War On Consumerism

Media Needs to be Ethically Accountable

2010-11-03T16:18:00.000-07:00

Who owns the access to your brain? Amy Goodman of the Democracy Now says that the people need to hold the media accountable to report the true story of the money behind campaign media. Here's an Amy Goodman Roundtable on the way money mattered in the 2010 elections. With Laura Flanders, host of GritTV; Richard Kim, senior editor at The Nation magazine; John Nichols of The Nation magazine; and Vermont-based journalist and author David Goodman.

Amy has a new book.

Surrender Ends The War On Consumerism

2009-03-27T12:36:00.000-07:00

Due to the economic disaster that we are now confronting the war on consumerism is being declared over. Our wallets are empty. Whose a consumer now.

It is the War On Consumerism's "Mission Accomplished" moment.

Now comes the real struggle for our hearts and minds. The struggle is between us and the forces that want to appeal to us through an undeserved trust. In other words, advertisers know what we want and create messages that perfectly promise to fulfill those wants. The perfection includes getting our trust. Just like the trust we put in the investment community that over time our money will grow in stocks. Like the trust we put in mortgage companies. And the trust we put when we complete credit card applications. The trust that someone must have read it and we would know if it wasn't legal. Besides, why would they not want to have a fair arrangement.
The trust we have that cash machines will always work.

Saving is back in style

2008-11-19T14:48:00.001-08:00

A letter to the NY Times under the headline "Upside of the Downturn" shows that the difficult economic situation we are in is causing a new focus on saving and a general examination of the culture of consumerism.

Link to the actual letter which is copied below.

Having recently read “Goodbye Seduction, Hello Coupons” (Advertising column, Nov. 10), as well as considered the far-reaching social and cultural implications this economic crisis may have, I am beginning to become optimistic despite the struggles in front of us.

For the first time that I can remember, people will be forced to put their lives, their spending and their desires in perspective. The age of shallow commercialism, for the foreseeable future, is over. Our economy will have to restore its balance and focus on our necessities, not our desires.

Many articles in various news outlets have been discussing the far-reaching changes in consumer spending. My hope is that these changes will penetrate our psyches and forever change our perspective so that we may move forward and rebuild our economy and society based on real intrinsic value, not indulgent consumerism.

Joshua Shapiro
New York, Nov. 12, 2008

True Consumer Confidence

2008-11-19T14:27:00.000-08:00

A letter in today's NY Times says that true consumer confidence is to be able to walk out of a store without buying anything. Having the courage to not buy something is a way of fighting consumerism. Yes, it is necessary for the economy that people have the money to spend, that they believe they will continue to have money and that jobs exist and there are products, but it is foolish to believe that the only way to a healthy economy is if people shop needlessly. It is comparable to arguing that people should go to the hospital even when they aren't sick in order to keep the hospital open. Perhaps it is necessary to get work done on ones car to support the mechanic. For that matter, it might be the right thing to junk ones car every few years and buy another one to keep the automobile industry profitable.

Here is the letter to the editor. The link to the letter follows.
I just finished “Let’s Have Another Cup of Coffee,” by Michael Kinsley (Op-Ed, Nov. 14), and I must admit: this concept of “consumer confidence” is beginning to bother me.

It seems to imply that we can portray “confidence” only by purchasing things.

To me, however, true consumer confidence is the ability to know that your life will not break down without the object you’re wishing you could buy, and that maybe, just maybe, your life could even be better without it.

It is the ability to walk out of the store with nothing in hand and not feel as if you’ve failed in any way.

So let’s call things for what they really are, and give credit, and even the term “confidence,” to those who rightly deserve it. Jennifer Duenes

Oakland, Calif., Nov. 14, 2008

Link to the NY Times letter

The Home Front

2008-11-14T09:57:00.000-08:00

When pundits and columnists question the economics and marketing of shopping as an economic strategy, you know the war on consumerism has a new front (read the op-ed from today's NY Times by going here:)
It won't be easy to win this war and there will be casualties along the way. After all, there are many businesses and their employees who depend on dumb consumption to keep them going. But don't lose sight of the truth. You will shop and so will everyone else, but you don't need to buy what we don't need. There are other ways for the economic wheels to turn besides having consumers buy for the sake of buying.
Is consumption better than saving.
Are desires and wants the same as needs?