Consumerism, already having captured death as a consumer obligation whereby sadness and regret are quenched by spending lots of money, now turns major life events like weddings and births into consumer events with their own hierarchy of demands for the things which assume a life of their own. For example, the bride's dress and accessories assumes far more significance in the telling than the bride's state of mind. Baby shower gifts take precedence over helping with the baby.

Consumerism has crossed the last frontier into memories. Underemployed people all over America are buying supplies to start their own 'business' selling scrapbook supplies so that people can gain the 'appropriate' access to their own history.

Recreation has become commercialized. Special leisure clothing, sporting equipment and attendance at expensive sporting events rife with advertising and corporate sponsorship are the manifestation of consumerism in recreation. Oakland, California, a community with high levels of unemployment and poverty has banks that are now creating special loan categories so that people can get personal lines of credit to buy season tickets to the taxpayer-financed stadium.

"Sports is another crucial example of the indoctrination system . . . It offers people something to pay attention to that is of no importance . . . It keeps them from worrying about things that matter to their lives that they might have an idea of something about . . . People have the most exotic information and understanding about all sorts of arcane issues . . . It's a way of building up irrational attitudes of submission to authority, and group cohesion behind leadership elements, in fact its training in irrational jingoism . . . That's why energy is devoted to supporting them . . . and advertisers are willing to pay for them."

Noam Chomsky from Manufacturing Consent

Pro-sports contribute next-to-nothing to communities economically yet they are sucking public dollars that could be better spent on parks, schools and public services into millionaires/billionaire's pockets and deluding a whole generation of at-risk youth into believing in the possibility of an "athletic career". Sports Still No Ticket Out Of The Ghetto

Professional sports are are just an example of synthesized and packaged reality designed to enrich people already rich, subject the observer to yet another layer of advertising, and to maintain the intellectual impoverishment of those watching.

"College-sports any better? Football is the S.U.V. of the college campus: aggressively big, resource-guzzling, lots and lots of fun and potentially destructive of everything around it. Big-time teams award 85 scholarships and, with walk-ons, field rosters of 100 or more players. (National Football League teams make do with half that.) At the highest level, universities wage what has been called an ''athletic arms race'' to see who can build the most lavish facilities to attract the highest-quality players. Dollars are directed from general funds and wrestled from donors, and what does not go into cherry-wood lockers, plush carpets and million-dollar weight rooms ends up in the pockets of coaches, the most exalted of whom now make upward of $2 million a year. . .College sports now consists of a class of super-behemoths -- perhaps a dozen or so athletic departments with budgets of $40 million and up -- and a much larger group of schools that face the choice of spending themselves into oblivion or being embarrassed on the field." N.Y.Times Magazine 12/22/02

Take all the mental and sometimes physical energy, the money and the time that the average American spends on professional and college sports and divert it to the care and maintenance of local public schools; we could be the best educated people in the world! Notice how recent talk about revitalizing our schools revolves around the purchase of computer equipment rather than raising teacher's salaries and spending more money per pupil?

Local sports teams and activities like Little League and Youth Soccer are healthy and wonderful. There is however, a tendency of the ongoing commercialization of even these IF people allow it.

 The constant cycle of work and consumption is destructive enough of values, but when extra hours must be worked to maintain the same level of consumption, or when insufficient work, or no work at all is available, and a family goes into debt to accumulate more things, or feels worthless because of a lack of the "right" possessions, consumerism is slow societal suicide.

Time, the precious shrinking commodity of our lives, is exchanged for money to buy things that there usually is little time to enjoy. What time is left after work is often devoured by television, basically a series of ever-more mediocre filler programs inserted between ever-more-spectacular commercials whose purpose is to stoke further desire for more things. When these insatiable material desires fail to be satisfied, people grow unhappy with their lives and in extreme cases riot and loot to get that they have been "programmed" to want.

