Consumerism refers to a movement promoting consumer entitlement and safety, as well as a way of life where material possessions are highly valued. It emerged with mass production and a growing separation between producers and consumers during the Industrial Revolution. Consumerism is criticized for widening socioeconomic gaps and emphasizing class differences.
The term “consumerism” is used in several ways. In economics, it usually refers to a movement promoting consumer entitlement and safety that arose in the early 1900s as people became increasingly concerned with consumer safety and production methods. In philosophy, consumerism refers to a way of life in which people place a high value on material possessions and in which people tend to consume more than they need. Critics of this lifestyle espouse anti-consumerism or productivism.
The practice of consuming beyond basic needs is ancient; just look at the sumptuous tombs of the Egyptian pharaohs for example. However, consumerism in the modern sense materialized with the advent of mass production and a growing separation between producers and consumers. Historically, people produced many of their own goods, or lived and worked in close proximity to their producers, and production was mostly limited to basic needs, except in the case of goods intended for the upper classes.
With the Industrial Revolution came several radical changes in consumption patterns. The first was an increase in consumption among all socioeconomic classes, led by producers who were making a glut of goods and needed to create a market for it. The second was a radical rift between producers and consumers, as goods could be shipped anywhere in the world and people rarely met or interacted with the people who produced their goods. The industrial revolution also made it possible to move from a production-oriented society to a consumption-oriented society, because fewer producers could produce more goods.
In the sense of consumer protection, the noises of consumerism arose in response to problems such as contaminated food, defective mechanical products and other problems. Consumer advocates began arguing that safety standards should be in place and that companies should be held accountable for their defective products, to protect consumers. Consumerism in this sense also expands to controversies over advertising misrepresentations, disclosure pressures, and a variety of other topics.
In the sense of a lifestyle in which the consumption of consumer goods is a priority, consumerism has been a subject of criticism for centuries, and the criticism only gets more severe over time. Consumerism is closely related to materialism and both tendencies tend to emerge in capitalist systems, where consumerism can be encouraged for a variety of reasons. Consumerism tends to emphasize class differences and widen socioeconomic gaps, as people use consumer goods as evidence of class status. Globally, resource consumption occurs disproportionately among the rich, with the world’s poor consuming a fraction of the world’s resources. Status symbols such as big houses, fancy cars and designer clothes are sometimes seen and attacked as symbols of consumerist lifestyles.
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