vegthreads

Consumerism or the process of equating personal happiness with consumption is the economic principle that seems to define our generation. Although these practices have been around since the rise of civilization, our generation seems to have taken it to an extreme. Thorstein Veblen first coined the term conspicuous consumption which evolved into the term consumerism. Veblen viewed the practice as an “irrational and confounding economic behavior” stating

“It is true of dress in even a higher degree than of most other items of consumption, that people will undergo a very considerable degree of privation in the comforts or the necessaries of life in order to afford what is considered a decent amount of wasteful consumption; so that it is by no means an uncommon occurrence, in an inclement climate, for people to go ill clad in order to appear well dressed.” (The Theory of the Leisure Class, 1899).

Over one hundred years later individuals still strive to define themselves by the clothes they wear, and the materials they possess. The appeal of certain commercial brands may be largely due to their ability to enhance ones social status. Our fascination with commercial brands, and consumerism as a whole has placed American’s on a hedonistic treadmill of sorts. The speed the treadmill is ran at ultimately serves as an indicator of level of economic growth. The faster goods, and services are gobbled up by consumers the faster the economy should grow, theoretically.

Our hedonistic tendencies of course come at a price. Namely in the form of waste. Large landfills bigger then some states have sprouted up throughout the country. One of the main components of any landfill are foodstuffs. Food waste, food packaging, and beverage containers. In the picture above we see plastic water bottles that have been thrown away. Sadly in America every 5 minutes 2,000,0000 plastic water bottles are thrown away! The picture below should give you a visual of exactly what that looks like.

The picture above should serve as a visualization of consumerism. Devouring our natural resources at a staggering rate, and destroying our country side with massive land fills. civilizations thousands of years from now will view our landfills as mysterious tombs upon which we buried our material possessions. It may even seem to them that we worshiped gods such as Nike, and Aquafina.

Consumerism of course has its opponents, and their arguments of course should be stated here. One of their main arguments states consumerism allows individuals to define themselves, allowing brands to functions as a social signal to identify like-minded individuals. Its the belief of this author however that there are of course much better ways to identify like-minded individuals with whom you may be interested in establishing relationships with. Likewise the cost of consumerisms which is the using up of natural resources at a staggering pace, the depletion of our environment, and a significant contribution far outweigh the positive networking benefits consumerism fosters. More pro-consumerism arguments can be found here.