People become used to the intrusion of advertising into their consciousness in the form of television or the massive bundle of advertising pulp that masquerades as a Sunday newspaper and and so they fail to protect themself, or worse, their children from being seduced by it. Convinced that their self worth is based on $500 athletic shoes or designer clothing, children are already on the road to spiritual dissatisfaction and resentment as well as a perception of diminished self-worth. When they become adolescents they are probably not going to be happy or productive even were they provided with an endless supply of things that few parents could afford. An extreme example of this is when some, usually poor adults, who could often better use the money for education, nutrition and improved housing, demonstrate their self worth and strength of character by turning themselves into human billboards in plastic clothing advertising millionaire's sports franchises. Their children may, to the detriment of education, pin all hopes on an athletic "career", i.e. lots of money for endorsing consumer items. This is nation building?

Where once parents shared the home with their adult children, acting as baby-sitters and providers of wisdom and tradition, we now have corporate owned day care and rest homes. This preservation of nuclear family ties is one reason that some immigrant groups are still able to excel economically until the second generation (usually) becomes affected by consumerism, abandons its parents' values and then often goes overboard using material objects as a means of self-identification with American society.

"Quality Time" has become a commodity unto itself. Unfortunately, there is no marketplace for quality time, you have to preserve it for yourself. Why not use the time in your life, skip the money and the taxation and go straight for the happiness that usually comes from the non-material? This process is part of overcoming consumerism.

Economic
COSTS OF CONSUMERISM

The more consumerism spreads, the weaker is the incentive to manufacture long-lasting, quality products, and the greater the likelihood that cheaply made products will instead be imported from the lowest-wage, environmentally unregulated overseas manufacturer that mobile capital, ever seeking the highest return, can find.

The nationwide loss of manufacturing jobs leads to a corresponding growth in unemployment and the number of welfare recipients, less personal wealth, a shrinking tax base, fewer public services, and greater public and private debt, hopelessness for job seekers and a growing negative balance of trade. Americans can't really afford to buy the house next door but guess who has lots of dollars to spend here because of the money that we're exporting to buy their cheap junk.? By facilitating the sale of whatever is advertised and sold, without examination by the purchaser of quality, origin, environmental degradation or traditions of manufacture, Consumerism fuels the destruction of the productive economy.

What about the argument that "we are in a global marketplace and exports (and therefore imports) create jobs?"

The flood of spending on imports creates a need for compensating export earnings. This quest for export earnings turns the U.S. into a traitor to principles that this nation supposedly fought for in several recent wars, and generates an eagerness to embrace potential export markets, no matter what the human rights or environmental records of these countries may be, or how much damage this does to American workers. Another part of this attempted juggling act of trade balances is to justify the further strip-mining of our own natural heritage in order to gain further export earnings, i.e. Redwood logs from our ancient cathedral forests are sent to Mexico to be milled on machinery that once was tended by well paid Americans in the U.S. or Alaskan oil drilled in wildlife refuges is sent to Japan. The boots and uniforms worn by US soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq are made in China.

Imports may create a few loudly touted jobs , but their main product is quiet but spectacular profits for transnational corporations that export our employment while importing low quality products and selling them here for a slight or no reduction in price.

"Free trade" laws are promoted so that American corporations can export pollution finally regulated here and import tariff-free goods back into the US from their foreign subsidiaries in whatever Sweatshop Republic they can find the cheapest workers. NAFTA is a codified example of this policy carried out at a national level. More recent attempts at promtoing other free trade agreements have been thwarted by citizen activism.

Some of the corporations behind nafta Here's a little historical tidbit from the link:

"Both GE workers and the community of Fort Wayne got swindled. In 1988, the employees had agreed to a $1.20 per hour wage cut to prevent their jobs from being moved to Mexico. Then in 1992, GE managed to squeeze a $485,290 tax cut out of the local government, claiming it was necessary to defray the cost of new machinery needed to preserve jobs. Once NAFTA passed, the wage cuts and the tax breaks were not enough to keep those jobs in Fort Wayne.[they went to Mexico] As one longtime GE employee put it, "You give them all your life, and this is what they give you. "

(Wonder if he and his family and friends will actively boycott G.E. products and services? We hope so.)

