Consumerism And Downshifting In The United States

Through the Cold War, America was transitioning in various ways such as the way messages were shared, consumerism, and the constant race against the Soviet Union. During the years 1959-1964, Rod Serling, a New York writer and playwright began using one of the newest inventions, the television, as a way to share his opinion about controversial topics. The rise of the television allowed Serling to access to a larger audience whom he could share his opinion in the form of science fictional episodes in the show The Twilight Zone. Although the show seems ominous and a horror related TV show, it allows us to understand the effects and feeling towards topics such as a possible nuclear war, consumerism, space exploration.

Before reading the excerpts from “The Overspent American” I was not familiar with Juliet Schor’s work. While reading however, I saw that her views were different from many of the other authors that we have read so far. When I had finished the reading I found the reading enjoyable and fascinating. The reason that her writing intrigued me was because of her multiple perspectives while writing. Not only does she concentrate on the economics of American people, but she also uses a sociologist lens to show the purchasing habits of our culture. “The Overspent American” focuses on how we as a society have changed our spending patterns from the past. During the 1950s the phrase “keeping up with the Jones’” was coined and it represented Americans trying to outspend their neighbors and friends. For example, my friend buys a boat and I also need to buy a boat to make sure my friends saw me as being wealthy. Today our society as changed in many ways but Schor finds that our spending habits have altered the most since the 1950s. By analyzing and evaluating her work, one can see how Americans spending habits have changed over time and how our economics have been overtaken by television and broadcast media.

There is a very big epidemic of consumerism within the United Sates and it is a result of the contribution of many factors within our society. It is evident that this is not necessary when one views other communities throughout the world but America has yet to make the changes it needs to solve this problem. A big problem with retailers and producers of products is their use of sweatshops, which are located in and out of the U.S. Sweatshops are a huge problem because they are known for having very low safety standards for their employees and mistreat their employees consistently. The reason they are used is because they can give the company better profits off of their goods.

Consumerism has structured our economy for generations: living on a day-to-day basis has been fired in a web of buying and spending money on things that we do not need to survive. Kurtis, Kaplan and Bradbury all present liable information on consumerism, what it is and how it has conformed our society over the years. Bradbury uses his story, “The Veldt,” to show the fear of many on how our materialistic life style could eventually destroy us. Consumerism has been labeled for the success and virtue of America, along with the title of the “American Dream.” In the documentary, “The Century of the Self,” Edward Bernays was able to successfully drive out what the “American Dream” truly meant to everyone in America.

Society is buying objects we do not need, with the money we do not have, to impress people that do not matter. The American Dream is developing into a more materialistic world, a dream in which the dream keeps getting larger and greedier. Materialism is the tendency to think material objects are more important than people; a desire for money over ethics. Today, life shows us that people have a desire for newest, thinnest, updated—most expensive smartphone or the more expensive lavish materials. Life shows us that our car is undesirable now, especially when our cars do not hook up with that latest cell phone. Life shows us unrealistic standards of a way to live, yet a huge portion of the people in society appear to be emptying out their wallets. This materialistic culture is a show, a phony act when in society we pretend we are what we are not. We all live in a materialistic society where the majority of people are more worried about what we have than who we are. There is an emphasis on what brand a person is wearing, what car someone is driving, and just how many objects one has, in general. A person must wonder where this hunger and greed comes from and why most Americans fall susceptible to this phenomenon, including me.

Many Americans have accepted the consumer debt as an essential component of their everyday life. People who say they don’t have enough money to live comfortably have greater financial worries than people who feel they have enough money. Both people who feel as though they don’t have enough money to live comfortably and people who do have enough are worried about not

If you’ve ever been in a history class, I am sure you have heard of the concept of “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” If we reflect on that statement of “The Pursuit of Happiness”, what really makes people happy? Is it money? Power? Love? Some believe that a higher power is the only place we can find happiness. We worship and try to live up to these ideologies because we have been taught to fulfill the American Dream. With the way that society is heading, the answer may not be soon revealed. Maybe not even in our lifetime. We are programmed from a young age to have a herd mentality, and want everything that we don’t have or need for that matter. We try to keep up with the Jones’

