CMNS 110 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Consumer Capitalism, Fetishism, Consumerism
Document Summary
In our modern day society, it is difficult to avoid consumption. Everything we purchase contributes as a way of life, and help to allocate economic resources efficiently. Moving into a consumer society has eroded the concept of families who lived in harmonious existence. What drives us to consume is based on social status according to veblen. The persuasion behind our desires is largely affected by classes and the individuals around us. Ve(cid:271)le(cid:374)"s (cid:449)ork e(cid:373)phasizes the idea of so(cid:272)ial e(cid:373)ulatio(cid:374), (cid:449)hi(cid:272)h is (cid:449)here individuals desire the same things regardless of their social positon or income levels. For example, even though a perso(cid:374) is li(cid:448)i(cid:374)g (cid:271)(cid:455) the pa(cid:455)(cid:272)he(cid:272)k does(cid:374)"t (cid:373)ea(cid:374) that the(cid:455) (cid:272)a(cid:374)"t (cid:449)ish for a(cid:374) e(cid:454)pe(cid:374)si(cid:448)e designer brand bag. In fact, we see that the lower status individuals are willing to spend more money just to keep up with the rich. This is because of the pressure of appearing to hold a higher social status.