Consumerism Essay

Introduction

“Consumerism is not only refers to consumer spending or the buying of consumer goods; It is an ideology that an ever-increasing consumption of goods is beneficial to the economy.”

Nowadays Australians like to go for shopping a lot and this behavior, to a great extent, is influenced by the tones of advertisement that people receive on a daily basis. It appears that people buy things that they need or at least they go for shopping things which they would expect to make them satisfied. However, Australian shoppers are more to react to the excitement of the purchase rather than the likely contentment of using or possessing something.

Extent of non-essential goods and services consumption

Recent survey on the expenditure made by Australian households suggests that food accounts for the most non-essential consumption by Australian households. It is reported that Australian households spend approximately $5.39 billion on all forms of food annually.

In fact, spending habits on non-essential goods and services differs by state and region. The national average of spending on non-essential goods has been recorded at $ 11520 per year ($240 per week), while the highest amount of money spend on such is by the residents on Australian Capital Territory, about $ 13824 per year. Survey on the Australian Household Expenditure also reveals that NSW and Western Australia accounts the second highest levels of non-essential goods consumption, on the contrary, South Australia and Tasmania have the lowest levels.

The level of expenditure largely determined by the level of income and it also varies across states and regions. Australian Capital Territory and Northern Territory Households have the highest average weekly spending, about $...

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...el to ensure full employment for workers. As a consequence, huge unemployment may take place and unlike the classical model, Keynesian model does not allow automatic recovery mechanism to rescue the economy unless action required to be taken to save the economy from such contraction and staying at a new continual low-income and high-unemployment equilibrium. Economic resources may be concentrated in fewer activities rather than diversification. People’s quality of life may also suffer from the economic inequality and rising poverty. Economy may suffer from social and political unrest which challenges the economic wellbeing.

Conclusion

Ever improving consumerist lifestyle may, however, include unnecessary spending but it has an important role to play in the economy allowing the economy to grow and enhancing a smooth economic flow in the output-income-spending cycle.