Consumerism and greed
A common theme was that values and aspirations rooted in communities and relationships have been eclipsed by an excessive desire for consumer goods.
Greed emerged as a key issue, seemingly a symptom of society valuing things in terms of money or material worth. People argued that the concept of need or of having enough has been forgotten and that we are losing sight of the things that are really important in life - things that can’t be bought and sold, such as friendship and kindness.
Everything seems to be based around money and owning things. The more you have, the more successful you are. There’s nothing wrong with having enough, but there’s pressure on people to go for more and more.
These issues of consumerism and greed did not emerge as strongly in the discussions among the unheard groups, but there was a shared concern about the impact of celebrity culture on society and particularly on young people.
Some comments from the consultation
“The materialistic celebrity and ’success’ culture. The worship of celebrity, fashion and success is the cause of bullying and causes a competitive society to appear and intensify, which sets us all against one another in the race for status and possessions.”
“We are in danger of losing sight of what is important in life, like kindness, playfulness, generosity and friendship. The immaterial things that can’t be bought and sold.”
“Obsessive consumerism [is] fuelled by advertising media and banks which lend money to people who cannot afford it to buy things they do not really need.”
on April 20th, 2008 at 7:42 am
Consumerism is fuelled by our economic system: capitalism. The system is driven by demand and supply. People who want to make money must think of goods or services they can supply to you so that you will spend money to buy them which they can then pocket. Since you may not need their goods/services (or may be happy with what someone else already supplies) they have to manipulate your thinking so that you want it all the same. It is the consumer who endorses this system, not the banks and producers who pocket your cash. This wheel needs to keep turning, otherwise it goes belly-up. So everyone chivvies this system along: advertising, TV, the music or fashion industry, etc. etc., and the humble consumer. Possible solutions? None, because no-one can know what sort of lies, misinformation or manipulation people fall victim to. Education and enlightenment might help but who wants to think these days, unless they have to?
Abusive? Inappropriate? Report this comment.on April 20th, 2008 at 9:10 am
I think that education is a crucial tool against excessive consumerism. If people could understand how they are manipulated and exploited by the media and advertising then they would actually have a choice about whether or not they wish to participate in this sick “culture”.
I also think that newspapers/the media should carry far more positive stories about the good things which people do for selfless reasons. Young people need positive role models and not a constant stream of stories “celebrating” greed, selfishness and crime.
Our children are our future and yet we continue to give them such a bad press so that bad behaviour seems to be rewarded and those who do behave well rarely get praised.
With so many fragmented families, I also think it is vital to teach our children good parenting skills and financial management. What kind of sick society is it which punishes kids for wanting a good education and forces them into debt before they even enter the world of work?
Abusive? Inappropriate? Report this comment.on April 20th, 2008 at 11:02 am
the three most significant evils in contempory western society; Marketing,Careerism,Zionism
Abusive? Inappropriate? Report this comment.on April 20th, 2008 at 2:11 pm
Greed, drunkeness and sexual vice and the deliberate portrayal of these in the media, characterise our very sick society
Abusive? Inappropriate? Report this comment.on April 20th, 2008 at 5:48 pm
the sad indoctrination of all the above mentioned attributes, appears irreversible. most young people will never have experienced a time when some sense of loyalty and communty existed. they have now inherited a kill or be killed attitude.
Abusive? Inappropriate? Report this comment.theres a lack of pioneers who will be able to make a change or difference. self promotion is the order of the day. with the internet, the medium for self exploitation is immense and out of control. myspace and facebook being the largets perpetrators of this behaviour. peopl just seem to take for themselves and think its weird if someone is a giving perosn. that is s ad sorry state of affairs
on April 21st, 2008 at 3:49 pm
We could do something about it, if we were willing to urge governments to apply a basic principle in taxation: those who earn most pay the highest taxes. We might also express, loudly and continually, our distaste for the obscene rewards which many in the financial sector receive (even when they fail).
