Capitalism Promotes Consumerism By Rick Wolf

Consumerism vs. Society

Society is being defeated by consumerism for the reason that individuals in our society have lowered their goals and standards. Everything this world consists of today is remarkably modernized to the extent that individuals are losing characteristics. Consumerism is interfering in personal lives and devaluing the important things. Capitalism causes consumerism; it is affecting society and its individuals by causing a lack of companionship and a lack of independence.

Capitalists are causing consumerism because they are promoting consumers to purchase more products and spend money that they do not possess. In the article "Capitalism Promotes Consumerism" by Rick Wolf, it states that "US consumerism—citizens driven

Marketers purposely make their product seem like it is something that will change the consumer's lifestyle, such as their appearance, their status, or their happiness. They establish the importance in the emotional value the product may or may not deliver than in the product's actual value by making claims that the product will make you happier, more popular, or more attractive. For example, Starbucks mission statement is ¨To inspire and nurture the human spirit–one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time¨. They are more focused on how the individual themselves would feel after the cup of coffee, rather than the actual coffee. Is the coffee really going to inspire and nurture one's spirit? No, but that is the way capitalists real consumers in. Rick Wolf mentions, "The idea settled into US culture that consumption was the proper goal of work and the measure of personal worth, of one's "success" in life"(Wolf 2). Capitalists have implanted the idea that to be successful one must own the latest technology, clothes, and sneakers. The internet today has helped marketers´ sales rise because everyone is on the internet daily;

Everything humans do today involves electronic items such as phones. Phones are being used as a source of communication that now people cannot thoroughly communicate face-to-face anymore. Sometimes people will text each other while residing in the same home or even the same room. These machines are taking over our minds, social lives, and even jobs. According to George Ritzer, "McDonald's does not yet have robots to serve us food, but it does have teenagers whose ability to act autonomously is almost completely eliminated by techniques, procedures, routines, and machines" (Ritzer 105). Teenagers employed by fast food restaurants have routine conversations with customers; they do not have to know mental math due to the cash registers, they are basically forced into acting and thinking like robots, making their work routine predictable, and not thinking independently. Society feels predictability is efficient in today's world in order for things to run smoothly and customers can quickly receive what they are trying to obtain. In the article "The McDonaldization of Society" it says, "The various skills needed to perform a task were carefully delineated and broken down into series of routine steps that could be taught to all workers" (Ritzer 105). Each worker is assigned a position in the line instead of them independently choosing their own position and being able to