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What should be done?!
Taking the steps in the right direction
The culture that we live in today revolves around the rate at which we spend our money, and the purchases we make. If you think about it, our average days are spent working, so that we can make money in order to purchase materials. This is the society that we have created for ourselves over the last century. Consumerism is a vicious cycle that we have become oblivious to because of how normal it has become to go out and spend money. Enough.org, an organization that is actively working against consumerism describes Anti-Consumerism to “challenge many of the assumptions about what is needed in contemporary society.” I understand how the issue of consumerism might be hard to believe in or even take seriously while our economy is at a high point, and our unemployment rate is at a low; however consumerism does exist in our society today! In fact I would say it runs our society today, considering how materialistic the American culture has become.
Consumerism does not just exist, but it is extremely prevalent in our society we live in today, as we continue to feed into its trap. Many people are unaware of consumerism because of how we are encouraged by our society to cater to our materialistic needs, rather than to look at the price we will later have to pay for all of the trouble we have caused for our earth. I believe that it would set back all of the continuous hard work companies have gone through to advertise the life that we are encouraged to live by our society, along with all of the products we are expected to have, but g. If we continue to be oblivious to consumerism it is only a matter of time that it demolishes our earth. Many people today are aware of their ability to spend, which brainwashes them into this spending all of the money they have. We are known to spend money we have and ever money we do not have, and these are some of the ways that we are tricked into looking away and becoming more oblivious to the issue of Consumerism. This is how Consumerism is so easily swept under the rug.
According to Enough.org “ The USA alone, with only 6% of the worlds population, consumes 30% of its resources.” In America today, the average four-person family spends roughly around fifty thousand dollars a year. This amount includes some of the most necessary purchases needed, such as housing, transportation (car or public transportation), food (at home) and food (eaten out), education etc. All of these expenses seem to us to be the most crucial to our way of living, but that is only because we have allowed ourselves to spend this much of our income. I think that if we had to cut down on our purchases or if we just taught ourselves to be more aware of the rate that we spend at, I believe that we would not only |create a cleaner and safer community to live in, but we could also create a more sustainable way of life for our own lives and the lives of our children and family.
The issue of Consumerism is one that is so prominent in the world we live in today and it will not dwindle on its own, it will not disappear unless we bring light to it, nor will it benefit us in any way if it is not addressed. This issue as I have stated many times before, is a vicious cycle that will fester and only get worse with time, as we get more and more accustomed to spending and feeding every need of ours throughout our life. If we do not allow ourselves to want something and wait for it rather than going out and purchasing it right away, I fear that we will only continue on the path that we are on now in order to create the life that is easiest for living and the most enjoyed and that costs more than fifty thousand dollars a year.
My position on this subject is mutual in the sense that there is very little I can do personally to address the matter at hand, however I believe that everyone individually should strive to be less dependent on the idea of spending money along with our human instinct to spend money at the drop of the dime. According to Enough.org, “ … the value of the luxury goods sales worldwide – high fashion clothing, top- of- the- line autos… exceeds the gross national products of the two- thirds of the worlds countries” Although, I am aware of how trying that may seem for some people, and the will power it may take to take that step back and evaluate yourself, and to address this issue, it is the only way to save ourselves from the Consumerist culture that we have nested ourselves into over the years.
Technically we are all involved within this issue of Consumerism, being an issue that extends to all parts of the world and, the only reason that it exists is because of how greedy humans really are. We cannot deny ourselves of it any longer, especially when we keep revamping our materials to fit all of our needs. Now we have a phone that can also serve as a credit card, you don’t have to carry anything else on your body, but your phone. We are trying to simplify our lives, by cutting out all of the “unnecessary”parts of our days, all of the tasks that take up our time, our space.
We all live very busy lives and from first hand experience I understand that it might be hard to catalog and reevaluate all of the different ways that Consumerism has been affecting our world over the years, because it is for me. We become so wound up in our daily routines, because that’s what is required of us in the consumerist culture we have created for ourselves in which our days often involve purchasing something here or here, and this makes it hard to take a second and think of your self as a third party, so that we can understand the impact our culture has the world we live in.