Abusive? Inappropriate? Report this comment.As individuals we could ask ourselves, before shopping, whether we actually need the things we are shopping for.
on April 21st, 2008 at 3:58 pm
Your survey results are most interesting. Check out this story about TV presenter Phil Spencer - AKA Sub-Prime Monster -for further afirmation: http://bentsocietyblog.blogspot.com/2008/04/lies-and-love-of-smart-dealing-part-6.html
Abusive? Inappropriate? Report this comment.on April 21st, 2008 at 4:42 pm
We do not want to make the mistake of saying nothing can be done regards consumerism or we make ourselves socially and psychologically impotent. We need to inject humanity into the processes that do exist and encourage an appreciation of the value in mutually fulfilling, not competitive, human relationships. an example of the first came to me when I moved to Scotland and rented. My experience of renting in the South was one of excessive payments just to begin a tenancy, invasive 3 monthly visits from estate agents preceded by threatening letters that if I wasn’t in when the visit was to take place (always in the day between 9-5!)I would be charged £25. In Scotland there was no fee charged, no invasive checks and my tenancy began with a bag of (free) goodies, chutneys, biscuits, jams etc - while a minor and maybe silly example this shows that an element of humanity and even kindness can be part of an economic transaction. On the second point, we need to educate and encourage ourselves and our children that the world is not a playground for individualistic pursuits but a shared privilege and there is greater richness, in terms of emotional satisfaction to be had in our human relationships than our ipods. It is rather difficult to inculcate this within a society that promotes competition from nursery school (or before – who breastfed? Who smoked etc?) onwards. It is endemic in the education system and the social relations between and within genders. Solutions are to promote a different way of being – literally a different culture. That is in itself possible if the will is there (look at the cultural changes toward people with disabilities, gay and lesbians, rights for children and smoking) but a profit cannot be made from people who are satisfied, and therein lays the problem. Oh dear I have talked myself into the cul-de-sac of cynicism…
Abusive? Inappropriate? Report this comment.on April 21st, 2008 at 5:37 pm
What would happen if the highest paid person in every company was not allowed by law to be paid more than, say, ten times more than the lowest paid?
Abusive? Inappropriate? Report this comment.on April 23rd, 2008 at 8:00 pm
I think the media should take a massive share of the overall responsibility for a lot of the social evils that have been identified through this consultation. They’re only interested in selling papers / getting their audience ratings up etc and will say whatever that pull people in, even if that creates a completely false sense of ‘reality’ and then, it sadly often becomes self-fulfilling.
On another point:
Abusive? Inappropriate? Report this comment.Having only read the summary of findings and not yet looked at the full report from the consultation, I think more should be made of the fact that respondents were self-selected, not representative of the public at large. Do you have the respondents’ profile (e.g. socio-economic, gender, age, geographical spread)? It’d be good to know who responded and how views varied across different sub-groups.
on April 30th, 2008 at 7:36 pm
Gread is the basis of all evils. The desire for excessive wealth leads to financial, physical and sexual exploitation. The desire for an unequal share leads to poverty and econimonic slavery for others. One mans life of ease and idolence is anothers life of toil I make no apoligy if this seams over simplified its how I see it. The financial instituions market themselves on the honest carefull management of funds and savings yet large amounts are “lost”. Consumerism is encouraged in the never ending drive for profit. loans are easy wages are kept low and prices are allowed to rise many do not apreciate that if you buy on credit the price rises. legislation encourage alchohol drug abuse and gambling and the cycle continuse,all in the pursuit of wealth power and control.
Abusive? Inappropriate? Report this comment.on May 6th, 2008 at 10:42 am
JOSEPH ROWNTREE – ERIC BERNE
Joseph Rowntree called upon us all to seek out the fundamental causes of weakness and evil in society.
Eric Berne gave us a succinct view of self-and-others; the tool required to achieve the above aim.
I would assert that (whether evil comes from social incompetence or – if such is your view - from letting the Devil in) its root cause IS weakness; the weakness of the individual.
