Does Consumer Society In a Global Economy Enslave

1921 Words8 Pages
Consumption drives our society, and as we already experienced, it has taken over our modern living in economies. I will argue that consumerism has taken control over how we live our lives. This is in comparison to early evidence of society. Our ability to be responsible consumers is ever so present, however we continue to feed the industries and companies who lure us into consuming products that are unnecessary to our everyday living. I will critically analyse the arguments of both sides of this topic in constructing a basis for the control that consumption has over our global economy. While also providing an analysis of hope for our society in the global perspective in being able to consume responsibly. To begin with, I will define some important terms. Firstly, consumption is noted from the Concise Oxford Dictionary as the ‘purchase and use of goods’ (Miles, 1998) which, additionally, Campbell (1995: 102; cited in Miles) provides a similar definition of consumption as the ‘selection, purchase, use maintenance, repair and disposal of any product or services.’ This definition gives us an idea that such products and services are purchased by individuals, used, occasionally maintained and eventually disposed of. The difference between this and consumerism, is that the latter is often used to refer to a life ‘excessively preoccupied with consumption’ (Gabriel & Lang, 1995). Our consumer society consists of such consumerisms. Even on a global perspective Gabriel and Lang considers consumerism a dominating lifestyle, where people are wanting rather than needing. The notion of ‘consumerism’ however is often given a negative assertion (Miles, 1998) where it is not being looked at as a ‘good thing‘. Miles refutes this through his indication that we are surrounded by consumer goods and services which are not necessarily negative and should not be condemned but rather be
Open Document