Civil War Consumerism Analysis

America’s current standard of living is going to cause our demise. Consumerism is a problem throughout Americans culture since mass production began in the late nineteenth century. The obsession with consumerism has led to mindless wastes of resources, a diseased society and economic instability. Rick Wolff, a professor of economics at University of Massachusetts, states “economics of capitalism spread consumerism—now uncontrolled, ecologically harmful, and fiscally disastrous—throughout the United States”. Wolff’s viewpoint on consumerism aligns with mine. Believing that an economy based on promoting endless consumption is volatile and unsustainable. Consumerism can be analyzed and seen to be embedded by corporations and politicians.

Mass

consumption and arguably the start of consumerism could easily be seen by the early nineteenth century. American historian Morris Berman explains in his book Why America Failed: The Roots of Imperial Decline, “During 1800-50 the GNP increased sevenfold, and by 1860 the basic outlines of the modern American economy were already visible: mass consumption, mass production, and capital-intensive agriculture” (16). People quickly took advantage of this as many companies and businesses opened and America became the country to fulfil desires. Consumerism was embedded more in our society when Wolff explains in his view point that “dominant social groups reinforced consumption as the goal of work and the measure of personal worth”. The way they did this was increase wages of their workers, encouraging harder work, and more borrowing to buy more (Wolff). Major economic events in the past will show how this way of living and the dependence of consumerism on our economy need to change. Wolff ideology shows its worth even in today’s society as spending is the main pursuit of everyone’s life especially with the introduction of new technologies.
Today’s issues are much of the same but with intervention from the government to help build consumerism and capitalist ploys to increase spending on their products. Today consumer confidence still is low and if at any point spending stops the economy crashes. To keep up with the consumption needed, in 2009 Obama came up with an Economic Stimulus Package, which main purpose was to increase the amount of money in the consumers pocket and promote spending to restore economic growth (Amadeo). The government dumping money we don’t have into the economy to save it shows how sensitive and dependent it is on spending. In the long run endless spending on products will waste resources that are limited. Hillary Mayell, from National Geographic News, explains in the report State of the World 2004, “the devastation toll on the Earth’s water supplies, natural resources, and ecosystems exacted by a plethora of disposable cameras, plastic garbage bags, and other cheaply made goods with built in product-obsolescence, and cheaply made manufactured goods that lead to a ‘throw away’ mentality”. This is a simple ploy that companies do on purpose to ensure you buy more products of theirs. Other ways they do this is technological obsolesce like coming out with new phones that essentially do the same as the previous version. All these tricks from capitalist’s further wastes essential resources just to increase consumerism and we always fall for it.
Many don’t see any issue with consumerism. It shows that the more we spend as a society the better the economy does. It’s true that is how economy grows but we are trained to borrow money to keep spending and when we can’t afford to pay that money back is when a downward spiral occurs. Both of the major depressions in our history were specifically caused by over borrowing and over consuming. As seen in the most recent recession job rates plummeted and that effected everyone. Other issues with consumerism becomes the wastefulness of limited resources. Purposely making products that are not meant to last is an unnecessary way of using resources. The only way to combat consumerism is to simply consume less. Only buy what is needed and don’t indulge into the tricks companies make to convince you to spend more. Don’t upgrade your phone ever chance you get. Make things last longer than they are meant too. If we continue down the same path we will eventually find ourselves into another depression that we can’t afford and soon America won’t be as great as it has always been.
One of the main reasons for consumerism being such an issue is argued by American historian Morris Berman.

He explains the civil war being the historic event that turned America to expand further into the consumerist economy. Although it was labeled a war to combat slavery Berman explains, “prior to the Emancipation Proclamation, the North had proposed no change in the status of the Negro as a result of the war”. Making Berman labeling it as a war “between two conflicting economies” (Why American Failed 121). This could arguable be the expansion of the industrial north of mass production causing a ripple effect to mass consumption. The south was focused more on agriculture and exportation of goods, although it was at the cost of slavery at the time. The expansion of consumerism in American history led to its deadliest war with over six hundred thousand deaths. This shows the power of industries and corporations on political decision making. The north won the war and expansion of consumerism

emerged.
Another reason of consumerism is that it is necessary to our capitalism type of market. In order for capitalist to make money in the free market it is to promote spending on their products. This embedding of consumerism took capitalists many years to accomplish and while they were doing this they continually increased wages. In the viewpoint Capitalist Promote Consumerism, Wolff explains that real wages haven’t raised since the 1970’s and the reason being is because US citizens are still buying the goods provided. Wolff explains, “When that no longer pays, they will redirect shipments to the rest of the world market”. Corporations successfully changed our dominant culture to spending more on products without increasing our wages. According to economist Mark Weisbrot consumption is approximately 70 percent of the economy. Meaning at any point consumers stop spending the economy is at risk to recession and corporations are at risk of massive losses. This is why corporations have spent over one hundred years of advertisements to convince our society to never stop spending.
The last cause of consumerism explained is going to be corporation’s use of planned and perceived obsolescence.

Meaning corporations purposely make products that won’t last or will be otherwise social unacceptable to own in the near future. This is all a trick to cause the consumer to buy more of a product and spend more money. According to Annie Leonard, author of The Story of Stuff, “[designers] discussed how fast they can make stuff break and still leave the consumer with enough faith in the product to go buy another one” (11). This fuels consumption further than necessary and most importantly at an alarmingly wasteful way. Nothing shows more obsolescence than the technology market with computers and phones. Giles Salde wrote an award winning book about technology obsolescence and explains “a century of advertising has conditioned us to want more, better, and faster from any consumer good we purchase, in 2004 about 315 million working PCs were retired in North America” (Planned Obsolescence viewpoint). This shows the affect caused by corporations to increase profits at the cost of resources. They use new software and products being incompatible with previous versions of electronics to force consumers to buy more. You see this commonly with televisions, gaming systems, computers, and many other electronic

devices.
One of the main objections could be that people simply only consume so much because it makes them happier. Leonard explains that polls prove that since the 1950’s national happiness has steadily declined in correlation with our most consuming years directly after World War II. It is believed that as we consume more we work more. As we work more we have less quality time doing the things that truly make us happy like family and friends (Page 12-13). Essentially the more we consume the worse off we are as a society. The only people it’s truly benefiting are the one percenters. Corporations and investors that represent the richest people in the world as everyone else continues to accrue debt and struggle to meet society’s needs for a happy life.
Making the most important cause of consumerism rooted back to the civil war when it was able to expand as the dominant economy. If the south won the war the expansion of a different economy could have emerged. The ripple effect of mass production required mass consumption. Further analysis shows that is when advertisements became most popular to convince society to consume products. Corporations realized simply consuming the products they made wasn’t going to grow them the amounts they wanted. To combat this issue they started making products to purposely become obsolete. All of these issues are reasons today why consumption is so high.
Most of the causes of consumerism are a part of history and can never be changed. We can’t turn back history and stop a civil war; nor can we plead to corporations to stop making faulty products. The one thing we can change is our culture and society. As the consumers we can change. We can change the way we consume and what we consume. The last president to combat corporations and consumerism was President Carter who told Americans that we need to adapt to a “plain style” of living and stop buying into happiness self-worth comes from consumption. President Carter continued his term living this exact way by limiting spending and encouraging smarter ways of using energy by even installing solar panels to run the white house (Why America Failed 35-39). In order to better and sustain our lives major reform. The only way to combat consumerism as a problem is for all of us to be mindful and demand change. Remember this the next time you decide to upgrade to the next version of your phone.