 

Maytag: Hecho en Mejico "They want Americans to buy their products, but they don't want to put Americans to work making those products." Published on Tuesday, December 31, 2002 by the Chicago Tribune The Big Lie About Free Trade Turns out it's American workers who are waving goodbye to their jobs by Bernie Sanders Though I am a congressman from Vermont, it outrages me that Maytag Corp. will shut down production at its refrigerator factory in Galesburg, Ill., and lay off the plant's 1,600 workers by late 2004. Maytag is using the North America Free Trade Agreement, which I opposed, to move its plant to Mexico. In Mexico it will be able to hire workers at $2 an hour, rather than pay the average wage of $15.14 earned by workers in Galesburg. And the Newton, Iowa, appliance manufacturer is closing its Illinois plant despite recent concessions from the union and substantial sums of corporate welfare given it by city, county and state governments.  Illinois citizens should have no illusions that what is happening in Galesburg is unique. I can tell you that the same thing is happening in my state. In fact, it's happening in many regions of the country. In Vermont, in recent years, as a result of such disastrous trade policies as NAFTA, most-favored-nation status with China and permanent normal trade relations with China and other trade agreements, we have lost thousands of decent paying jobs in Shaftsbury, Newport, St. Johnsbury, East Ryegate, Island Pond, Randolph, Orleans, Bennington, Springfield and Windsor--among other communities.  The simple truth is that our nation's manufacturing base is collapsing. As unemployment rises, more and more Americans are searching for non-existent jobs. In the past two years we have lost just under 1.8 million factory jobs nationwide, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and, at 16.5 million, we now have the lowest number of factory jobs in 40 years.  As the U.S. produces less and imports more, we have developed a huge trade deficit of more than $400 billion, including an $80 billion trade deficit with China. Millions of Americans are working longer hours for lower wages, many of them at part-time or temporary jobs with minimal benefits. And yet, despite all of this, President Bush, almost all Republicans and many Democrats in Congress continue to spout the corporate line about how wonderful unfettered "free trade" is. And the establishment media continue, in editorial after editorial, to repeat that big lie.  The simple truth is that American workers cannot, and should not, be "competing" against desperate workers in developing countries who are forced to work for pennies an hour. This is creating a horrendous "race to the bottom." Aaron Kemp is a Maytag worker in Galesburg. He expressed a lot more understanding of our current trade policies than most member of Congress when he told a reporter; "This is heartbreaking. This is one of the most unpatriotic, most un-American things I can imagine a company doing. They want Americans to buy their products, but they don't want to put Americans to work making those products."  Clearly, we need fundamental changes in our trade policies. If the American economy is going to survive, if our workers are to earn a living wage, corporations are going to have to start reinvesting in the United States.  In Washington, everybody knows what the story is. President Bush and many members of Congress have received hundreds of millions in campaign contributions from the corporations that benefit from our free trade policies. They have taken those donations--and sold out American workers by giving their support to a trade policy that is destroying our economy. If the U.S. is going to survive as a great economic power, we must rebuild our manufacturing base and create jobs that pay workers a living wage with decent benefits.  Rep. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is the only independent congressman in the House.  Copyright © 2002, Chicago Tribune

 

The actual manufacture of products becomes almost a nuisance for conglomerates anxious to grow their capital and maximize profits through buying and closing factories, raiding pension plans, firing workers and using the paper losses to offset profits made elsewhere. That's what slaves in foreign countries are for. BUT, how will Americans buy thier products if they no longer have jobs and if they do have jobs why shouldn't we go out of our way to boycott these job destroying companies? After reading the above story we will do everything we can to encourage everyone we know to boycott all Maytag products. According to the highly respected and non-commercial Consumer Reports Magazine they were never that good to begin with. (based on hundreds of thousands of subscriber surveys detailing the strengths and weaknesses of consumer goods)

How NAFTA affects Canadians.

Even service jobs are now also vulnerable to export. Some companies are now using low wage workers in Ireland or India to staff their technical-support and order-taking phone lines or do insurance underwriting. There is no technical reason why any person answering a telephone or sitting at a keyboard has to be physically located in the U.S. What we're talking about is you calling a softwear or warranty line and talking to someone making $1.10 a day in India or China. Nor are professionals immune from this. The same blind, unquestioning acceptance of consumerism will allow the export of even these service jobs if the companies that attempt this are not challenged by consumers.

Environmental
COSTS OF CONSUMERISM

Consumerism causes the wasteful use of energy and material far above and beyond that needed for everyday living at a comfortable level. Money is not the only way to measure the cost of an item. When one adds up all the raw materials and energy that go into the goods and services consumed over an individual's lifetime, the toll on the environment is staggering. When this cost is multiplied out over the lifespan of families, cities and countries, the proportions are incredible.

