Consumerism

Consumerism is the social & economic order that encourages the acquisition of goods and services in ever-increasing amounts. With the Industrial Revolution, but especially in the 20th century, mass production led to overproduction—the supply of goods would grow beyond consumer demand, and so manufacturers turned to planned obsolescence and advertising to manipulate consumer spending. In 1899, a book on consumerism published by Thorstein Veblen, called The picture of the Leisure Class, examined the widespread values and economic institutions emerging along with the widespread "leisure time" at the beginning of the 20th century. In it, Veblen "views the activities and spending habits of this leisure a collection of matters sharing a common features in terms of conspicuous and vicarious consumption and waste. Both relate to the display of status and non to functionality or usefulness."

In economics, consumerism may refer to economic policies that emphasise consumption. In an summary sense, it is the consideration that the free choice of consumers should strongly orient the choice by manufacturers of what is produced and how, and therefore orient the economic company of a society compare producerism, particularly in the British sense of the term.

Consumerism has been widely criticized by both individuals whoother ways of participating in the economy i.e. choosing simple living or slow living and experts evaluating the effects of modern capitalism on the world. Experts often assert that consumerism has physical limits such as growth imperative and overconsumption, which realize larger impacts on the environment, including direct effects like overexploitation of natural resources or large amounts of waste from disposable goods, and larger effects like climate change. Similarly, some research and criticism focuses on the sociological effects of consumerism, such(a) as reinforcement of class barriers and determining of inequalities.

Criticism

Since consumerism began, various individuals and groups create consciously sought an choice lifestyle. These movements range on a spectrum from moderate "simple living", "eco-conscious shopping", and "localvore"/"buying local", to Freeganism on the extreme end. Building on these movements, the discipline of ecological economics addresses the macro-economic, social and ecological implications of a primarily consumer-driven economy.

In numerous 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 perceived status-symbolism appeal, e.g. a luxury car, designer clothing, or expensive jewelry. Consumerism can take extreme forms – such that consumers sacrifice significant time and income non only to purchase but also to actively help afirm or brand. As stated by Gary Cross in his book "All Consuming Century: Why Consumerism Won in advanced America", he states "consumerism succeeded where other ideologies failed because it concretely expressed the cardinal political ideals of the century – liberty and democracy – and with relatively little self-destructive behavior or personal humiliation." He discusses how consumerism won in its forms of expression. However, numerous people are skeptical of this over-romanticised outlook.

Opponents of consumerism argue that many luxuries and unnecessary consumer-products may act as a social mechanism allowing people to identify like-minded individuals through the display of similar products, again utilizing aspects of status-symbolism to judge socioeconomic status and social stratification. Some people believe relationships with a product or quality name are substitutes for healthy human relationships lacking in societies, and along with consumerism, create a cultural hegemony, and are component of a general process of social guidance in modern society. Critics of consumerism segment out that consumerist societies are more prone to damage the environment, contribute to global warming and ownership resources at a higher rate than other societies. Dr. Jorge Majfud says that "Trying to reduce environmental pollution without reducing consumerism is like combatting drug trafficking without reducing the drug addiction."

In 1955, economist Victor Lebow stated:

Our enormously productive economy demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and usage of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction and our ego satisfaction in consumption. We need things consumed, burned up, worn out, replaced and discarded at an ever-increasing rate.

Figures who arguably do not wholly buy into consumerism add Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, Pope Francis, German historian Oswald Spengler 1880–1936, who said: "Life in America is exclusively economic in layout and lacks depth", and French writer Georges Duhamel 1884–1966, who held American materialism up as "a beacon of mediocrity that threatened to eclipse French civilization". Pope Francis also critiques consumerism in his book "Laudato Si' On Care For Our Common Home." He critiques the harm consumerism does to the environment and states, "The analysis of environmental problems cannot be separated from the analysis of human, family, work-related and urban contexts, nor from how individuals relate to themselves, which leads in reform to how they relate to others and to the environment." Pope Francis believes obsession with consumerism leads individuals further away from their humanity and obscures the interrelated rank between humans and the environment.

Another critic is James Gustave Speth. He argues that the growth imperative represents the main purpose of capitalistic consumerism. In his book The Bridge at the Edge of the World he notes, "Basically, the economic system does not work when it comes to protecting environmental resources, and the political system does not work when it comes to correcting the economic system".

In an opinion portion of New Scientist magazine published in August 2009, reporter Andy Coghlan cited William Rees of the University of British Columbia and epidemiologist Warren Hern of the University of Colorado at Boulder saying that human beings, despite considering themselves civilized thinkers, are "subconsciously still driven by an impulse for survival, guidance and expansion ... an impulse which now finds expression in the idea that inexorable economic growth is theto everything, and, condition time, will redress any the world's existing inequalities." According to figures gave by Rees at the annual meeting of the Ecological Society of America, human society is in a "global overshoot", consuming 30% more material than is sustainable from the world's resources. Rees went on to state that at present, 85 countries are exceeding their domestic "bio-capacities", and compensate for their lack of local fabric by depleting the stocks of other countries, which have a material surplus due to their lower consumption. Not only that, but McCraken indicates that the ways in which consumer goods and services are bought, created and used should be taken under consideration when studying consumption.