In Berne’s terms, weakness amounts to an under-developed Adult ego state* in the psyche; a condition I see as pertaining all over the planet. The two terrible truths of society, are: (1) individual weakness is increasing, and (2) the overcompensating-weak, rise to positions of power. Consequently, any corrective effort must reach out directly to the very young as the Powers That Be are, instinctively, fearful of general empowerment.
I have synthesised an approach. It can be found www.barriesingleton.co.uk as outlined in 1995 to Rowntree. Click on “Visionary Stuff”.
Only wisdom empowers; cleverness is inclined to enslave. Development of a strong Adult ego state engenders wisdom and is vital to individual, family, group, state and world stability. Adult strength is the ultimate answer to every weakness and evil.
* Transactional Analysis http://changingminds.org/explanations/behaviors/ta.htm
Abusive? Inappropriate? Report this comment.on May 6th, 2008 at 11:23 am
One suggested solution that might help a bit is tight legislation to control and minimise advertising. Why should we be bombarded with product advertising wherever we go? What if only products and activities that met strict criteria on sustainability could be advertised. I’d love to see the money and creativity that goes in to car advertising directed into advertising wildflower meadow seeds, or play parks, or tree planting schemes. Cut product/activity advertising right back, and only if they enhance our environment and happiness.
Abusive? Inappropriate? Report this comment.on May 6th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
Yes - in the Thatcher years ( not that long ago ) success was very much measured by spending capability and earning capacity. I also recall John Major stressing that the party would listen to the public when it became a mess. History appears to be repeating itself once again , though the personalities are different. The problem is that the success of office in government equates to a substantial income, benefits and expenses - still to be upgraded. Those in power are fearful of relinquishing their gains - be they ill-gotten or otherwise. What about a parliamentary party directed by independent thinking people without hauling their party loiad behind them - would that lead to blue skies I wonder.
Abusive? Inappropriate? Report this comment.on May 7th, 2008 at 10:15 am
Hoew could I offer a solution when better brains than mine (allegedly) cannot offer one. It seems to me that since 1997 it has been a cynical “bread and circuses” approach on the part of the Labour Party to keep the voters happy and deaden discussion or dissent.
Abusive? Inappropriate? Report this comment.on May 11th, 2008 at 1:19 pm
There can’t be any dispute that consumerism and greed are absolutely endemic in the UK. We might all disagree where it originated from; personally I think it was from the Tory policy of monetarism which began with Thatcher; their reasons for doing so are complex but there can be little doubt the Tories took the brakes off easy credit and saw consumer spending as a way of boosting the economy.
There can’t be any doubt that this consumer binge that has gone on almost unchecked for nearly 30 years has been a total disaster. Solutions for controlling consumerism and greed are simple yet I would argue would be politically difficult to implement. Our culture of entitlement has made putting the brakes on spending with impunity nearly impossible. Whatever talk there is of a “credit crunch” Britain is still flush with easy money; we have to control the amount of credit people are using to fund lifestyles which are completely beyond their means. People want so many consumer goods *right now* and they are very willing to resort to debt to fund it. Compared to their incomes, most Britain’s can’t really afford huge LCD TVs, iPods, fancy mobile phones exotic holidays and the like. To make it possible they keep adding to their ever growing debt-mountain to pay for it all.
As we keep pressing our foot on credit accelerator people keep getting stuck in a negative feedback loop. The more they spend, the more goods they obtain and the more quickly they become dissatisfied with them. They become dissatisfied so quickly because of two primary reasons; the don’t feel the pain of having to save the money to purchase the goods and the producers of such goods make them rapidly obsolete to keep people buying them - they create trivial improvements that whilst not substantially improving the product they know consumers will start to become quickly dissatisfied and want to replace them.
So, the first plank of my argument to start to strangle unchecked consumerism and greed is to start making credit more difficult to obtain; slow the down the slew of credit cards available, stop the insane 120% mortgages and debt consolidation companies which are little better than loan sharks that allow people to load up with unimaginable debt they will *never* repay. Lifetime debt is already with us.
