Consumption In Fishman's Essay 'The Squeeze'

Consumption is the usage of a resource. When using the word the consumption it is synonymous with the words want and need. A want is a possession in which a person owns too much of like a large house, nice cars, or wealth. A need is a necessity in which a person needs to survive like food, water, money and health. The problem is with when people want something; they tend to want more than is necessary to own. In most cases, theses wants affect the environment and companies. Consumption is not an issue until people take it too far and cannot reverse the effects like in the essays “The Squeeze,” “Waste Not, Want Not,” and “Needs”. Accordingly, Charles Fishman in his essay, “The Squeeze,” states that Americans spend money on products that are not necessary for hefty amounts. Fishman glances on the corporate side when discussing consumption. Fishman peeked at the biggest consumer companies of them all: Wal-Mart. In the essay, Fishman states that Wal-Mart almost dragged Vlasic, a pickle company, into the ground (488-89). Wal-Mart lowered the prices of the pickles whilst making the jars larger. The problem with this was due to the fact Vlasic was not manufacturing a profit while Wal-Mart was. It also took on more products in which the company could not produce at a

Sowell states that what people “need”, they already have it (499-500). One example, Sowell uses is the mother, who drove around a beat up car in order to pay for her daughter’s tuition. The mother obviously wanted a new car, but she felt it was necessary to pay for the tuition (501). The mother knew a want from a need unlike most people. “Needs” explains that what people consider a need is more of a want and not knowing the difference can cause to large amounts of consumption. Defining what a need and a want are, can help stop the rate of consumption in a