Consumerism - Is it good or bad for society?

I had to write an essay on this for school, and I thought it'd be a fun topic. <3 and it'll be nice for those of us who don't want to talk about Obama 24/7.

I'll post more when I have more time, but what's your opinion?
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Do you mean things like consumer sovereignty? Where the consumers have power over the shops by where they shop and what they buy?

It is good, it encourages competition and forces businesses to adapt to changing consumer attitudes.

 

Interesting I did something like this also,
I think it is good for society.It gives businesses more competition so the consumers are free to buy as the choose.Capitalism.
We don't have monopolies anymore so that people will be able yo choice products they want to buy.
But on the other hand...
Materialism make up the world.
People just can't stop buying and buying.
They end up hundreds and thousands of dollars in credit card debt.
Then they have to sell cars and houses to make up for the fact of their overconsumption.
People have to downsize in living conditions and such."/​

 

I'm going to assume you mean consumerism in the context of purchasing, abiding by and living in the monetary system (which is how it was taught to me in my consumerism class, actually).

I think consumerism is a very dangerous idea, because it forces people to 1) conform to labor in order to pool money and 2) use money to buy food. Indefinitely, you cannot live or be a consumer without money, so in actuality, you're technically a slave to labor directly by being a consumer, and if you can't get food, it is because you don't have money, and thus you will starve and likely lose your home, coupled with other reactions as well.

I think consumerism would be healthier if we didn't need it to revolve around money, as well. Credit cards define this cleanly, as they are tools to indebt people and make living conditions more difficult because the government will pester you for "not paying your loans back."

And thus you have poor pockets who become homeless/houseless, and need to steal in order to survive. Consumerism is more than just "buying" or "being in" the system. It's everything around these idea's as well.

Do I find consumerism good or bad? I find it atrocious. Sadly it is the only way to survive as a person. It does, however, allow business to work, which is totally contrary to human concern, of course.

 

I find that consumerism is a double-edged sword. It is beneficial to people so that they can get items they need, pay for them and the items are theirs. It is bad in that we become slaves to labor to be able to purchase these things we want if we are not careful. Also, I seriously do not like how much credit is used and how people can become slaves to that too, encouraging more work out of the person to try to pay off debt and lose something they've invested money in since if they don't pay for it all, it's not really theirs after all, even though they used the product.

I think responsible consumerism is the answer and more people ought to be taught that credit should only be used when it is necessary, and they be reminded that the item, no matter how much they put into it, until it is paid off, it is not truly theirs. Someone else owns it and can take it away so it is important that if credit is a necessity, the item is paid off for as soon as possible. Also, I think more people need taught the rules of consumerism so they are not screwed over so easily and taken advantage of by corporations offering 'easy outs' that are never so easy after all.

It is basically our responsibility as individuals to learn the system whether it is taught to us or not. We have to know what we are getting into and always read between the lines and see the small print. Also, know where imports and such come from, do things that are reasonable with purchases and if you have a job, work well to keep it going as long as you can stand for what the work does. Don't get jobs that you know are questionable in integrity such as telemarketing and sales of items that you would yourself have no will to buy. These kinds of things can help us in the end to feel good about ourselves and also reduce our debts. Consumerism is all about commonsense on the level of the consumers. We can control businesses better if we all don't let them trick us with hokey deals and let them mess up our lives with a ton of credit over our heads. We also have to be smart and save money early on to stay out of debt as much as possible. Parents saving up for kids' college early, kids saving up for cars early etc can help in this. If we aren't careful though, consumerism is very harmful, so this is why I say it is a double-edged sword. We can either make out well with it or we can be seriously wounded.