Readings on the Consumer

Introduction to the Readings in Part One

The Consumer, the Laborer, The Capitalist, and the Nation-State

In Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism we suggest that the culture of capitalism can be understood through the relationships between four historically unique social entities: the consumer, the laborer, the capitalist, and the nation-state. The role of the consumer is to accumulate goods, that of the laborer to accumulate wages through the sale of his or her labor, and that of the capitalist to accumulate capital by profiting from his or her investments. The nation-state serves to regulate, in some fashion, the relationships between consumer, laborer, and capitalist largely by gaining a monopoly on the use of armed force, ensuring the orderly circulation of goods, and taking for itself a share of the national income. We suggest further that money is the language of social relations in the culture of capitalism. At it simplest level, these relationships can be represented as follows:

Relations in the Culture of Capitalism

We assume, also, that understanding the relationships among these entities is necessary if we are to appreciate the impact of the culture of capitalism on the world.

The readings for Part One all address, in one form or another, the origin, nature, and consequences of the actions of the consumer, the laborer, the capitalist, and the nation-state.

I Readings on the Consumer

Illustration from Adbusters
with permission

The consumer is essential for the culture of capitalism. Not only must consumers buy, they must buy more every year, and still more the year after that. Without perpetual consumption, the economy would either decline or collapse. The sign of a healthy national economy, after all, is measured by the Gross National Product (GNP), and the GNP is a measure of the quantity of goods and services people consume. This raises four questions that will be addressed in the following articles. First, historically how was the consumer constructed; second, why do members of the culture of capitalism feel compelled to consume as much as they do; three, what are some of the consequences of our levels of consumption; and, finally, how would you characterize your own commitment to consume?

A. The History and Nature of Consumerism

In Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism we suggest that the emergence of the consumer represents a unique development in the history of the human species. The following articles discuss this development in the United States.

Reading 1. The History of Affluenza in America
http://www.pbs.org/kcts/affluenza/diag/history.htm

To accompany its documentary on the history of consumption, or affluenza, as they called it, PBS developed this timeline of the development of consumerism. Read each stage of the process and learn, not only about key developments in the history of consumerism in the United States, but also about the periodic resistance to it. Later you will have an opportunity to check the extent to which you are infected with affluenza.

Reading 2. Women as Mothers
http://www.siu.edu/~cmcma202/stereotypes_mothers.html

The emergence of the culture of capitalism involved a transformation of virtually every institution of our society, including the family. Stuart Ewen argued that the growth of consumer capitalism in the 1920s and 1930s required the transformation of the family from a unit of production to a unit of consumption. Furthermore, it required transferring to corporations the authority to instruct families on their appropriate patterns of consumption. This article by Dona Schwartz discusses how family roles, particularly of mothers, are redefined in ways to maximize the consumption of commodities.

B. Turning People into Consumers

People have, of course, always consumed things, either making these things themselves, bartering or trading for them, or purchasing them at markets. But it is only in the past few centuries, and largely in the past 100 years, that mass consumption has become an essential ingredient of our culture. Furthermore, as we discuss in Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism people are not naturally consumers; consumers had to be created. The following articles discuss how people, particularly children, are transformed into consumers.

Reading 3. The Advertising Career of Helen Rosen Woodward
http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~woodward/1.html

It is impossible to understand the creation of the consumer without understanding the role of advertisers. One of the more remarkable careers in the history of advertising is that of Helen Rosen Woodward. In the early part of the 1900s she was one of the leading figures in the art of convincing people to buy things they didn't necessarily need. Later she became a critic of the very institution she helped create. This article, and the Website that contains it, describes her life and her influence.

Reading 4. How Do Our Kids Get Caught Up in Consumerism? http://www.newdream.org/newsletter/swimme.html

In Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism we describe how the meaning of childhood was transformed in the United States in order to turn children into a key segment of the consuming public. In this article Brian Swimme maintains that "Advertisements are where our children receive their cosmology, their basic grasp of the world's meaning, which amounts to their primary religious faith, though unrecognized as such.... The advertisement is our culture's primary vehicle for providing our children with their personal cosmologies." See if you agree.

