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The New Politics of Consumption: Why Americans Want So Much
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The New Politics of Consumption: Why Americans Want So Much More Than They Need
by Juliet Schor
Discussion Questions
- According to Schor, what are the major problems with American's current style of consumption?
- Why do Americans want to own so much?
- What are her recommendations?
- Do you think these are feasible?
- How do you think advertising specifically plays into our politics of consumption?
Yet for all its popularity, the shopping mania provokes considerable disease: many Americans worry about our preoccupation with getting and spending. They fear we are losing touch with more worthwhile values and ways of living. But the discomfort rarely goes much further than that; it never coheres into a persuasive, well-articulated critique of consumerism. (251)
Americans did not suddenly become greedy. The aspirational gap has been created by structural changes--such as the decline of community and social connection, the intensification of inequality, the growing role of mass media, and heightened penalties for failing in the labor market. Upscaling is mainly defensive, and has both psychological and practical dimensions. (255)
Few economists now think about how we consume, and whether it reproduces class inequality, alienation, or power. "Stuff" is the part of the equation that the system is thought to have gotten right. (252)
It is difficult to take exception to this view. It combines deep respect for individual choice (the liberal part) with a commitment to justice and equality (the egalitarian part). [. . .] I do not think that the "income solution" addresses some of the most profound failures of the current consumption regime. [. . .] Consuming is part of the problem. (252)
The question is whether we should also aim for a society in which our relationship to consuming changes, a society in which we consume differently. I argue here for such a perspective: for a critique of consumer culture and practices. Somebody needs to be for quality of life, not just quantity of stuff. (253)