I believe that if we bring awareness to the issue of Consumerism on our city streets and publicly advertise it, the mindset that involves stepping out of our own egotistical worlds will come with it. This will benefit us so that we will be able to take a look at the culture we have created as well as the physical world we live in, in order to see how much we have come to rely on products, we will be doing our part to save the world we live in. I understand that it is no easy feat to correct the path that led us to this culture that thrives off of spending, however if we can become more aware of the damage that it is doing to the physical world we live in, it will save our earth and the human race from the dangers that have come of this vicious cycle of Consumerism. This might not be a personal problem, however it becomes personal when every individual does their part to bring awareness to this never ending issue of Consumerism in our world today.
Enough.org – http://www.enough.org.uk/enough01.htm
Who Is Active In This Issue?
Technically we are all involved within this issue of Consumerism, being an issue that extends to all parts of the world and, the only reason that it exists is because of how greedy humans really are. We cannot deny ourselves of it any longer, especially when we keep revamping our materials to fit all of our needs. Now we have a phone that can also serve as a credit card, you don’t have to carry anything else on your body, but your phone. We are trying to simplify our lives, by cutting out all of the “unnecessary”
parts of our days, all of the tasks that take up our time, our space.
However there are many people who are actively trying to bring awareness to this issue, who are the most involved, and affected by the issue of Consumerism, such as the American Psychological Association. The American Psychological Association have been affected by the issue of Consumerism from a very particular stance, and in their article What’s Behind American Consumerism? APA have explained to us say that as debt has increased throughout the United States to the point where psychologists have been called to explain why Americans overspend. “Researchers say that new ways of advertising, paired with cultural shifts toward consumerism, seem to be driving the trend.”
There are many people involved with the issue of Consumerism, from actively forming organizations, to creating blogs in order to bring awareness through the internet, and then there are people that have changed the ways that they live as they find ways to not spend as much money and to fight our need to constantly want everything we see. Verdant is a non-profit website that shares with its readers different ways to survive in our economy. Verdant defines the cost that we have put on our own lives as we have chose to let Consumerism manifest itself into our society, “Consumerism interfered with the workings of society by replacing the normal common-sense desire for an adequate supply of life’s necessities, community life, a stable family and healthy relationships with an artificial ongoing and insatiable quest for things and the money to buy them with little regard for the true utility of what we bought.” This sentence shows us how hard of an impact Consumerism has taken on the culture we have created for ourselves, where are minds are focused on everything materialistic while leaving behind the things that should matter more to us, family and friends and love that can be thrown out of the picture when someone’s mind is focused on needing things to such an extent.
Verdant the website, emphasizes how Consumerism has become so radical and reckless, explaining to us that, “Consumerism, already having captured death as a consumer obligation whereby sadness and regret are quenches by spending lots of money, not turns major life events like weddings and births into consumer events with their own hierarchy of demands for the things which assumer a life of their own.” I believe this to be a very powerful sentence, because when thinking of all of our professions and jobs, this quote gives the reader a very clear sense of which side is which and the power we hold over the choices we make every day.
VERDANT. COM, http://www.verdant.net/society.htm
What’s Behind American Consumerism? – By Amy Novotney, Monitor Staff, July/August 2008, Vol 39, No. 7, Print version: page 40, http://www.apa.org/monitor/2008/07-08/consumerism.aspx
Entering The Conversation
Throughout my next blog series I will show my reader that there is one thing stopping us from bringing attention to the issue of consumerism through the lens of Interior Design; and that is the ego and reputation of these desired professions, such as Interior Design and their large companies that they provide for us to thrive upon. Interior Design is a widely known profession and a service that is desired by many people all over the world. I am using the profession/service of Interior Design to show you as my reader that this issue of consumerism is not only being provoked by some or one profession, rather that, the issue pertains to professions in all kinds of materialistic franchises. In order for my reader to understand the whole picture and why there is so little being said upon this very serious matter is because of the penalities that these large companies will face, along with the landslide in our economy if this issue if brought up in
What You Have Got to Know!
