Modern American Consumerism, Essay Example

Modern American consumerism reflects a degree of both political and cultural preoccupation. The way that economics are viewed legally and theoretically deeply impacts the cultural assumptions and behaviors of the American population. For the most part, American society is founded on economic principles that encourage a consumer culture. For example both the so-called “liberal” side of economic theory and the so-called “conservative” side of economic theory hold spending to be the most significant indicator of how a n economy is functioning. Both liberals and conservatives also consider spending in economic theory to be the most important determinant of how an economy should be structured and regulated. For example, the Keynesian model of economics regards“the economy’s performance in terms of the level of total spending. A budget deficit adds to total spending and helps keep employment high and the economy running at full capacity.” 6 The leading indicator of the economy’s  strength is spending. By the same token, the supply side theory of economic holds that low taxes are the key to spending by the investment class which encourages a robust economy. For these conservatives, the spending by lower-class consumers is stimulated by the economic investments that are made by the wealthy.

For supply-siders, “Only free people are productive and forward-looking, but they cease to be free when their property rights are sacrificed.”7  This means that supply-siders favor low taxes, low deficits, and low regulation of business. Despite the obvious differences between the perspectives of the liberal and conservative theories of economics, both systems rely on the idea of the consumer culture to be in any way viable. The creation or maintenance of the modern of American consumer is therefore something that is embedded in the country’s economic policies and theories. in other words, the modern American consumer is no accident, but rather a “target” of the legislative policies and economic strategies and system that operate in the United States.

The second example of how modern American consumerism has evolved is based in cultural ideals. For example, in the 1980’s a cultural identity arose in the popular mind and the mass media that was concerned with the  Yuppy movement. Yuppies were “You Urban Professionals”  who prided themselves on consumerism and acquisition. They represented the American popular will toward materialism and mass consumption. A Newsweek article from the time mentions that what “Yuppies have discovered is nothing less than a new plane of consciousness, a state of Transcendental Acquisition” 8. The connection of consumerism and religion in the American mind is not always a humorous reality but something tat is deeply ingrained in American culture. Movements like the Yuppy movement show that the indoctrination into consumerism takes place at a mass level and it is aided by the mainstream media. The concoction of a mass self-identity based on consumerism is partially an organic outgrowth of American culture, but it is also partly the  conscious creation of specific industries and interest groups.

One of these powerful industries is a third example of how the modern American consumer has emerged. this industry is the advertising industry and it, above all other businesses  in the U.S. is concerned with fostering and multiplying the proliferation of the American consumer. In order to fully understand the way that advertisers are responsible for the modern American consumer it is first necessary to realize that a movement like the Yuppy Movement is not simply an outgrowth of cultural evolution; rather, it represents the cultural resonance of the nearly ubiquitous onslaught of advertisements that pervade every area of American society. each advertisement while ostensibly directed toward a specific product is also simultaneously an ad for the consumer society as a whole.

Therefore, a significant truth is stated when the aforementioned Newsweek article remarks that “the advent of Yuppies {is} an inspirational development [for] advertisers, marketing executives, and all the other people who live to sell.” 9 The fact is that modern American consumerism has impacted most Americans in a profound fashion. A great deal of the American population has accepted consumerism as a kind of secular religion that is also an expression of personal freedom and self-identity.  As the preceding look at the evolution of the American consumer clearly indicates, the creation of the American consumer begins at the legislative and theoretical levels of America’s economic policies and moves through cultural ideals and patterns, aided by the powerful influence of advertising and the mass media.