Consumerism

The term consumerism may be understood using four distinct interpretations. These interpretations are as follows: (1) the movement within society and government to protect consumers from defective or otherwise unsafe products; (2) the demand-side economic theory (usually associated with Keynesian economics), which states that increasing consumption of consumer goods drives economic growth as opposed to encouraging higher rates of saving as a national economic policy; (3) a societal state in which happiness or success is somehow equated with increased consumption and a concomitant creation of limitless demand; and (4) a combination of the second and third meanings in which an emphasis of advertising and marketing is concentrated on the creation of consumers within a culture that embody limitless demand. Each of these meanings of consumerism ...