Tom Szaky, Guest Writer
Let's start with a simple fact: Humans are proven to prefer consumerism.
Any economist will agree that consumerism is essential for the culture of capitalism to survive. Not only must consumers buy, they must buy more every year, and still more the year after that. Without perpetual and growing consumption, many economies 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.
So are we all in the service of consumerism? I would argue yes.
If you look at it most jobs in the world are in the service and facilitation of consumerism. Everything from the common factory worker in China to the sales associate at your Macy’s to most lawyers, accountants, real estate agents etc. Without consumption we probably couldn’t support the 7 billion people that live on our planet.
But we don’t have to be indentured servants to consumerism. We are servicing consumerism voluntarily. No one is making us buy anything. We are choosing to do so – be it for ease or comfort or simple malaise.
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- submitted by Gareth
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