Consumerism

What is it really? It dominates our whole life, but how much do we really know about consumerism? How did this behavior appear in one of the thriftiest country's in the world in the early 1900's?

Back then Americans bought what they needed to live and very little else, they paid for their homes and everything else in cash/gold. Edward Bernays came along with a massive discovery, by linking products to our subconscious desires, he could influence people to buy goods and services.

a little reading on the subconscious brain and how easy it is to twist things...

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/31/health/psychology/31subl.html

it's from the NY times, but it does give source's.


a little reading on Bernays and some sound bites from an interview with Bernays.

http://www.bookrags.com/biography/edward-l-bernays/

bio


http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4612464

it's npr, so that might scare away you repubs out there reading my blog.....lol, don't worry, I'm an independent, so you can tell your friends about me.

A great place to start is a free video online called the century of self, here is the link for that.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1122532358497501036#docid=3676423646869922954


What got me started even thinking about all of this was a video on the news when the iPhone came out, all those people standing in line to buy a phone(no matter how cool it is), already talking on a cell phone.

how could people needlessly go out and spend money like that i wondered? While some people have a need for such a device, most people do not.

a telling quote from the movie provides us with a look at the answer.

He cites Paul Mazer, a Wall Street banker working for Lehman Brothers in
the
1930s: "We must shift America from a needs- to a desires-culture. People
must be trained to desire, to want new things, even before the old have been
entirely consumed. [...] Man's desires must overshadow his needs."

From our first days we have been breed to be consumers, to keep buying, borrowing, and spending. So much so that 40% of Americans SPEND more then the earn every year.

It's very telling about what lies ahead if we cant keep borrowing and spending at this reckless pace. 70% of US GDP is consumer spending, which means for US GDP to go up each year, consumer spending has to increase each year or you have to make up the difference in other places.

The company's help along your decision to buy thru the use of two tactics, planned obsolescence

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_obsolescence

and perceived obsolescence.

With perceived being the worst of the two, anyone who was a teen in the late 50's up to today knows what high school was like if you did not have the right clothes/cars/etc.

Perceived obsolescence or "keeping up with the Joneses" is what has driven this consumerism madness.

Every person reading this knows what I'm saying is true, deep in your heart you have judge and been judge by what you wear/eat/drive/etc.

We are social creatures and feel the need to fit into whatever little group(circle of friends) we feel we belong too, we adopt their habits,clothing,goals,beliefs of many of our friends,lovers, co workers and family members in order to be accepted.

We need to stop this behaviour.

Please leave any questions or comments and/or insults in the comment section.