The History of Consumerism
"What of the appetite itself? Surely this is the ultimate source of the problem. If it continues its geometric course, will it not one day have to be restrained?”
- Economist John Kenneth Galbraith, 1958
Consumerism is a way of life that has come to define our culture, our times, and even ourselves: as actors in a consumerist society, making us “consumers” in turn. It has become the socioeconomic framework for understanding the modern world — particularly the democratic, capitalist West—which is propelled by the continual supply of (oftentimes disposable) goods to people, who are likewise largely employed in creating more products to sell and meet the demand – but, crucially, never quell it.
There must have been an entry point somewhere into what now appears to be a ceaseless (if highly unsustainable) cycle. So, how did we get here?
Well, like most things endemic to modern life, it built up gradually, specifically over the 17th and the 18th century. But consumerism truly gained steam alongside the Industrial Revolution, as a kind of accompanying psychological and lifestyle movement; one that eventually came to supplant the religious fervour and puritanical mindsets once so central to identity among citizens of the United States, England, France, and Canada, for example. Off the back of widespread colonial enrichment during the Age of Imperialism, all were instead captured by the spirit of wealth and innovation, and subsequently accumulation too, that together came to mark the era as the dawn of our transaction-based society in the modern West.
The many advancements of the time were mostly funded by spoils reaped from imperialist pursuits overseas (AKA the pillaging of foreign resources alongside the global slave-trade).
There was not yet much incentive for boosting consumption prior to the 20th Century, as in a society where supply could not be guaranteed, frugality and a “make-do” attitude were more fitting ideals to sustain the general public: a highly varied and disparate population, with very few able to claim an income that could be called ‘disposable’ – i.e., surplus cash for spending on random things. It was a subsistence economy. This all changed as the Industrial Revolution enabled greater profit in the face of demand, thanks to the significant expansion of goods (and therefore of service and manufacturing work too), and broadened the middle classes – later becoming the target consumers.
These two great engines of history set the standard for what we have come to call normality in our consumerist society, however patently impractical it may now be in the face of the mounting climate crisis, as waste remains an inevitable by-product of the economic model.
“We need things consumed, burned up, replaced and discarded at an ever-accelerating rate”
- Retail analyst Victor Lebow
The disconnect between what may seem to be clear reason and our continued rabid consumption lies in the careful cultivation of the consumer as a social identity. The desire to consume may have partly arisen from the increased abundance permitted by technological advancements, but this doesn’t mean it was an accidental offshoot. Consumerism in its current form was contrived over time by capitalists with a vested interest in keeping the public permanently dissatisfied (but ever searching) after industrial mass-production soon tipped over into overproduction. The mission to turn citizens into consumers came as a result of their dependence on infinite growth, which came under threat as a socio-economic model when confronted with the widening prosperity of the post-World Wars I and II periods, particularly within the USA. Using the same public relations tactics employed in wartime propaganda machines, producers therefore sought to manipulate desire through mass messaging campaigns known as advertising.
"Mass production is profitable only if its rhythm can be maintained… [Business] must maintain constant touch, through advertising and propaganda… to assure itself the continuous demand which alone will make its costly plant profitable".
- ‘Propaganda’ (1928), PR magnate Edward Bernays
In consumerist culture, supply dictates the demand, rather than the other way around. Corporate strategy therefore shifted accordingly, towards establishing consumption as a fundamental way of life: a superficial value system that far exceeded the value of even products consumed (themselves prey to measures such as planned obsolescence , and so fuelling the need for ever more stuff). It’s this mental/emotional element that continues to power consumerist momentum – especially in the lands of supposed ‘plenty’; countries which have the potential to comfortably sustain people with far less if the system were only different. Only a circular or degrowth economy could effectively counter the current trend for impossible expansion and excess waste.
