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Consumerism is usually understood to refer to the social movement that seeks to protect the consumer against excesses of business and promote the rights of consumers (Gabriel & Lang, 1995). People in this movement often fight for the rights of consumers who are affected by structural violence (landlord tenant issues, housing discrimination, abuse of elderly consumers, discrimination against women by financial institutions, and children as vulnerable consumers). Although much as been written on consumerism as a social movement that arose as a result of consumer problems caused by the way the market is structured, little has been written in the family and consumer sciences (FCS) field about consumerism as a source of structural violence.
For the sake of the argument presented in this working paper, consumerism is viewed as a facet of the ideology of contemporary capitalism. Escalating technological development (automation) plus exponential investment capital accumulation have, for a global minority, shifted the emphasis from skilful work to credit-worthy consumption. The work is now done by automated processes at home in the domestic market and elsewhere in the global free-market via the intensified exploitation of people and their environment. Capitalists need consumers to buy products. To ensure that this facet of capitalism exists, social structures and processes have evolved which support and stimulate acquisitiveness in a specific social culture called the "consumer society" (Jones, 1997).
A consumer society has the following characteristics (drawn from McGregor, 2001). Identities are built largely out of things because things have meaning. People measure their lives by money and ownership of things. People are convinced that to consume is the surest route to personal happiness, social status, and national success. Advertising, packaging, and marketing create illusory needs that are deemed real because the “economic” machine has made people feel inferior
For the sake of the argument presented in this working paper, consumerism is viewed as a facet of the ideology of contemporary capitalism. Escalating technological development (automation) plus exponential investment capital accumulation have, for a global minority, shifted the emphasis from skilful work to credit-worthy consumption. The work is now done by automated processes at home in the domestic market and elsewhere in the global free-market via the intensified exploitation of people and their environment. Capitalists need consumers to buy products. To ensure that this facet of capitalism exists, social structures and processes have evolved which support and stimulate acquisitiveness in a specific social culture called the "consumer society" (Jones, 1997).
A consumer society has the following characteristics (drawn from McGregor, 2001). Identities are built largely out of things because things have meaning. People measure their lives by money and ownership of things. People are convinced that to consume is the surest route to personal happiness, social status, and national success. Advertising, packaging, and marketing create illusory needs that are deemed real because the “economic” machine has made people feel inferior
Bibliography: Jones, K. (1977). Consumerism and the way out of consumerism. Accessed September 8, 2003 at http://www.bpf.org/html/resources_and_links/think_sangha/papers_and_viewpoints/papers/jo Durning, A. (1992). How much is enough? NY: W.W. Norton. Friedman, T. L. (1999). The lexus and the olive tree. NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Inc. Goodwin, N., Ackerman, F., & Kiron, D. (Eds.). (1997). The consumer society. Washington, DC: Island Press.