“We now spend nearly two-thirds of our $11 trillion economy on consumer goods. For example, we spend more on shoes, jewelry, and watches ($100 billion) than on higher education ($99 billion)” (Graaf, Wann, and Naylor 13). To be honest, even though I don't think I am infected with affluenza, I suffer from running out of room to store my stuff. In addition, there are many people in debt because of their uncontrollable urge to purchase what is not necessarily needed in today’s economic way of life. Consumers are affected by affluenza buying things for the wrong reasons because they often seek validation from others by modeling their expensive

Affluenza is a painful, contagious, socially transmitted condition of overload, debt, anxiety and waste resulting from the dogged pursuit of more. It is a powerful virus that has infected the American society, threatening our wallets, our friendships, our families, our communities, and our environment. Since the United States has become the economic model for most of the world this virus is now flowing freely on every continent. The costs and consequences of this disease are massive even though they are often concealed. Left untreated however, it can cause permanent discontent. Affluenza is based on our culture and how it encourages its citizens to measure their worth by financial success and material possessions. The media such as the

As Austrian writer Marie Von Ebner-Eschenbach wrote,“To be content with little is difficult; to be content with much, impossible.” History and literature have established that the ideal goal every American has wanted is for his thirst for material possessions to be reached, but even then, the individual isn’t truly happy. Money, and the things it can get you, have long been a part of American culture and the materialist culture of society have been examined in numerous ways from novels to the art of those like Andy Warhol. A life free from the economic woes that plague almost everyone seems like the quintessential existence, but material wealth is not a way to mend issues.

“Since the end of the Second World War the USA has been transformed into a society where the national economy depends to a large extent on private consumption; and where mass acquisition and use of material goods is the dominant lifestyle, the centerpiece of social practices, leisure time, cultural rituals and celebrations. We refer to it as consumer society.”

Whether we know it or not, consumerism is ruining all of our lives and the world as we know it. As humans, we are always looking for satisfaction and we think worldly items will cure the hunger that we have for pleasure. Consumerism says that purpose, joy and contentment are to be found primarily in the consumption of goods, services and experiences.

Debt has become the new American bedfellow; “The average U.S. household with debt carries $15,762 in credit card debt and $130,922 in total debt” (Issa). One should keep in mind that the “$130,922”is a median debt; some live debt-free while others have substantially higher debt (Issa). For twelve years running, the cost of living in our country has grown greater than our median wages contributing to the overall mountain of debt incurred (Issa). Our country has grown used to the debt that looms because that is what the American way has become; buy bigger, one can always settle finances at a later date. Juliet Schor discussed how “The new consumerism, with its growing aspirational gap, has begun to jeopardize the quality of American life”. Americans have grown tired of carrying a proverbial weight of their debt and are fighting against the normal American life of living

"The average American woman makes 301 trips to the store annually, spending close to 400 hours a year shopping. This amounts to 8.5 years spent shopping during a typical lifespan " (www.becomingminimalist.com). Imagine how much time and money we waste. After reading "17 statistics About our Shopping Habits" and several different articles, by different authors, shopping seems to affect us differently. Consumerism is a huge part of our lives. We can spend hours and hours window shopping. We lose track of time .Sometimes we just walk around stores just looking at clothes or other materialistic things and we don't buy anything. Yet when we do it is usually something useless. "Americans spend more on shoes, jewelry, and watches ($100 billion) than on higher education " (www.becomingminimalist.com). This is just sad and disappointing that we

Today, people consume for pleasure. The act of consuming goods may allow one to fit in, feel confident, or participate socially in shopping culture. Consumerism has become a universal behaviour amongst most people and groups. According to Sharon Boden, consumption is affected by both external and internal constraints and expectations (150). I argue that consumerism and consumption is no longer an accurate indicator of a person’s actual status and wealth. As a society, we have increased accessibility to commodities and experiences. For example, driving a Mercedes-Benz is no longer a symbol of being wealthy or belonging to the upper class. Leases or loans have brought such luxuries to a broader spectrum of social