Globalization Vs Consumerism

Many people do not understand what overselling capitalism with consumerism means. Based on the essay by Benjamin Barber, I have learned that people mistake the difference between what they want and what they actually need. In the essay he makes a contrast between capitalism and consumerism by giving examples throughout the essay. He also outlines the values of capitalism and how it has a positive impact on society and the impact of consumerism on people.

Good afternoon/morning ladies and gentlemen. Consumerism is defined by the English oxford dictionary as continual expansion of one's wants and needs for goods and services. Bruce Dawes’ poems “Televistas” and “Enter Without So Much As Knocking” critique the powerful and persuasive influence that companies have on our society.

As a nation we all participate in daily consumption of food, clothing, shelter and some sort of transportation. to survive. We are destroying our environment with waist. On average Americans disposed over 200,000 tons of edible food daily. Pollute our air and water, destroy our forest, just so we can drive the newest car or have the latest crafted oak furniture We use top soil to build malls, so people can consume even more. In "The shadows of Consumption, Peter Dauvergne explain the coast of consumption by globalized corporations, trade, and finance." (Dauvergne, Peter. The Shadows of Consumption: Consequences for the Global Environment. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2008. ).

Author Juliet Schor in her essay also writes that consumerism has not really helped us. I agree with everything she mentions. There might be some out there that may argue that we wouldn’t be living such a great, luxurious life had there been no consumerism. She gives us some statistics from the national poll to show how consumerism does not bring any happiness for us. She goes on to say “the number of people that reported being very happy was at its highest rate in 1957, thereafter in upcoming years when consumerism was at its highest rate, people reported not being very happy.”(Juliett Schor) I do agree that now we

‘Capitalism’ can be loosely defined as ‘An economic and political system in which countries trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit.’ Being the driving

Consumerism often causes people to identify with a product or brand on a personal level. Certain products have come to represent different levels of society, with swankier products like muscle cars indicating high class and such products as generic “store brand” shampoo indicating low class. People feel that they have relationships with their favorite brands and products and define themselves by what they buy and own. The mass production of cheap products uses precious fossil fuels at an alarming rate. This has an obvious negative impact on the environment.

The definition of capitalism is changed in today’s world, because of flare ups of emotions changing the definition to whatever the emotion is that day (forbes.com). According to marketwatch.com capitalism has been degraded, distorted, and manipulated by several different banks and Wall Street. Wall Street and big banks connected to capitalism has become a breeding ground for leaders of all kinds with no morals. With no morals and values being put into businesses and corporations, these corporations have become better at lying than individuals. For example some of the big tobacco companies have been publishing statements announcing that tobacco has no known evidence that links tobacco with health issues (forbes.com). Without trust to the United States government, and other big corporations capitalism is going to die out, and cause an economic failure similar to the one in the movie Atlas

Today’s society is based a lot on consumption and consumerism. At this point in history, we wouldn’t have much of an economy without it. At the same time, that’s a big problem for many reasons. We destroy the environment in order to feed our need for stuff and things. In order to make the things, in order to use it, in order to throw it away, we destroy, we pollute, we kill. Not only plants and animals, but the humans who have to make the stuff for small wages and in dangerous, hazardous conditions. And we consume in large amounts and throw away in even larger amounts. So clearly, there’s a problem.

Over the last few decades, the demand for products has skyrocketed. As people become wealthier, their desire for a better lifestyle increases. The more a society advances, the more its individuals require. Recent factors such as television and advertising have further influenced people to make unnecessary, competitive, and conspicuous purchases. As a result, the new norm of excessive consumerism has been created. This harmful act of cranking out new products is taking a massive toll on the environment as our natural resources begin to dwindle and the excess waste from this mass production begins to litter the Earth and inflict harm on ecosystems. Mass consumerism is harmful to the natural environment as it produces excess waste, contributes directly to climate change, and takes a large toll on natural resources.

This was an interesting week viewing Capitalism and Commercialism along with Thomas Garrett’s “Principle of Proportionality”. It became quite overwhelming with Garrett’s “Principle of Proportionality” when trying to decide what constitutes as a major evil vs a minor evil, considering they are both evil and trying to use the words “necessary” and “useful” can be complexing to who views a necessity and something that is useful. Now Capitalism was something I loved reading about, considering how far back it went in history. I laughed at the economist Karl Marx when he argued: “capitalism leads to oligopolies-a concentration of property and resources, and thus economic power, in the hands of a few.”

This is also seen in the Cuyahoga River fire, deforestation, biodiversity loss due to a rise in greenhouse gasses and global warming, all of which directly link to human consumerism.

The [capitalists] has through its exploitation of the world market given a cosmopolitan character to production and consumption in every country.”

Through basic economics it is understood that supply and demand drive the economy. Demand decides what is produced and without consumerism there could be no supply. The economy is on a fine balance between production and consumption without one aspect, the economy could not prosper. The current popular belief stating that consumerism is affecting the economy negatively couldn’t be more incorrect. According to Ryan Bourne from the institute of economic affairs the average worker 3 centuries ago made close to $2 a day in today’s money. Life was not easy and life expectancy was low. “Most of the world was equivalent to the poorest parts of Bangladesh today” (Bourne). By spending money and consuming products

Consumerism is damaging to our society, in our North American society consumerism is often portrayed to be a negative aspect of people’s lives. However, one can also argue positive effects that result from consumerism, or emphasize on the negative effects of consumerism and how it can be a constraining force in one’s own life. Consumerism is an idea of an economic policy that the market is shaped by the choice of the consumer and continues to emerge to shape the world’s mass markets. Some of the negative effects of consumerism that many critics may argue and that will be further emphasized on are the overexploitation of consumerism which has lead to economic poverty, and increase

Globalization is taking place across the world where people can either become globalization or stay local in the state or country. People are very controversial about globalization helping local economies and local businesses. Some people believe globalization is helping local businesses into the markets and then there are some that believe that multinational corporations hurting the local small businesses. What is globalization? “the development of an increasingly integrated global economy marked especially by free trade, free flow of capital, and the tapping of cheaper foreign labor markets” (). Globalization has started long before we were born.