All of the texts below consist of some of the most insightful information pertaining to Consumerism and its affects on our world through the lens of Interior Design. I have provided this Essential Reading List to inform my readers of some key sources that I think will benefit them the most while trying to see the whole picture. These sources helped me absorb the most information as fast as possible. I believe that these resources will give my reader a better idea of both sides of this issue, while showing them the impacts that this vicious cycle has on the profession of Interior Design in particular; h-owever this issue comes up in almost any job market. The issue of how Consumerism is affecting our world through the lens of Interior Design is a very convoluted issue, like most other professions, however the chance that this discussion is made public therefore bringing attention to the matter could harm Interior Design and its reputation as well as its popular demand.
-American Consumerism and the Global Environment, History of Consumerism
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/~kelle20m/classweb/wp/page2.html
The history of anything is beneficial to ones understanding of the topic as a whole. It gives us background information into something that may have happened a long time ago or sometimes history provides us with insight into how long something has gone on for. History deals with the past and the present past. I believe that the History of Consumerism will give my reader the context needed to understand the issue of Consumerism and how long it has existed in our society, how long they have been living in this consumerist culture that we have created.
-Social Class
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_class
Social Class is a very important aspect of the ways that Consumerism is affecting the way we live in our physical world as well as how we live mentally and morally, what we stand for and how we choose to live our lives. This hyperlink provides my reader with a clear idea of how our society is divided up and separated into the lower class, the middle class, and the upper class. I think that this gives my reader something concrete to go off of when thinking about how each of the classes are affected by this issue of Consumerism.
-Becoming Minimalist
http://www.becomingminimalist.com/escaping-excessive-consumerism/
Becoming Minimalist is a blog that gives its reader Ten Reasons to Escape Excessive Consumerism. This blog provides my reader with information that will give my readers examples of ways to be active about consumerism, while being in the same blog format as this one; this allows them to see what else is out there pertaining to the issue of Consumerism in our world.
-Is The Anti-Consumerism Movement Affecting Design?
http://www.material-lab.co.uk/blog/post/is-the-anti-consumerism-movement-affecting-design/
This blog answers the question, Is The Anti-Consumerism Movement Affecting Design that I believe to give my reader the exact information needed in order to understand the many reasons Consumerism is affecting our world and how it involves all of the professions that we have worked so hard to get going, starting from nothing and becoming the next new thing. This blog brings up Occupy Wall Street, which is a movement that had a major impact involving the issue of Consumerism and its affects on the profession of design.
The Theory Of The Leisure Class
The issue involving Consumerism and its many affects on our world is one topic on its own, but how about if we take into consideration every product line to surface publically and be advertised is one that, takes on extensive research; as there are roughly 4,000 articles pertaining to Consumerism which is only one side of the argument, as we consider the profession of Interior Design into the picture, on our very own J. Paul Leonard Library website. Amongst the many articles that were funneled to me in my web search, The Theory of The Leisure Class (1899), written by Thorstein Veblen stood out to me the most because of how much it covers upon the topic in its concise manner. This Economic study follows very closely with our issue of Consumerism. The profession of Interior Design is one of the many that allow for this trending lifestyle, that relies as heavily as it does on this construct called,Social-Class Consumerism. Thorstein Veblen is the author of The Theory Of The Leisure Class and was an American economist and sociologist from (1857-1929), as well as the leader of theInstitutional EconomicsMovement. Veblen goes over many aspects of Consumerism like the social split that is found in most any culture that separates “the hunter from the gatherer in the tribe”,Thorstein Veblen.
This is one way to look at how and why Consumerism is affecting our world and why we are allowing it to with such leniency. Veblen also mentions the role that Social Status plays in the efforts to fight the rate that we allow Consumerism to take over the world completely, because without that split between the neighborhoods and the cities, this would make it impossibly difficult for our kind to flock together. Thankfully we have never had a hard time with that, this natural instinct to find others like us, is how we created these neighborhoods, which might have been called tribes first.
