Consumerism
“Our enormously productive economy demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction and our ego satisfaction in consumption.”
- Retail analyst Victor Lebow, 1955
Two accepted definitions of “consumerism” appear online; each sounding similar, but actually representing two opposing sides of the coin. One is “the protection or promotion of the interests of consumers”, while the other explains the system as “the preoccupation of society with the acquisition of consumer goods”, exposing an ideological drive underneath the social and economic model.
And it’s this consumerist ideology that has pushed our global, neo-liberal capitalist society into the predicament we now find ourselves in; driven to buy more, more, and even more in ever increasing amounts: an unsustainable value system that has proven highly detrimental to our health and devastating for the natural world.
Basically, as a social descriptor, consumerism tends to place the onus (and therefore the responsibility) onto the individual citizen, proposing a false sense autonomy rather than revealing the real mechanics of capitalism, in which the consumer is not the true agent at all, but a subject compelled by a system largely beyond their power to evade or control.
Compulsive Consumerism
Our actions, or perhaps ‘reactions’ is more fitting here, are profoundly influenced by our environment. In this case, it’s the highly-promoted consumerist lifestyle that encourages an adjacent “throwaway culture”, triggered by the encouragement of excess want as well as the deliberately poor lifespan of products.
The fact is that consumers are often unaware of the negative impact many common products and services have upon the environment, or simply feel powerless to orient themselves toward a more sustainable lifestyle which goes against the busy flow of modern living. It also runs counter to pressures from the rampant advertising industry, working tirelessly to increase consumption through all manner of psychological manipulations—from the subtle (product placement) to the overt (celebrity endorsements)—and all with huge financial forces behind them; powered by—yes, you guessed it—consumers’ money.
Consumers are often unaware of the negative impact many common products and services have upon the environment, or simply feel powerless to orient themselves toward a more sustainable lifestyle which goes against the busy flow of modern living.
How does the uninformed consumer stand a chance against this machine? Even the informed ones lack the total freedom to determine that their rights and values are enacted while taking part in the mainstream system. It’s rigged to incline our spending, whether we want to or not.
Just look at the globalised food system that provides our dietary needs, a model of detachment between people and the land and animals that effectively makes us all dependent on supermarkets (themselves owned by giant corporations).
Individualism & Cultural Capital
Our “purchasing power” as consumers is a label co-opted by businesses as a way to reframe automatic buying as a kind of individual act of freedom, reinforcing the modern ideal of the Self as the Individualist. Some anthropologists and economists have even suggested that identification with a product or brand can now substitute authentic human relationships: that status is likewise to be acquired via goods, rather than respect earned or merit gained.
However, the instant gratification felt by consumers is an integral part of the process that has propelled consumerism to its cultural supremacy in the world today: where we are what we buy, and therefore we are only worth what we can afford in order to prove it.
The ability to emulate those above us in the social hierarchy with every purchase is presented as means of class mobility in the 21st Century (an era that boasts democracy and liberty as cultural signifiers) as well as moral duty. Despite the impracticality of an ever-expanding, extractive economic system within the bounds of a finite planet, consumerism is widely considered essential to support society, as it drives the creation of jobs and fuels cash flow, circulating wealth. Yet subscription to this myth serves a minority of elites far more than it does the general public.
The economic system we have ultimately does not work, faced as it is—as we are—with dwindling natural resources and rapid environmental degradation – each coming at the cost of consumerism’s infinite profit schemes. Equally, the current political system fails to correct this flawed model, propped up as it is by the wealth produced therein. Modern capitalism relies upon eternal dissatisfaction and peoples’ insatiable hunger for new and better stuff. If the main societal imperative is growth (and that’s in terms of GDP), then citizens are easiest to influence when self-identifying as consumers, meaning corporations and governments alike will do their utmost to ensure this paradigm continues and maintain their current power.
The bare figures provide a particularly stark and alarming view into the cost of consumerism. Consumption accounts for 60% of total GDP. The world’s generation of solid waste is expected to increase 70% by 2050, to 3.4 billion tonnes annually. In 1990, 8.1 tonnes of natural resources were used to satisfy a person’s need, while in 2015 almost 12 tonnes of resources were extracted per person. Currently, we are using up the Earth’s resources 1.75 times faster than the planet’s systems can regenerate, creating the threat of “Overshoot Day” (exactly what it sounds like).
We are, therefore, responsible as individuals for using our buying power mindfully (and significantly less than the market dictates), and for redirecting our money into ecologically sustainable as well as socially just companies and institutions. But we alone are not wholly culpable, not while the consumerist capitalist system remains dominant. The system needs to change too away from the growth imperative , if we are to live in a society that supports both people and planet as one.