A second issue to tackle is the way our culture has become over commodified. We have allowed our environment to become almost entirely colonised by greedy companies and profiteers from rip-off phone-in quizzes on TV, to relentless advertising and branding to the takeover of public spaces like renaming stadiums after junk-food and beer companies. This has saturised our culture with wall-to-wall profiteers and has taken over our lives and has been profoundly anti-democratic; we have no sense of control of anything as they’ve all been handed over to private firms. Giving control of country to the hands of the greedy has been a cultural, political and economic time-bomb.
My third and final suggestion is to tackle the poison of private property; everything from the water in our tap to the genes in our own bodies are being copyrighted, owned, taken from us - our great commonwealth is effectively being stolen from under us. The crusade for private property has become the greatest example of criminality of our age; we are being enslaved by a giant protection racket and this extortion racket is utterly pervasive; like a virus it’s spread to the extent you have to pay to do almost anything even though you’ve probably already paid already - this endless double-dipping for our basic needs has to and absolutely must stop.
Unless there is some kind of democratic revolution any of this is highly unlikely to occur - regardless of which is the major three parties you vote for, none of them are at all interested in tacking the status quo.
Abusive? Inappropriate? Report this comment.on May 23rd, 2008 at 10:05 am
The biggest social evil currently facing the UK is the excessive cost of housing. The greed of some seeking to prosper by buying up homes and forcing others to rent when they would once have had the opportunity to buy has led to immense deterioration in the housing stock, a housing bubble which is currently bursting and vast numbers of landlords who are not morally fit for the job. Homes are for living in not for hoarding. We now have a generation and a half who are priced out and the knock-on effect is mass emigration for those who can get out and a total demoralisation among those who are stuck in the UK. It impacts creativity, aspiration, the creation of stable homes in which to nurture a family and why? All for the right of the few to pursue their ‘right’ to a ‘pension’! Sitting back and watching this happen over the last decade has been the most destructive thing that has happened to this country in the post war years. Ban second-home ownership, professionalise landlords so that they have to provide a service rather than suck funds from the priced out and allow house prices to do what they must do - FALL!
Abusive? Inappropriate? Report this comment.on May 25th, 2008 at 10:47 am
My greatest fear is the corruption and greed from the highest to the lowest level. There is no honest lead from central government, or for that matter the church! In this greedy selfish world the laws of God are forgotten!. Politicians by their attitudes and determination to try and ensure that their expenses were kept hidden from the public. Thankfully, this was not allowed to happen and we are now well aware of the way they have used our money to further their own ends! When they come away with phrases like the views of the public are important to us and their concerns are our concerns, you no longer believe them and take everything they say with a massive shovel full of salt!. There is an answer to all of the Social Evils but this requires a miracle: Society has to change and I don’t just mean politicians church leaders and big industry and commerce, and of course the media. The people have to be prepared to stand up and put pressure on all of the above mentioned, it is the only way our country is going to recover. At the moment people are held down, the central government don’t want to give the people any more power than they have to. They feel that they would lose control and control is power, so they will continue to pay lip service to peoples concerns but because they are getting good sums of money from the oil, gas, electricity, banks etc; they will not rock the boat! When the Labour leadership at No 10 changed we were promised a new listening government unfortunately, they did not say it would be an acting one!. If they had really been listening they would by now have addressed most of the public concerns, more legislation is not the answer if it cannot be properly policed. Politicians also have to stop sniping at each other. The more this goes on the further down the drain our country will go. Country in my book is far more important than party politics where if MPs have concerns about something they are afraid to go against the policy of their party, because the whips will bring pressure to bear to ensure that they toe the party line. This in my view is not democracy. We show horror at the way Zimbawe and other countries like Burma and China and Iran treat their own people, but we fail to realise that in many ways we are being treated in similar fashion. We are such hypocrites! over taxed pressured and conned and living in a state of fear. Unless we wake up the situation we are in now will be completely out of control within another year. We can all change things for the better if we are at last willing to make a stand. It is our country our decision!
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