In Veblen’s study, he introduces something called, Conspicuous Consumption, which is the “acquiring of luxury goods and services to publically display economic power”. This is the act of “attaining or of maintaining a given social status”, which describes the perpetrators in this issue, on the other hand is someone considered to be in thelower class which is discussed extensively in The Theory Of The Leisure Class. Velblen describes Conspicuous Consumption as the mechanics of how our consumerist culture is run.
Humans are defined and are known for being rational, clever and logical, even better, we are known for trying to maximize our pleasure. Carrying this reputation around with us that does not hold a clear [negative or positive] connotation, this is the part of our personal reputation that we share worldwide. Because this is something that we have felt before, a constant desire, it makes it very hard to create a lifestyle that does not cater to our wants and needs. The issue of Consumerism comes up so often in our personal life, as I ask myself “ do I really need this?” as I make a purchase. This topic is very detailed and convoluted when it all comes down to all of the mindless spending that goes into our everyday life, and the idea of spending money on things that will “display economic power”.
http://moglen.law.columbia.edu/LCS/theoryleisureclass.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Theory_of_the_Leisure_Class
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorstein_Veblen
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspicuous_consumption
It Is Easier Said Than Done.
Many people do not understand the issue of how Interior Design perpetuates Consumerism and for how complicated this relationship can become. Many people think about Consumerism and ask themselves, why isn’t anything being done; well to anyone wondering, what is there for us to do about this situation? The culture that we have grown up into is one where we spend money on food, shelter, and materials that we need, but this all goes unnoticed until our parents ask us and badger us about the spending money that was given to us, or our college budget, each month. As we muddle through our busy lives we get wrapped up all of this spending without acknowledging it until those things become more and more expensive, making it unaffordable and realistic to even crave that object. People are not constantly buying new cars because of how expensive they are, along with houses; most people only need one. The thing that many people are not able to grasp unless they are in the position themselves, is the difficulty of throwing your own profession under the bus even if it is to bring awareness to how Consumerism is taking us down one dollar at a time. Consumerism is something that we have built up by ourselves, which is one of the reasons people are frightened as to how long we will allow this vicious cycle to continue and bring us down. However since we have let it take over and become its own successful culture within itself that we have let thrive for this long, it has become something good, at the end of the day many people go home with a paycheck because of our consumerist culture.
Here we are, only able to bring to our attention of the issue of how Interior Design is provoking our consumerist culture, however almost every purchase we make can link us to this vicious cycle of spending copious amounts of money. The reason why I think the bigger purchases like building a house or even just renovating your house for a new feel in your home, or purchasing a new car because your tired of your old one; these purchases are exclusive to the people that can afford them, this follows with all of the high end products; which leads us to the touchy subject of whether or not it is detrimental to the success of the company to bring awareness to its own involvement in consumerism. I believe that there are smart ways to spend your money, and although anyone is entitled to makes their own purchases as desired, I believe that we should bring awareness to the issue so that together we can be more mindful when it comes to buying our second car and our third house. Another problem that comes with this issue of our consumerist culture is that the people that are making most of the inane purchases are the ones that don’t have to care because with having that much money to spend, usually comes a mindset of not caring either which way. The topic of consumerism and its never ending cycle has many winding paths as to the types of people involved which makes it more of a social science experiment as well as the effects that might be detrimental to our economy if this type of issue was brought to our attention in a worldwide affect
How Money Plays It’s Role.
The Consumerist culture that we have created for ourselves feeds off of money and power. We go to college in the hopes of getting a degree and with that degree we will land a good job in the area of our preference. We thrive with these jobs that bring in a steady income and to shelter us, to feed us, and so that we are able to spend it on what we please. This is what is engraved into our minds as we get older, as we observe the people in our lives. Without that constant flow of money that enables us to spend and live a fulfilling life, we would break down; the culture we have created relies on money. We all need money to live, but with whatever amount you have, must we really spend constantly?
