Building on this, we could look at the trends in spending, and where this money could be better used. Now, if we look at some areas of spending, we can see that our society has serious problems. This is nearly enough to bring education to every child on the planet. Research shows a close link between the rise of the modern culture of consumerism and the worrying rates of obesity we are seeing around the world.
However, this should come as no surprise, since consumerism implies exactly that — using as much as we can, rather than as much as we need. This causes a domino effect of problems on society.
Over-consuming leads to obesity , which in turn leads to further cultural and social problems. For example, medical services are stretched further and further as the worldwide obesity rates rise.
As well as obvious social and economic problems, consumerism is destroying our environment. As the demand for goods increases, the need to produce these goods also increases. This leads to more pollutant emissions, increased land-use and deforestation, and accelerated climate change [4]. We are experiencing devastating effects on the planets water supplies, as more and more water stores are used up or diverted as a part of intensive farming procedures. Waste disposal is becoming a problem worldwide, and our oceans are slowly but surely becoming a giant waste disposal pit.
It is estimated that over half of the plastic produced every year is single use — this means that it is used once, and then either thrown into landfill or finds its way into the environment. According to scientists, up to 12 million tons of plastic enters the ocean every year, forming giant floating garbage patches all over the world [5].
It is obvious that we need to reduce consumerism and change our current lifestyles, otherwise the planet we know will cease to exist. We are currently consuming resources at an unsustainable rate, which is causing mass environmental destruction and social problems across the world. Make a change today by reducing materialistic possessions, increasing recycling, and raising awareness in your community.
This process is already happening. Look at the USA. Buying food has become so cheap that it is fine to buy and eat a lot of it. But because the quality is often not very good, it is extremely unhealthy and often leads to obesity. Some may say this because they or their society has followed this ideology to get out of poverty and it worked for them, so it should work for others. Yet, often missed is where the resource base to support the increase in wealth has typically come from.
Yet, the consumption inequalities of today and the regions of immense wealth and immense poverty, on a global scale shows a similar pattern to those of previous decades and centuries. The U. As described in the poverty section of this web site, wars throughout history have been because of this control of resources. Yet because in the mainstream this is not acknowledged it is easy to just see this as a threat and act on it, without really understanding why it has become a threat.
Side Note As a side note, it is interesting to note that there are books and insights popping up that predict future wars will be a new kind of war; resource wars. Yet, this is what it has typically been throughout history, but fortified with ideologies and religions.
Ideologies and religions offer different ways to live, and hence different ways to use resources. This YouTube video from Journeyman Pictures explains some of the imbalances of power that results from resource exploitation:.
The wealthier consume precisely because others are poor — the rich consume at the expense of the poor. Such global inequality is very wasteful of resources, as further resources are expended maintaining this unequal balance of power be it through military, political, social or other means.
As Robbins was quoted above, someone has to pay for our consumption levels. The causes of these imbalances are discussed throughout this web site, as well as later on in this section on consumption and consumerism. Pollution is also related to increased consumption. That is, the consumption itself, plus the production and waste of products used in consumption. Automobiles are a clear example. Other examples include industrial waste especially when just dumped into the rivers and oceans , waste from the tourist industry including cruise liners, air travel, etc.
While pollution is increasing in poorer countries as well, it is not solely due to rising populations, because, as the U. Hence, even if pollution is occurring in poor countries, a large portion of it is to meet this consumer demand. And long before the fears that the Kyoto Climate Change protocol would encourage western businesses to move dirty industry to poorer countries that were exempt from emissions reduction targets, multinational businesses were already looking for places with lower standards.
He wrote in an internal memo leaked to the Economist in that is very revealing:. Summers was talking about migrating industries. That is, moving them elsewhere, but to still serve their original purpose — produce for consumption by wealthier nations and people. So instead of expensive changes to factories to deal with environmental and other issues that the public and society demand, they have had the ability to move elsewhere and continue on without making these costly changes.
As a result, we may see a relatively cleaner environment in the industrialized world, but it is not all explainable by using newer technologies, being more efficient, etc which are no doubt certainly part of the explanations. This is a partial explanation of why some of the wealthier countries have cleaner air, water and so on, compared to poorer countries that are facing more pollution, even though they consume a fraction of what wealthier nations consume.
