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Consumerism In America

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Does purchasing and accumulating more items make us happier? Are you an avid shopper? The chances are yes, you are an avid shopper. “Assuming a woman lives an apparently average 63-year long life, she will spend 25,184 hours and 53 minutes buying things. On a yearly basis, this adds up to just shy of 400 hours — 399 hours, 46 minutes, to be exact” (Pfetten 1). In the article Verena Von Pfetten writes about exactly how shopping has taken up a huge majority of women’s lives. That shouldn 't be hard to believe; women and men alike constantly buy various things in they believe improve or add to their lifestyle. This has happened throughout all of history, even in ancient Greece men and women would travel to the central shopping area, called the “agora” to purchase goods from merchants. I do believe money can buy happiness but not through acquiring multiple items;. if you spend wisely, it definitely can help buy happiness. America is a materialistic society and our society encourages and thrives on consumerism. "American society revolves around consumption to such an extent that more than two-thirds of the economy involves the buying and selling of consumer goods" (Masci 1). …show more content…

It is a well-known fact that women tend to be more interested in spending hours at the mall whereas most men would rather not. That being said, men are still the ones primarily leading the online shopping craze. In the article ―Online Shopping Gender Gap that was in the Wall Street Journal: "―But men also spend money online…sales rose 4.4 percent to $57.2 billion last year, compared with a 1.1 percent increase to $103.1 billion for women’s apparel…" (Wall Street Journal 1). Because of the convenience of online shopping, paired with the fact that men no longer have to spend so much time in a store, they are spending more money than ever; this has definitely increased revenue relating to consumer

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Nevertheless, the interviewees frown upon being labelled as someone that values luxury over reasonable spending. Hence, they expressed their emphasis on the importance of needs over wants, and that practicality should triumph over extravagance. They see “limited” consumption as a form of self discipline, where excessive spending was only justifiable when it is spent on the family and invested in the children. If

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Benjamin Barber essay “Overselling Capitalism with Consumerism”, depicts the contrast between capitalism with consumerism. Barber describes the change from capitalism to consumerism by outlining how capitalism should be versus how its now effects on society and the impact of consumerism on people. One of the issues with capitalism is that there are such numerous items being mass-created which we don't genuinely require, but the buyer is being continuously conditioned by advertisers to believe we are flawed without them. Barber states that “Capitalism is stymied, courting long-term disaster” (23). Which can be explained by the American youth of today cannot go a day deprived of technology, while in over parts of the world are struggling to live

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1 - Consumerism developed in America during the early twentieth century in large part due to the boom in industry created by Europe 's inability to create goods after World War I. Combined this with American inventions such as Henry Ford’s assembly line and Americans had money to spend (Schultz, 2013). With the advent of an electrical distribution system, Americans had electricity in their homes for the first time, which led to the desire for all types of electrical appliances to make life easier. All these new products meant that companies had to get the word out about their products which ignited the advertising industry, which led to even more consumerism. Mix into this recipe, the growing credit industry, and you had consumerism like

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Tatyana Yurova US Hist 2 Honors Mr. Alvarez What Caused the Great Depression? The Great Depression, was a time of suppression. Beginning in 1929 and spreading all throughout the 1930’s, America experienced the largest economic roller coaster that the whole world has ever seen. Soon enough, this economic roller coaster became known as The Great Depression. During the active years of the Great Depression, unemployment rates were at an all-time high; therefore, leaving millions of people with a scarce supply of daily necessities such as food, money, and shelter.

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As World War II came to an end, the United States entered the 50s. This decade became a major influential time that brought many cultural and societal changes. Categories such as the economy, where a boom in new products increased, the technology world which incorporated new medicines and computers, entertainment when the television became popular and the overall lifestyles that Americans adapted to. All of these topics reshaped and created several advancements throughout society during the 1950s.

