How fashionable consumption drives unsustainable consumerism in America

Consumerism Zombies

Culture of Consumerism

Much of the Western World has been transformed into a Cult of Consumerism and grounded in Fashionable Consumption. As the Limitations of the Natural World become more clear, something must be done to Challenge Consumerism

It can be hard to pinpoint a definition for consumerism. However, generally the term is used to describe people that conflate wants and needs. For example, some people might identify the new iPhone as a want that would be nice to have. While others actually would describe this as something "need" in order to be happy; to the extent that they will actually wait in line for hours on end to be the first to purchase the new iContraption. Consumerism can also include the concept of fashionable consumption. Fashionable consumption goes beyond what an individual actually needs in terms of their physical well-being.

For example, we all probably need coats to stay warm in the winter. However, many people who already own a coat will buy a new one because they want their coat to be "fashionable." For the astute observes, what is considered to be "fashionable" changes seasonally and is undoubtedly a trend that only aim is to drive consumerist behaviors by creating new "wants"; which then become conflated by an unsuspecting consumer base as needs. This analysis will look at the trend of consumerism and attempt to frame this issue with the natural constraints that the planet will inevitably reach. Many natural resources are becoming scarcer all the time and the sustainability of the human population is becoming more questionable with passing years.

History of Consumerism

The rise of consumerism is not necessarily a natural development that could be considered a natural phase in the evolution of capitalism. Rather it was more of a planned development that has been imposed on the American people. After World War II, the U.S. found itself with an array of production capabilities that were all geared to manufacturing goods that furthered the war effort. This excess capacity had to be filled by something to maintain an economy that was designed for continuous growth. Lizabeth Cohen documents that American consumerism as we know it did not just happen. It is not something in our genes or human nature, at least not wholly.

Referring to the era of postwar prosperity that lasted approximately from 1945 to 1975, she notes that "this period of unprecedented affluence did much more than make Americans a people of plenty. Undergirding the pursuit of plenty was an infrastructure of policies and priorities, what I have dubbed, for shorthand, the Consumers' Republic. In reconstructing the nation after World War II, leaders of business, government, and labor developed a political economy and a political culture that expected a dynamic mass consumption economy not only to deliver prosperity, but also to fulfill American society's loftier aspirations. (Speth, 2012)"

The idea that emerged during this time was that consumption needed to go far beyond what was simply needed to satisfy an individual's needs. The definition of consumerism that emerged is roughly as follows (Speth, 2012):

A consumer society is one in which consumerism and materialism are central aspects of the dominant culture, where goods and services are acquired not only to satisfy common needs but also to secure identity and meaning. Framing this situation as a matter of consumer sovereignty -- where the customer is always right -- is misleading. Consumption patterns are powerfully shaped by forces other than preformed individual preferences -- forces such as advertising, cultural norms, social pressures, and psychological associations.

Although this strategy may have improved a level of material wealth, there are many other factors that should also be considered. Material wealth does not necessarily correlate with an individual's level of well-being.

In fact, compared with Americans in 1957, today we own twice as many cars per person, eat out twice as often and enjoy endless other commodities that weren't around then -- big-screen TVs, microwave ovens, SUVs and handheld wireless devices, to name a few, yet at the same time compared with their grandparents, today's young adults have grown up with much more affluence, slightly less happiness and much greater risk of depression and assorted social pathology," notes Hope College psychologist David G. Myers, PhD (DeAngelis, 2004). The research indicates that when an individual defines their lives by their material possessions, they can never really reach a level of satisfaction because there will always be a new iContraption to buy or a better car to drive. Many Americans have lost touch with what is really important to their physical and mental well-being by material distractions.

Conclusion

Although rising consumption has worked to help people meet their basic needs and create new jobs, the consumerist mentality should be treated as a disease that is infecting roughly 1.7 billion humans. The growing human appetite for the items that are beyond what is needed to fulfill their basic human needs, the fashionable consumption, is indirectly undermining the Earth's ability to sustain life on many levels by quickly destroying the capacity of natural systems to regenerate. To make matters worse, consumerism has shown to produce negative implications for the quality of life of individuals. Consumerism is bad for people and bad for the environment. The only benefits are based on outdated and fantasy oriented economic metrics. Therefore, consumerism should be studied as a disease, and interventions should be created with the same veracity as the harm caused to the public good by continuing such counterproductive lifestyles.