Consumption in richer countries can come at a high price for those in poorer countries as well then. See Robbins, cited above, for a more detailed discussion of this paradox , who also points out for example, that the core countries already ship 20 million tons of waste annually to the periphery , or poor, countries p. Another trend is to also export waste to other regions of the world. As one example, hazardous electronic waste, such as old computers, old computer monitors, etc primarily from wealthier nations, are also being exported to places like China, India and Pakistan, where they are processed in operations that are extremely harmful to human health and the environment.
However, minimal or non-existent environmental and working standards and regulations, old technologies for recycling and processing, etc. Yet to our horror, we further discovered that rather than banning it, the United States government is actually encouraging this ugly trade in order to avoid finding real solutions to the massive tide of obsolete computer waste generated in the U.
Puckett referred to the fact that the United States is the only developed country in the world that has failed to ratify the Basel Convention, a United Nations environmental treaty which has adopted a global ban on the export of hazardous wastes from the worlds most developed countries to developing countries.
Please note this sub-section on obesity has moved to its own new page. You can also continue reading on below and see how the issue of obesity is introduced in context to consumption. Poverty, land control and ownership, pollution and so on, are largely parts of economic and ideological systems too. As exemplified by the Lawrence Summers quote above, a value is placed on the environment, on life, on different cultures and so on.
This is so ingrained into the cultures of the wealthy nations, that the thought of massive adjustment of lifestyles and economic systems to a more sustainable consumption seems too much to consider. Instead the system is continued and maintained. Built into the system itself are mechanisms that encourage this, without realizing the costs.
For example, a population where health is generally getting worse may result in more sales of medicines or a growth in private healthcare and other knock-on industries. Instead of these always being seen as a cost, they are seen as providing more jobs and creating wealth, and as a result it counts towards GDP and other indicators of economic health!
It then looks like the economy is dealing with this fine, without realizing that even more resources are used to support these jobs and industries that may not be needed in as much intensity. It is easy to blame consumers from wealthy countries as the sole cause of these problems elsewhere though. However, as mentioned in the initial pages on this section, much of this mass consumerism culture in the north has not been based solely on natural demand, but a created demand.
That is, from large businesses and industry wanting to sell more products and make more profits. Politically this has also been encouraged as it helps create a more conforming populous satisfied by material needs.
True, a comparison can also be a booster, making someone feel better about themselves. However, constant comparison accomplishes nothing; only by overcoming the feeling of envy can a person be able to see the world in a clearer perspective. I believe lower-class communities are not offered the same opportunities as upper-class.
However, there are certain opportunities that are offered in these communities and individuals choose not to take advantage of it, because it is easier to get the money than to work for the money, i.
For instance, they might have great programs in the community, counselors who believe in them, teachers who are supportive, but if they go home to a parent who is mentally abusing them and badgering them, then they will feel worthless because that person whom they believe and have trusted their whole life is right, they will never amount to nothing.
So ultimately they feel worthless. Consumerism intrudes with the workings of society by overthrowing the standard judgment wish for an adequate supply of life 's necessities, a steady family and solid associations with a manufactured continuous journey for things and the purchasing power with little respect for the genuine utility of the item purchased.
Even though consumerism has positive effects like motivating people to work harder in order to improve their social status and well being, it has adverse effects on the environment and the social aspect of life.
Consumerism, according to the new Oxford English dictionary, means the preocccupation of society with the acquisition of consumer goods. When happiness overtakes other emotions it becomes the norm, causing happiness to become the normal emotion that is expected every day. Becoming sad over a small incident causes a mental rut that seems impossible to overturn and initiates a depressive state. The American Dream is to find the pursuit of happiness and if it was not for struggling working people that did not have much happiness, there would not be the pursuit.
It is even said that people who isolate them self are more likely to die at an early age. The next disorder is almost the same as the last one, and it is referred to as antisocial personality disorder.
The only difference is that this disorder make the person diagnosed not care about other. The person diagnosed does not care about others thoughts and feelings, and sometimes they can even use people they are close to for their own personal gain. Procrastination can lead to an unsuccessful outcome because when stress and anxiety come in other problems do to like delaying your career or projecting building up a pile of things you were supposed to do or were going to do, this leads to emotional break down and consistently nailing yourself down and never feeling proud.
Hating yourself for not completing things you could have easily done and giving up. Giving up is the most common thing people do, this leads to depression and other health risks. Drug abuse might even come in at this stage.
Robber Barons were like robin hoods, but reversed. Instead of stealing from the rich to give to the poor, they would steal from the poor by giving the rich a discount on a product, then making that same product up for a poorer person Whitehead,
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