Anti-consumerism

Anti-consumerism is a sociopolitical ideology.[1] It has been described as "intentionally and meaningfully excluding or cutting goods from one's consumption routine or reusing once-acquired goods with the goal of avoiding consumption". The ideology is opposed to consumerism, being a social and economic order in which the aspirations of many individuals include the acquisition of goods and services beyond those necessary for survival or traditional displays of status.[2]

Anti-consumerism is concerned with the actions of individuals, as well as businesses where they act in pursuit of financial and economic goals at the expense of the perceived public good. Commonly, anti-consumerism is connected with concern for environmental protection, anti-globalization, and animal-rights. Post-consumerism, the prioritization of well-being over material prosperity, is a related ideology.[3]

Background

Anti-consumerism originated from criticism of consumption, arguably starting with Thorstein Veblen, who, in the book The Theory of the Leisure Class: An Economic Study of Institutions (1899), suggested that consumerism dates from the cradle of civilization. The term consumerism also denotes economic policies associated with Keynesian economics, and the belief that the free choice of consumers should dictate the economic structure of a society (cf. producerism). Modern political anti-consumerism developed in the 2000s.[4]

Anti-consumerism can be seen as an extension of postmodern society, supporting a "decentralized culture", rejecting a hegemonic cultural imperialism of globalisation and consumption, and responding to negative impacts of consumption on the environment.[5] Further, it has been observed that: "While almost all contemporary critics [of consumerism] and activists talk of the need for an environmentally sustainable mode of living, many also focus intently on how the consumerism driving overconsumption undermines our sense of well being and happiness; contributes to a culture of overwork, haste and instantaneous gratification; underscores a bland cultural homogenization of life; and fragments communities and social relationships."[6]

Development and expression

Significant works

An important contribution to the critique of consumerism has been made by French philosopher Bernard Stiegler, arguing modern capitalism is governed by consumption rather than production, and the advertising techniques used to create consumer behaviour amount to the destruction of psychic and collective individuation.[7] The diversion of libidinal energy toward the consumption of consumer products, he argues, results in an addictive cycle of consumption, leading to hyper-consumption, the exhaustion of desire, and the reign of symbolic misery.[8]

Examples of anti-consumerist works include the book No Logo (2000) by Naomi Klein, and documentary films such as The Corporation (2003), by Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott, and Surplus: Terrorized into Being Consumers (2003), by

Advertising

Anti-consumerists believe advertising plays a huge role in human life by informing values and assumptions of the cultural system, deeming what is acceptable, and determining social standards.[20] They declare that ads create a hyper-real world where commodities appear as the key to securing happiness. Anti-consumerists cite studies that find that individuals believe their quality of life improves in relation to social values that lie outside the capability of the marketplace. Therefore, advertising attempts to equate the social with the material by utilizing images and slogans to link commodities with the real sources of human happiness, such as meaningful relationships. Ads are then a detriment to society because they tell consumers that accumulating more and more possessions will bring them closer to self-actualization, or the concept of a complete and secure being. "The underlying message is that owning these products will enhance our image and ensure our popularity with others."[21] And while advertising promises that a product will make the consumer happy, advertising simultaneously depends upon the consumer never being truly happy, as then the consumer would no longer feel the need to consume needless products.

Anti-consumerists claim that in a consumerist society, advertisement images disempower and objectify the consumer.[22] By stressing individual power, choice and desire, advertising falsely implies the control lies with the consumer.

In economic theory

Austrian economics

As a classical defence pertinent in this context, Austrian economic advocates focus on the entrepreneur, promoting a productive lifestyle rather than a materialistic one wherein the individual is defined by things and not their self.[27] Certain economists have further rendered Keynesian notions of propagating increased consumption - in order to mitigate recessive impacts when the populace refuse to spend - as obsolete,[28] since numerous founding principles presume that minor adjustments are implemented via expansions and contractions, at least monetarily, are the reason behind business cycles,[29] given the distinct outcome from resulting interest rate changes on distinguished points within the structure of production, a theory Woods would endorse.[30]

