dictionary defines Consumerism as "the promotion of the consumer\'s interests" or alternately "the theory that an increasing consumption of goods is economically desirable". It is thus the opposite of anti-consumerism or of producerism.
In many critical contexts, consumerism is used to describe the tendency of people to identify strongly with products or services they consume, especially those with commercial brand names and obvious status-enhancing appeal, e.g. an expensive automobile, expensive jewelry. A culture that is permeated by consumerism can be referred to as a consumer culture. Impulse buyers are quite different from shopaholics, who cannot resist spending money.
Opponents of consumerism argue that many luxuries and unnecessary consumer products are social signals that allow people to identify like-minded individuals through consumption and display of similar products. Some believe that relationships with a product or brand name are substitutes for the healthy human relationships lacking in dysfunctional modern societies and along with consumerism itself are part of the general process of social control and cultural hegemony in modern society. Critics of consumerism, are also quick to point out that consumerist societies are more prone to damage the environment, contribute to climate change and use up resources at a higher rate than other societies. For example, in 2002, a person in the United States used 10 times more energy than a person in China and over 25 times more than someone in India. [1]
It is in the interest of product advertisers and marketers that the consumer\'s needs and desires never be completely or permanently fulfilled. Doing so effectively prevents further consumption and reduces the future potential profits of the marketer from the consumer. It is smarter for the marketer to sell the consumer a flashy trinket that will wear out and break quickly. It is even better for the product to be part of a continuously changing fashion market, where items in a nearly-new and good condition must be replaced in order to stay current with the latest product trend. In this way continued sales to the consumer and steady profits are assurred, but at the cost of the consumer\'s psychological well-being, in that they are never able to be comfortable or satisfied for very long with what they already have.
The older term and concept of "conspicuous consumption" originated at the turn of the 20th century in the writings of sociologist and economist Thorstein Veblen. The term describes an apparently irrational and confounding form of economic behaviour. Veblen\'s scathing proposal that this unnecessary consumption is a form of status display is made in darkly humorous observations like the following:
The term "conspicuous consumption" spread to describe consumerism in the United States in the 1960s, but was soon linked to larger debates about media theory, culture jamming, and its corollary productivism.
There has always been strong criticism of the anti-consumerist movement. Most of this comes from libertarian thought, but also from the Humanist Movement. For example, Reason magazine, in 1999, attacked the anti-consumerism movement, claiming Marxist academics are repackaging themselves as anti-consumerists. James Twitchell, a professor at the University of Florida and popular writer, referred to anti-consumerism arguments as "Marxism Lite."
The libertarian attack on the anti-consumerist movement is largely based on the perception that it leads to elitism. Namely, libertarians believe that no person has the right to decide for others what goods are "necessary" for living and which aren\'t, or that luxuries are necessarily wasteful, and thus argue that anti-consumerism is a precursor to central planning or a totalitarian society. Twitchell, in his book Living It Up, sarcastically remarked that the logical outcome of the anti-consumerism movement would be a return to the sumptuary laws that existed in ancient Rome and during the Middle Ages, historical periods prior to the era of Karl Marx in the 19th century.
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