An example: 220 Billion cans, bottles, plastic cartons and paper cups, are thrown away each year in the "developed" world.

"Disposable" items exemplify this. Rather than compete on quality or reliability, products are made for a one time use. "Fun" is a catchword discarding notions of inherent value, longevity, and the environmental consequences of manufacture and disposal of the product. Buying quality products that are warranteed against failure or wearing out, learning about the materials that things are made of, their national origin and the conditions of the workers that make them, are some ways of resisting consumerism and waste.

While there may be some new appliances and cars that are more productive and energy efficient, discarding the old often leads to an almost total waste of the energy and material already invested in these products. This alone may more than nullify the energy savings of the new.

Getting
AWAY FROM CONSUMERISM

Having fewer things means enjoying what you have more and actually getting to use it, thereby raising its intrinsic value. The less clutter that one has in their surroundings, the fewer distractions there are from the essentials such as family, friends, food, nature and study. With less clutter, one needs a smaller space in which to live comfortably and thus needs to work less to pay rent to store things. If you haven't used something in the last year, how much likelihood is there that you ever will use it?

"The most important assets are brands. Buildings age and become dilapidated. Machines wear out. Cars rust. People die. But what lives on are the brands." Hector Liang Chairman, United Biscuits "Products are made in the factory, but brands are created in the mind." -Walter Landor Industrial Designer   "When people have lost their authentic personal taste, they lose their personality and become instruments of other people's wills." Robert Graves   Can brands survive ecosystem collapse or the fall of our government?

Making do with less allows one to distance themself from the tendency of the victims of advertising to self-define according to the material objects possessed or not possessed, driven, drunk, worn, used, seen with or abused.

You usually see people thus affected in public places, lurking around a piece of machinery, such as a car or a boat. They bask in its radiance, act respectful and imply knowledge about its quality and providence. They act as they feel that they should act, making sure that others see them acting this way in the presence of the thing. They can only communicate with each other through the medium of the object, the cold piece of metal, in the presence of which they feel that they can speak to each other and actually show some emotion and interact.

The thing, the product, becomes a longed for goal, a means of justifying their existence, a way of envisioning themself in a different world with possession of the thing being the key tenet. Particular speech patterns often develop around things to the exclusion of the personal qualities of the speaker, as in

"I used to have a....."/"Yeah, friend of mine, he's got a "57.....", "last night I drank two....and a six pack of....","she was wearing..."," we did two....then a ....have you seen the new...""...how about those Forty-Niners?..." "Look what I got...""what do you think about American Idol?"

Empty, hollow words, bespeaking a personal void filled by the pursuit of things. Getting away from need for things is at least a start in allowing people to communicate and then once communicating, beginning to solve real problems in their home, community, nation and the world.

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This then is the problem. Are there any personalities that are responsable for the negative influence of consumerism? All of us of course-how can any one individual be at fault in this? There IS one man who bears inordinate responsability for this, as a sidebar to this page we would like to introduce you to a little known man who took the techiques of his uncle, Sigmund Freud and turned them into tools to sell to, demoralize, impoverish some people while enriching certain others: here is his story:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/documentaries/features/century_of_the_self_episode_1.shtml

Bernays invented the public relations profession in the 1920s and was the first person to take Freud's ideas to manipulate the masses. He showed American corporations how they could make people want things they didn't need by systematically linking mass-produced goods to their unconscious desires. Bernays was one of the main architects of the modern techniques of mass-consumer persuasion, using every trick in the book, from celebrity endorsement and outrageous PR stunts, to eroticising the motorcar. His most notorious coup was breaking the taboo on women smoking by persuading them that cigarettes were a symbol of independence and freedom...

There are a growing number of people who are aware that these aspects of consumerism are some of the main obstacles to living in a pleasant safe community, seeing their children well-educated and living long healthy productive lives, without squander and waste. The following pages offer many different tools to help facilitate this:

Next Link What DOES overcoming consumerism accomplish?

See the Educational Resources... section for a large series of effective reform organizations and resouces.