Consumerism
| The dismal science Economics |
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| Economic systems |
| Major concepts |
| The worldly philosophers |
“”In a nation that was proud of hard work, strong families, close-knit communities, and our faith in God, too many of us now tend to worship self-indulgence and consumption. Human identity is no longer defined by what one does, but by what one owns. But we've discovered that owning things and consuming things does not satisfy our longing for meaning. We've learned that piling up material goods cannot fill the emptiness of lives which have no confidence or purpose.
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| —Then-President Jimmy Carter in his "The Crisis of Confidence" speech, July 15th, 1979 |
Consumerism is the social phenomenon of rapidly increasing consumption of products, often at an economically or environmentally unsustainable rate. In an economic context, it often describes models that place consumers and consumer spending as key engines of economic graph, which often leads to the conspicuous consumption and the aforementioned phenomenon.[1] Less commonly, it is used as a synonym for consumer protection.
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Effects of consumerism[edit]
Many people regard "consumerism" as a phenomenon unique to the industrial age and the developed world. However, consumption in unnecessary and excessive quantities is as old as civilization itself and even exists among dollar-a-day people in the Global South who suffer malnutrition.[3]
Consumerism in the developed world, however, gives rise to another kind of problem: credit-card debt.[4] Americans spend themselves into a stupor and then wake up the next morning with credit-card debt of $10,000 with a 23.5% interest rate, compounded at every meal. The complete lack of self-control is useful for corporations and workers in China, but the overall sustainability issue came back to bite us in 2008.
Anti-consumerism[edit]
“”Many think that happiness is to be found outside ourselves in material things, but actually happiness is something that comes from within.
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| —The Dalai Lama |
To many of those opposed to consumerism, "consumerism" is just the latest in a long line of terms used to describe what the King James Bible called "the world" — sinful, material, fleshly existence as opposed to a life lived focusing on higher spiritual matters. For these people, the fact that lots of goods are being consumed is not the primary issue. What is the primary issue varies widely; the religiously devout might consider consumerism a distraction from God, political leftists might consider it a form of false consciousness distracting from the class struggle, and the more woo-ish environmentalists might consider it a disruption of the balance of nature independent even of its non-sustainable consumption of natural resources.
Besides these, there are also mainstream efforts to soften the negative effects of consumerism, such as choice architecture,[5] which seeks to help those who are incapable of making reasonable choices on their own act a little less stupid. Also, some politicians have come to realize that maybe restricting the legal right of credit card companies to bury your house in credit card offers is a good idea.[6]
Confusion with materialism[edit]
Consumerism, which has a generally negative connotation, is often confused with the philosophical stance of materialism, which denies the existence or falsifiability of the immaterial world. Because atheists often profess to being materialists, creationists use this confusion to portray them as shallow or worshiping money.
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ↑ Consumerism by Adam Hayes (Updated March 18, 2021) Investopedia
- ↑ Consumerism, Cambridge Dictionary, Cambridge University Press
- ↑ "The Economic Lives of the Poor" Banerjee and Duflo, 2006. - "Provided that eating more would increase their productivity, it is unlikely that the low levels of good consumption can explained by a simple lack of self control (the poor cannot simply resist temptations to spend on other things, and don't have enough left to eat): As we noted above, they also spend surprisingly large amounts on entertainment―be it televisions, weddings, or festivals. All of these involve spending a large amount at one time, which implies some saving unless they happen to be especially credit-worthy. In other words, many poor people save money that they could have eaten today in order to spend more on entertainment in the future, which does not immediately fit the idea of their lacking self-control."
- ↑ The End of Credit Card Consumerism by Kimberly Palmer (published August 8, 2008; archived December 19, 2017) US News & World Report
- ↑ Choice Architecture by Richard H. Thaler, Cass R. Sunstein, and John P. Balz (April 2, 2010)
- ↑ 6 New Credit Card Regulations That Benefit You by Porcshe Moran (published March 10, 2011; archived April 15, 2015) Investopedia