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America is more today than ever before a consumerist society, which saw its start in the 1920s. Present day Americans just like in the 1920s do rely on the production of goods to keep up with their demands and are spending their money on more than just their household necessities. Another thing that has stayed the same from the 1920s to present day is Americans constant need to be entertained. Because of the boom of the 20s more and more people had more money to spend an that spurred the start of people having more freetime and using their money for entertainment. American society especially right now is obsessed with immediate satisfaction which all saw its start in the 1920’s as an entertainment based culture as well.

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Consumption In Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World”, the concepts of consumerism and utopia are continuously compared and discussed in tandem with one another to decide if any correlation between them is present. Although people may argue that the humans belonging to the World State are happy, their lack of simple human pleasures such as love, religion, intellect, free will, etc, denies the people of actual joy. Since the government is what controls these pleasures by glorifying consumption, the World State’s culture and consumerism must interrelate. The government's control of common human experiences and characteristics such as love, pain, religion, and free will result in the total dependence on the state.

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A consumerism makes the community and economy stable which is the goal of the society. In Brave New World, the motto of the government is “community, identity, and stability” (6). Claim: A consumer economy makes the society of Brave New World which is when the most important in the economy is buying and selling of goods and services overall. Establish Evidence: In the Western civilization, Huxley would realize that consumers still make up most of the economy.

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In his Ted-Talk “How to buy happiness”, Michael Norton (2011) states that happiness can be bought with money by giving it to other people. I fully agree with Norton. I received my first paycheck around Christmas last year and the first thing I bought with that money was a present for my mother. Christmas is a great example: giving and receiving gifts bonds everyone together, because it shows that we care about each other. Even helping someone you barely know is really satisfying, you did a good deed, it is good for your self-esteem.

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Commentary Essay on Shopping and Other Spiritual Adventures in America Today The American people are focusing more on materialistic items, people are shopping for pleasure more than necessity. This article comments on how people are shopping to release stress or to gain pleasure. Even though the article was written in 1984, it is still pertinent to modern time. In Shopping and Other Spiritual Adventures in America Today by Phyllis Rose, varied sentence length, different point of views, and anaphora are utilized to prove that society is becoming consumed in materialism.

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In modern Western civilization, based on Aldous Huxley’s personal views, he implied warnings about the future of modern society throughout Brave New World. Huxley implied the dangers of technology, a big government, degrading humanity and its implication; therefore, modern citizens should be consequently thinking those dangers and how it still applies to modern civilization. If Huxley observed the daily life of modern students in western civilization, he would point out how life in Brave New World is similar to life today through technology, consumption, and how we see each other. Consumerism makes the community and economy stable, which is the goal of the society in Brave New World. In the novel, the buying and selling of goods and services are important to them in their consumer economy.

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In 21st century America, it is important to understand these aspects of commodity fetishism that creates the problem of distorted consumerist practices that have become common in the marketplace. Sociologically, the “magical” process of abstracting the value of a product is critical to understanding why many Americans blindly follow a consumerist culture in this form of capitalist economy. Commodity fetishism describes many of the key problems with the valuation of products that trick Americans into over-consuming in a Marxist

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Can Money Buy Happiness? In today’s materialistic world that we live in, the phrase that ‘can money buy happiness?’ is an often asked question. There is no right or wrong answer but only peoples opinions and people always think their opinions are right. Money is an easy way to gain happiness since in our daily lives we need money for food, shelter, and keeping ourselves healthy, which are necessities for having a happy life.

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The most valuable reason for the popularity of online shopping among the people is its high convenience. First of all, online shopping allows the customers to buy products at any time that is convenient for them. While traditional brick-and-mortar selling businesses tend to work during specific time periods, online shopping is accessible at any time. An immense benefit of online shopping is that it is available 24/7. As a result, the customers do not need to think that they will not manage to buy something since the shop is already closed.

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765 Words | 4 Pages

More and more people these days prefer online shopping than shopping in malls because of so many advantages and benefits. People from all over the world have accepted online shopping sites because of the convenience provided like from shopping in their pyjamas to convenience for elderly and disabled. Not only this, online shopping sites also provides a wider choice of products, avoiding upselling or impulse buying, better prices, good for the environment, and

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