Consumerism: The Endless Cycle of Material Pursuit

648 Words2 Pages

With the dawn of the industrial era, railroads arrived in the United States. This invention completely revolutionized American consumer culture, allowing manufacturers to ship goods to their buyers at much quicker rates. As a result, consumers could buy items from the other side of the country, and no longer had to make their own goods. As the US shifted to shipping things through railroads, advertising arrived to the scene. Radios and newspapers were dense with advertisements whose sole goal was to convince the reader/listener that their his or her’s life is incomplete without the proposed product. All of a sudden, the US became a society unsatisfied with “just getting by”. Consumers “needed” items with the latest technology. Fulfilling basic needs was no longer enough because consumerism had completely transformed American society. By painting money as a symbol of status and happiness, consumerism has trapped the public in an endless cycle of going to great lengths to attain wealth, finding the wealth as unsatisfactory, convincing themselves that more wealth would make them happier, and repeat. Consumerism has caused people to view acquiring material goods as a gateway to happiness. A survey done by Professor Rik Pieters of …show more content…

It’s often argued that wealth equates success because it indicates a well-paying job, but does that truly matter? If the job is despised by the employee, than he or she isn’t going to feel successful. Wealth is but a measure of success, not actual success. Being successful is more about feeling successful than it is about external matters. True success is feeling happy with all that one has. True success is different for everyone because different things make people happy. Someone may be content working at Starbucks, while another may be overjoyed at the thought of running a business. Success isn’t something that can be measured by something as standard as money. It’s an

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