Reading 5. Zapme! A New Corporate Predator in the Schools
http://www.essential.org/alert/zapme_spies.html

This press release from Commercial Alert, an organization devoted to exposing the dangers of advertising to children, describes some recent attempts by corporations to infiltrate schools. This is not the first, nor is it likely to be the last, attempt. Corporations and advertisers have long been interested in getting access to this captive audience in a setting in which their message is imbued with the legitimacy of our educational institutions. You can find out more about how Zapme! and Channel One use their entry into schools to promote consumption and what some people are trying to do about it at Commercial Alert's Press Release page.

C. The Consequences of Consumerism

One of the essential features of the culture of capitalism is masking from the consumer the effects of his or her consumption patterns. Yet the effects are far-reaching; our patterns of consumption influence virtually every facet of our lives, from the way we allocate our time, to the nature of our social relations, to the state of our environment, even the meaning of our bodies. The following articles discuss some of these effects.

Reading 6. Waste a Lot,Want a Lot: Our All-Consuming Quest for Style
http://cnet.unb.ca/orgs/prevention_cruelty/waste.htm

How do you drive people to consume? One way is to ensure that they are dissatisfied with what they have, make them, in effect, slaves to style. In this article, Stuart Ewen traces the history of style in America, and discusses some of the consequences of this for our society.

Reading 7. Inside the Mouse: Deconstructing Disney
http://www.adm.duke.edu/alumni/dm1/inmouse.txt.html

In her edited volume on Walt Disney World, Susan Willis asks about the "kind of social realities we develop in an artificial environment based on consumption. What does it mean for our social relationships?" This review of the book, Inside the Mouse: Deconstructing Disney, and interview with Susan Willis outlines some of the answers to that question.

Reading 8: The New Cannibalism
http://www.oneworld.org/ni/issue300/trade.html

In the culture of capitalism virtually everything is available only as a commodity, that is something to be bought or sold. The neccesities of life, for example, such as food, shelter, and health care, exist only as commodities; without the means to "buy" them, people starve, are homeless, or do without medical treatment. Even our bodies, as this article from New Internationalism by Nancy Scheper-Hughes illustrates, are becoming commodified. She describes the booming market in human organs, as increasingly impoverished peoples sell their body parts for transplants to rich buyers. The results are the reduction of the human body to bits and parts that can be bought or sold on increasingly globalized markets, and, in some countries, a terrified citizenry that fears they will be killed for their organs.

Reading 9. Emulation and Global Consumerism http://www.indiana.edu/~wanthro/nrc2.html

At the end of the first chapter of Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism, we pose the question of what happens when the rest of the world tries to emulate the consumption patterns characteristic of the culture of capitalism? In this article, Richard Wilk discusses the reality of that prospect, and offers some suggestions for other scenarios.

D. How Badly are you Infected with Affluenza?

It is sometimes difficult for us to appreciate the extent to which our behavior is a consequence of what we really want to do, and how much is a consequence of our culture. In Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism we use the analogy of the Navaho sandpainting to illustrate the extent to which our culture determines our behavior. These articles and exercises are designed for you to discover the extent to which you are embedded in the sandpainting of the culture of capitalism.

Exercise 1. Do you have affluenza?
http://www.pbs.org/kcts/affluenza/diag/have.html

Take this test yourself and see to what degree you're infected with afluenza.

Reading 10. The Cult You're In
http://www.adbusters.org/magazine/22/cultyourein.html

Is consumerism really a cult? That's the question asked at Adbusters, an organization devoted to exposing the problems created by overconsumption. This article contrasts consumer cult members with "slackers," those that are " bunkered in spartan huts on the periphery, well away from the masses." Which are you?

Exercise 2. Do you know the facts about responsible consumption? http://www.newdream.org/cgi-bin/quiz/answer...

How much to you know about the consequences of your consumption patterns? Take this test and find out to what extent you are a "responsible consumer."

Reading 11. 'How much is enough?'
http://www.newdream.org/newsletter/kickoff.html

Granted that many people are caught up in the need to consume, to purchase more and more; the question is, how happy are they about it? This article from the Center for a New American Dream describes some surveys that seem to indicate that Americans really don't want to consume as much as they do. Yet they continue their consumption patterns. Is it possible to resist the call to "shop till you drop," or is the message to consume so pervasive that resistance is futile?