Modern American Materialism

In modern day society, materialism plays a part in every person’s life, no matter what social class they are. Materialism, by definition, is the tendency to consider possessions and physical comfort more important than spiritual values. A materialistic person gives higher priority to maintaining, protecting, and obtaining their material objects than they do in enjoying and developing interpersonal relationships. The concept of being materialistic can be seen as immoral, but there is a fine line between personal interests and morality. Everybody is materialistic to an extent, whether it be from purchasing a wide variety of automobiles, to buying the same brand of jeans because they fit nice. It is apparent that the latter of the two is the one

Robert Kohls, he declares that foreigners typically consider Americans much more materialistic than they are themselves. Americans are more inclined to accept that their material objects are the fruits of their labor; a reward for their fatiguing work. According to Kohls, “Materialism means that a person values and collects more material objects than most people would ever dream of owning” This value of materialism creates a negative effect on our society. Materialism causes depression in some people in our nation, is the leading cause of unhappiness, and it even aids bullying in children. Later in his article Kohls states “The modern American typically owns: one or more color television sets, an electric hair dryer, an electronic calculator, a tape recorder or record player, a clothes washer and dryer, a vacuum cleaner, a powered lawn mower, a refrigerator, stove, dishwasher, one or more automobiles, and a cellphone.” For most countries many of those objects are not seen as necessities but are seen as luxuries. In our society most items we have in our houses have become so common that we view them as basic needs. Americans value innovation and newness so much that they frequently throw away possessions in order to obtain the latest

The catalyst causing this is the growing materialism seen in children in our society. Parents are teaching children that people from lower-income households who lack nice things, are secondary to them. They are being educated that poor families are not people you would want to associate yourself with. What happened to teaching children that you should judge a person based upon their character, not what things they own? Children are inheriting a new “life lesson” and applying it to their school lives. In Materialism: A System That Eats Us From The Inside Out, George Monbiot provided an explanation for the disarray in the current generation. He says “The young men and women seem lost in their designer clothes, dwarfed and dehumanized by their possessions, as if ownership has gone into reverse.” Children learn by watching their family members, which means that if they see their parents buy goods all the time, or treat others poorly, they will do the same themselves. Bullying is a lead cause of adolescent suicide in our country. Materialism is the lead cause of bullying, therefore, materialism is a present issue in the United Sates