Consumerism: An Obsession

History

A long time ago, our society decided to make a shift. The shift that we made was to leave behind our farming roots and progress towards an industrial society. This shift is important to examine because this shift quite possibly could have influenced our behaviors as a society. We wanted to involve more machines and less man power in our production of goods. There were many reasons why our society chose to make this shift such as a large increase in population, but a major reason was to increase the amount of products we produced in a certain amount of time.
By converting to this type of system, it allowed our society to not only receive goods at a quicker rate, but also develop an obsession for consumption. In addition, the shift in production also shifted our thoughts to what we want as opposed to what we actually need. Our capitalist society relies on us to spend our earned dollars in order to stimulate the economy and keep it flowing at a good pace. The way capitalism contributes to consumerism is the fact that we must consume things in order for our economy not to fail.

The Consumer
Capitalism relies on us so much that we actually have a title that describes what our behaviors and actions are supposed to look like and that title is called the consumer. Outside of a person or thing that consumes, the term consumer can be defined as, a person who acquires goods and services for his or her own personal needs. The task of the consumer is to find a job, acquire some sort of currency, and then spend it in the economy. This process is often disguised by ideas like the American Dream that hide the true reason and meaning behind our spending.

What is Consumerism?

To this point I have discussed things like capitalism and consumption that contribute to consumerism, but I have not directly described what consumerism actually is. Consumerism can be defined as an economic or social order that is based upon the systematic creation and building a desire to acquire goods and services in increasing amounts. The economic order that the definition refers to is capitalism. The economy thrives when people are spending and acquiring goods. We still operate on the basis of capitalism even though a good amount of people are starting to realize that capitalism isn’t exactly our best bet with a society of our size. It appears that capitalism has shifted our behaviors and that we have been trained by a higher, economic power to have a desire to buy/acquire goods and services.

Our Situation
It appears that we have become the cash cow for the many businesses in our economy. The reason I say this is because we have placed an equal value in mate
rial things as well as acquiring them. The American Dream is to buy a house with a white picket fence, have some children and a nice car. This “dream” that is always talked about heavily depends on acquiring goods and services and if you don’t acquire these things you’re a failure (at least that is what society wants you to think). By creating this expectation, everyone that participates in our society is seemingly forced with an ultimatum: strive to acquire material things such as cell phones, cars and houses or be considered a failure; however, this is not the case, nor should it be.
Conclusion:

As I mentioned before, the idea of consumerism believes that we have developed this desire to acquire goods and services. Basic economics states that there is a supply and demand, and as long as we continue to demand material possession, they will continue to be produced by the masses. I would venture to guess that some people don’t see a problem with our society acting as consumers, but our environment cannot continue to hold billions of people as well as the infinite amount of things that our culture is after on a daily basis. There is a capacity for this Earth and we are reaching it very quickly.

Source: http://sustainablelinfield.edublogs.org/2011/05/03/consumerism-an-obsession/