finances and sense of self-worth ever since. Here’s a brief look at how the deal came up.
A Short History of Our Consumer Culture
According to Historian William Leach, author of ‘Land of Desire’, the foundation of our consumer culture was established roughly between the 1880s and 1920s. That’s when people moved in mass from the country to the city and took up positions along assembly lines that mass-produced branded versions of everything from cars to clothing.
The move from country to city marked far more than a change of address; it marked a change in people’s ways of life. They went from farm work to factory work, from making things to buying things.
A peep into the history of the agric era and industrial era shows that during the agric era, people were producing nearly everything they needed; and during the industrial era people had better jobs and better lives working in the factories.”
Before that time, people usually bought raw materials in bulk; there were no branded packages of ready-to-eat cereal and not much in the way of ready-to-wear clothing. “People who had never bought corn flakes were taught to need them,” Strasser explained. “Those formerly content to buy oats, scooped from the grocer’s bin, were informed about why they should prefer Quaker Oats in a box.”
Soon enough, consumption became tied to people’s very identity because of city life. The basic things they produced themselves could no more be produced; so they bought everything, moving from customer to consumer.
How Consumption Shifted From What We Do to Who We Are
It was during the Industrial Revolution that department stores emerged, which, in turn, spawned the increasingly sophisticated science of merchandising. Store managers learned to display items with an eye toward enticement. This was the period when the items were fantanstically displayed to make an average former village customer to become a consumer, by consuming the product.
The expansion of railway lines helped create national markets. The spread of telegraph and telephone lines helped create national advertising. With more goods to sell and more markets to reach, more sophisticated techniques for driving desire were developed—psychological techniques.
Boston College of Sociology Professor, Juliet Schor, author of The Overworked American, said the 1920s marked a clear turning point in the ad industry: “Of course, ads had been around for a long time. But something new was afoot, in terms of both scale and strategy… Ads developed an association between the product and one’s very identity.
Eventually they came to promise everything and anything—from self-esteem, to status, friendship, and love.”
Marketers began positioning the activities of consumption as being in the best interests of those doing the consuming. According to William Leach, “The cardinal features of this culture were acquisition and consumption as the means of achieving happiness,” and what religion historian, Joseph Harountunian, called “‘being’ through ‘having.’”
What’s In a Word?
Today, the use of the word consumer has become so common that most of us don’t even notice. Every week, we hear about consumer spending, consumer sentiment, and consumer segments. We accept it without question. But consider this: To consume literally means to use up, squander, or spend wastefully. It’s right there in the dictionary.
The acceptance of the consumer identity goes a long way toward explaining why so many people have too much debt, too little savings, too much financial stress, and too little contentment.
Alot of people are simply behaving the consumer lifestyle. A consumer will spend money in this order:
Spend it
Use it for debt payments
Waste it
Fake it by using it to impress
Give it away
Save if there is any left.
The perception and understanding problem
While there’s much to be said for all the practical aspects of wise money management – using a budget, getting and staying out of debt, spending smart, and such – I believe that how we see ourselves is just as important.
My recommendation is that we consciously reject the consumer label. Everytime we hear the word in the news, let’s remind ourselves that we are not machines whose main purpose is to use stuff up.
The term I prefer is producer. We were designed to create, to build strong relationships, live lives of meaning and contribution.
When life is viewed through that filter, it’s much easier to choose to do the right things financially, no matter how uncommon or counter-cultural.
Have you ever thought about how the term consumer impacts you? What do you think about seeing yourself as a producer instead of a consumer? Is there a better term?
Financial problems mount in people’s life when they perceive themselves differently from being a producer to being a consumer. Make the right choice in good time.
Till I come your way next time, remain financially intelligent.
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This article was first published in the print edition of SuccessDigest on 2011-09-06
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