Consumerism And It's Discontents Analysis

There is a very big epidemic of consumerism within the United Sates and it is a result of the contribution of many factors within our society. It is evident that this is not necessary when one views other communities throughout the world but America has yet to make the changes it needs to solve this problem. A big problem with retailers and producers of products is their use of sweatshops, which are located in and out of the U.S. Sweatshops are a huge problem because they are known for having very low safety standards for their employees and mistreat their employees consistently. The reason they are used is because they can give the company better profits off of their goods.

Today’s consumerism can be ethically justified using Kant, Singer, and Aristotle; however, people still should donate money to charity. Utilitarian’s, like Signer, believe that people should do everything they can to maximized the happiness of all people. To them, buying everything in sight is ethically wrong because the money could be better spent on helping others. Using Kant and Aristotle, it can be shown that buying lots of items, like in today’s society, can be ethically justified.

The dominance of capitalist countries has facilitated the conformity of global civilization and cultural environments resulting in an increase of consumer cultures (Sarmela, 1977; Chaney, 2004). As capitalism experiences a natural and unavoidable expansion, consumers engage with consumer culture creating invisible products such as social status, identity, cultures, and ethical relationships (Sternberg, 2017). There are two sides to consumer culture that are the values held by society; those who conform and those who rebel (Turow & McAllister, 2014). All participants of society align with either submission or resistance to dominant ideas, values, and social structures. However, as a result of continued progressive diversity and fragmentation, the distinction between submissive and resistance are blurred. Nevertheless, those who resist and rebel are still participants of consumer culture. Instead they instead form sub cultures in society with alternative beliefs, values and ideas that challenge the mainstream (Chaney, 2004). In order to better understand the relationship between consumption practice and the resistance of consumer culture, theories of reflexive project of self, prosumers, lifestyle commodification, and incorporation will be analyzed in relation to the vegan movement.

Some would say that the advertisers are responsible for building the hype and the consumer is just responding to a once in a lifetime deal (that happens every year). Some have even gone as far as blaming capitalism and the manner in which it functions within our society. If you recall though, James Twitchell blames the consumer and not these other outlets. “Some might blame this on capitalism, but one can love the freedom and innovation of capitalism and hate the materialism of consumerism… However this isn’t because capitalism promotes consumerism. Capitalism is just an economic system - an imperfect one - that that reflects the values we put into it, so if we feed it consumerism, that’s what we’ll get. We, the consumers, are guilty of turning Thanksgiving into a consumerist holiday” (Daniel). This isn’t to say that everyone that participates in Black Thursday or Friday is guilty of consumerism, maybe they don’t have a family to spend the holiday with or maybe shopping with family is there means of spending quality time together. The important thing is that we are all consumers in this society and we must be aware of the production companies ability to trigger that within our brains the need to buy more and more things we don’t necessarily need and sometimes even want. Playing the victim in all of this proves that you are aware of the tactics used to get you to use your purchasing power and inturn you are aware of your own ability to change the way consumerism is currently

Consumerism - A preoccupation with and an inclination toward the buying of consumer goods. Consumerism has affected adolescents’ mental health through branding and deindividualization. Certain companies have made a point of target young adolescents so that they will buy from those companies in the future. Also, consumerism has affected teens stress and anxiety levels as well as having caused adolescents more depression. This is due to peer pressure and the relationship between materialistic possessions owned and levels of happiness.

Whether we know it or not, consumerism is ruining all of our lives and the world as we know it. As humans, we are always looking for satisfaction and we think worldly items will cure the hunger that we have for pleasure. Consumerism says that purpose, joy and contentment are to be found primarily in the consumption of goods, services and experiences.

Healthcare consumerism is increasing in importance in the 21st century. In today’s world, consumers have multitudes of information available that at one time was strictly available to the medical profession. Patients obtain information through the internet, commercials, and ad campaigns. The days when consumers followed referral recommendations are drifting away. Consumers are now at the center of the health care system causing customer service to be a key component to any successful practice (Hone, 2007).

Every society has mythology. In some societies, it's religion. Our religion is consumerism.Ellen Weis, San Francisco's Museum of Modern MythologyConsumerism fuels the capitalist fire. In a capitalist society, the goal is to make money, by whatever means possible, exploiting whichever potential weakness that might exist. The human race is one with a wild imagination, and this wild imagination, though a great strength, can, like all great strengths, serve as a potential weakness.It is our imaginations that advertising exploits, and it is our imaginations that religion and myth traditionally played the role of satiating, telling stories that have morals to them, lessons to be learned. Now consumerism fulfills this role.

Just what is consumerism, and is it beneficial or detrimental to our economy and society? Basically, consumerism is the ideology that people must buy products and services in order to allow the economy to function correctly, but is this line of thinking accurate? It is entirely possible that consumerism is creating a downward slope, leading us into greed and selfishness; but it is also argued that consumerism is merely a means to stimulate the economy and produce a better society as a whole. There are flaws in the system of course: pollution, greed, wasted materials; but there are also benefits to it, such as, the creation of new jobs, the growth of businesses, and even a show of patriotism. In essence, consumerism is both a positive and a negative force in the modern world, depending on how it is utilized and portrayed, for example: a person with a positive world value would best consider balancing out their life so they are neither needlessly consuming nor being a minimalist to a

“Consumerism is not only refers to consumer spending or the buying of consumer goods; It is an ideology that an ever-increasing consumption of goods is beneficial to the economy.”

Consumerism has became a part of every aspect of modern life. Parts of our lives that were not altered by consumerism, now have to conform with this phenomenon that has taken control. Consumerism is a reality that has always happened in developed nations, in which people purchase goods and services that they do not need. Nevertheless, with the Industrial Revolution the way the economy worked changed completely. An incredible amount of resources was now available to a wide range of the population. With the Industrial Revolution also came the capitalism. The capitalism was a new form of economy that caused a rapid growth of middle classes in developed societies (Webster). The population that was considered part of the middle class now had money to acquire not just basic needs for consumption but also other other goods and services they wanted.

Ever since The Great Depression (1929- 1939) World War II, society has experienced an increase in available products. Having access to materials that provide comfort or make life easier have given us opportunities to enjoy many aspects of life by saving time or providing tools that make our lives easier that give us more leisure time. Some people believe that more possessions may lead to increased happiness. But acquiring possessions can have both positive and negative effects. Can striving for materialism go too far and actually interfere with our quality of life and our personal ethics or beliefs? When are people consumed by materialism?

The impact of consumerism is a human behavior stimulating a multitude of neurological functions of individuals globally. The behaviors have been classified in both positive and negative terms dependent on perspective and severity. The neurological connection will be examined through similarities between compulsive shopping and illicit drug addiction, the relationship between brand recognition and attachment, as well as the effect of estimating value in material objects compared to life experiences, to identify the cause of consumerism.

This is an extremely strong book, with many evident strengths. Written in an idealistic and conversational tone, the writer calls on many issues that are still relevant over four decades later. Issues like over-use of resources, the dangers of static technology, and human’s obsession over materialism are still very real problems that have only worsened since Schumacher first called attention to them. While most books that were written in the 1970s about technology and economy run the risk of becoming outdated very, Schumacher has done an excellent job of addressing the root of the issues, including materialistic consumption versus happiness, which seem to be timeless. On the issue of technology in particular, which was still at its beginning stages of developing, the author declared it acted like a foreign body in which the human

We have great inventions that have made our lives very easy however there is still discontent within each individual. We strive very hard to attain materialistic things and our level of desire is never ending. Consumerism has promoted greed within our society.