Criticism

Critics of anti-consumerism have accused anti-consumerists of opposing modernity or utilitarianism, arguing that it can lead to elitism, primarily among libertarian viewpoints, who argue that every person should decide their level of consumption independent of outside influence.[37] Right-wing critics see anti-consumerism as rooted in socialism. Consumerism tends to be associated with capitalism, so modern socialists tend to be anti-consumerist, with anti-consumerism described as having become "left wing common sense".[38] In 1999, the libertarian magazine Reason attacked anti-consumerism, claiming Marxist academics were repackaging themselves as anti-consumerists. James B. Twitchell, a professor at the University of Florida and popular writer, referred to anti-consumerist arguments as "Marxism Lite".[39]

There have also been socialist critics of anti-consumerism who see it as a form of anti-modern "reactionary socialism", and state that anti-consumerism has also been adopted by ultra-conservatives and fascists.[40]

In popular media

In Fight Club, the protagonist finds himself participating in terroristic acts against corporate society and consumer culture. The film is regarded as one of the most widely recognizable pieces of anti-consumerist media.[46] The success of the book and the film comes despite the author Chuck Palahniuk publicly stating that the story is both anticonsumerist and anticommercialist.[47]

In the novel American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis, the protagonist Patrick Bateman criticizes the consumerist society of America in the 1980s of which he is a personification. Later on he goes on a killing spree without any consequences, suggesting that the people around him are so self-absorbed and focused on consuming that they either do not see or do not care about his acts.

In the Pixar movie, WALL-E, Earth is depicted in an apocalyptic state caused by the negative effects of human consumerism.[48]

In the 2024 working paper Anti-Consumerism: Stick or Carrot?

Sources

Bakan, Joel (2004) The Corporation.
Elizabeth Chin (2001) Purchasing Power: Black Kids and American Consumer Culture University of Minnesota Press ISBN 978-0-8166-3511-5
Hertz, N (2002) Silent Takeover: Global Capitalism and the Death of Democracy. Arrow.
Luedicke, Marius K, Craig J. Thompson and Markus Giesler. 2010. "Consumer Identity Work as Moral Protagonism: How Myth and Ideology Animate a Brand-Mediated Moral Conflict". Journal of Consumer Research. 36 (April).
Monbiot, G (2001) Captive State: The Corporate Takeover of Britain. Pan.
Schor, J. (2010), Penguin Press HC.
Zehner, O (2012) Green Illusions, University of Nebraska Press.

External links

Fifty Possible Ways to Challenge Over-Commercialism by Albert J. Fritsch, SJ, PhD
The Rebel Sell, This Magazine, By Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter
25 Years of Monitoring the Multinationals
The Story of Stuff by Annie Leonard
The Good Life: An International Perspective

References

Anticomsumerism movement www.britannica.com, retrieved 2024-10-03^
Peter Stearns. Consumerism in World History Routledge, 2001^
Postconsumers Postconsumers, 2018-06-13, retrieved 2018-10-18^

Neoclassical synthesis

Despite its revised instances of state interventionism, adherence to the consumer theory remained abundant via the supply and demand model of Keynesianism. Paul Samuelson stated that neoclassical synthesis should have been utilised towards the extent of fiscal and monetary interventions in order for economic stabilisation and maintaining full employment, albeit emphasising that the market economy cannot solely ensure full employment. The IS-LM-Philips unit of analysis model correlated the IS-LM model with the Phillips curve, which placed sums on quantities such as the marginal propensity to consume, invest, if not the volatility of money demand towards interest rates, in order for macroeconomic predictions to be forecast or the stimulations of economic policy consolidations. These are often in similar bearing with the main fundamentals of NNE, a revised edition of Neoclassical synthesis.

Developments within consumption theory of the movement were published in specialized journals.[34][35] Most of the expenditures area was addressed by consumer choice adaptations within the markets field against Keynesianism. Incentives and prices were represented in playing a prevalent role that determined decision making, directly pointing against individual demand, discerning how prices as regards to costs and income affect demand quantity

Labour markets are often focused upon two features, opportunity cost of leisure as well as wage rate; When wage rate increases, it hints that labourers are willing to work more and it concludes with them entering the labour force. Irrespective of the presumed incentivisation, the contrary is entirely possible, whereby workers work less and consume further leisure. Because of these interrelations, it is reasonable to determine that wage rates and labour supply both relate positively, albeit negative for opportunity of leisure. Nevertheless, the theory argues for gradual wage increase over time within a competitive labour market.[36] This is viewed by some as an early feature of new classical theory, since it has some relation to the real business-cycle theory in technological innovation, whereby implementing automation is often similar with becoming reliant over technology for economic output.