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Consumerism: Cause And Effect

Today, Americans consider themselves the most prosperous, most free people in the world. But not all is what it seems. Festering beneath the genial, freedom-loving surface is the problem of American consumerism. Consumerism is a cultural cycle that whittles away at America's intellectual prosperity. What is consumerism? Where did it come from? How does it work? Why does it remain unchallenged? The answers to these questions are vital to overcoming one of the United States' greatest problems.

Consumerism is defined by the spending habits of America's middle and upper classes. They do not spend frugally, but continue to buy luxury items, well after they reach a state of comfort for themselves and their surroundings. They do this because they must compete for products to maintain the status quo of their lives. For example, if one member of a neighborhood buys a new product that makes their lives noticeably easier or raises their status, the rest of the neighborhood must also buy that product, or else be at a disadvantage socially or economically. Social pressures and public sentiment drives this competition. Heath and Potter point out that human sentiment is highly contagious – that being in a crowd full of laughing people makes things seem more funny, and that being in a crowd full of angry people may make even mild-mannered people irrational and dangerous (24) – such is human nature. Competitive consumption has allowed unfettered capitalism to thrive in the U.S. for several decades. Our culture today is pervaded by countless advertisements. Advertisements have become integrated into our culture so that it is impossible to avoid them while living a normal life. They are on TV, radio, billboards, and all over the Internet. Constant exposure to advertising forces the American people to pay attention to buying. Once the importance of buying is established in the majority of people in a society, the rest are forced to join that majority, either...