Many people hire an Interior Designer so that they can have a professionals mind in the game, while still being able to design along side them and still have a say in the matter. The transformation of a home takes lots of time and energy, which is why it is nice to have someone to bounce your ideas off of, which helps the client create something new and something they love. In the Interior Design industry money is the main component that keeps the ball rolling. The Interior Design firm and the client have money, although only one is dependent on the other. Money controls how much is budgeted towards each job, and this is a conversation that comes before any spending is done, along with the signing of the contract. While it always nice to think that the designer you have picked is going to keep your budget in mind, that is usually not the case, they are not your own personal banker, and most likely their minds are going to be on the quality and structure of the items purchased; when the client relies solely on the designer for these things is when a job is put on hold.
While the topic of Consumerism is embedded into the profession of Interior Design, it has made for a very complicated debate upon the effects of money into this pair. Having mentioned that money controls the ability for the profession of Interior Design to exist, this causes an issue when deciding whether or not design is perpetuating this very human need to spend money. With money in the picture, this allows for the profession of Interior Design to thrive and both the clientele and the design firms in the world to be alive. However without money, in the instance that everyone involved in the profession took into account how much of what they did everyday was affecting our world, this profession would not be able to exist. This is where is becomes an issue of how far is too far; when do we say that professions that involve this kind of spending are no longer to exist? Would that ever be the case, or is Consumerism going to keep going until the culture dies because there isn’t any more money to spend? This is a debate that involves the smaller community of Interior Designers, and any designer for that matter, along with the rest of us, which makes it almost impossible to come up with a final view on the subject. I would not jump to say that I am against consumerism because of its positive impact it has on the culture i live in, however I would like to see a change in the way people privilege themselves so often. Our consumerist culture that we have been so dependent on is one that we cannot easily gravitate away from, I believe that the best way for us to create a better image for our spending community, considering that it is impossible to undo what we’ve done.
To whom it may concern.
If you’re against Consumerism then you probably call yourself a minimalist, but if you’re against Consumerism can you also call yourself an Interior Designer? Many designers call themselves minimalists according to the blog Minimalisti. However, the term minimalist used to describe an Interior Designer is very different, because they in fact are not minimalists technically speaking; it is just a word to describe their taste.
The topic of Consumerism within the Interior Design industry is secretly on its uprising. Interior Design as a profession would be nothing without making all of the purchases a designer and their client must make in order to get the job done. The reason why I say that it is on a ‘secret uprising’ is because many people involved in the design world are turning their heads and that is all it takes for Consumerism to gobble us all up. Given that this profession revolves around wealth– if designers were to bring attention to something that has the power to hurt their image, it would, and that is why we are ignoring the giant elephant in the room. Although this problem needs to be addressed inside the design world, I believe that the recognition of how Consumerism is affecting the world must come from the outside. We must all be willing to recognize, together, that our consumerist culture is feeding off of our need to spend money. Unfortunately the fight against Consumerism in a profession like Interior Design would put it at risk of failing or becoming extinct if designers were constantly thinking about how much of what they do perpetuates Consumerism. The result that our Consumerism culture that we have created all on our own is a subject that is not discussed within the industry or through social media. However, I believe that in order for this profession to thrive in the most healthiest of ways, we must all be aware of the fact that it viciously ropes its clientele into buying items constantly as well as how this cycle can propel us into a new and heightened form of Consumerism. William Morris, a world-renowned Interior Designer from 1834-1896 once said “ Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.”
Consumerism is a byproduct of the profession of interior design. It is something that naturally happens when you live in a very wealthy nation, people want to find ways to spend all of that money. It is what comes from paying someone to design your space, from paying someone to decide on the materials that will look best. I believe that it is not spoken about within the profession because the more that this issue is known the chances are that the number of clientele will decrease. This issue is something that is bigger than all of us, bigger than the profession of design because it lingers over us with everything we do.I believe that this topic pertains to the people that have invested their lives into the profession of design. This problem will continue to worsen if people do not take a second to realize what Consumerism actually is and how much it is affecting them.
Minimalisti- http://www.minimalisti.com/category/architecture/interior-design
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