1 / 17

Sociology 125 Lecture 8 Thursday, September 27 Consumerism

Explore the negative externalities of consumerism and how systematic biases contribute to hyper-consumerism. Discover why consumerism does not lead to happiness and the consequences of profit-maximizing strategies, market failures in leisure, changing reference groups, credit cards, rising inequality, and abandonment of public consumption.

afarnsworth
Download Presentation

Sociology 125 Lecture 8 Thursday, September 27 Consumerism

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Sociology 125 Lecture 8 Thursday, September 27 Consumerism

  2. Definitions Consumerism: The belief that personal well-being, happiness and status depend largely on the level of personal consumption, particularly the acquisition of material goods. Hyper-consumerism: the frenetic pursuit of consumer goods

  3. Growth in median size of new home construction in the U.S., 1963-2007

  4. % of new home construction 45 40 Over 2,500 square feet 35 30 25 20 15 Under 1,200 square feet 10 5 0 1973 1975 1977 1979 1981 1983 1985 1987 1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 Construction of Small & Big houses, 1973-2005 Over 2500 square feet Under 1200 square feet

  5. What is wrong with consumerism?

  6. What is wrong with consumerism? There are big negative externalities from consumerism Consumerism in fact does not make most people happy There are systematic biases in the system which generate consumerism. If these system-biases were eliminated, many – maybe most – people would adopt a less consumerist life style.

  7. System bias #1: Profit maximizing strategies

  8. 2 weeks of time 1 week of time

  9. System bias #2: Market-failures in leisure

  10. 9 weeks Number of hours more per year on average that Americans work than people in other countries 6 weeks 3.4 weeks .5 weeks

  11. From Juliet Schor, The Overworked American, p. 130

  12. System bias #3: Changing reference group for consumption norms

  13. System bias #4: Credit cards

  14. System bias #5: Rising inequality increases consumerism

  15. System bias #6: Abandonment of public consumption by affluent

More Related