We're all consumers. That is we all, in our economic system, have to go out every day
and buy some (or a lot) of food, clothing, shelter, entertainment, transportation,
all the things of life. "Consumerism" is when we give them more importance than what they kind of
ought to have, because they're one of many different activities we do besides consuming
and buying things. And if we focus too much on them, if we overdo it, that's what we mean by
"consumerism." Let me explain it another way. It's an identity for many people. It's become
the thing they focus on in their lives. It's why they go to work every day to get the money
so they can be consumers. It's the product, for example, of the enormously powerful
advertising industry which spends all its time, and all its effort, trying to persuade us that
whatever issues we have in our lives (our personal relationships, our career issues, our friendships,
our love relationships) everything can be better handled if only we buy this product,
or that product, or the other service. This is making us overly focused on consumption.
And there's nothing innocent going on here. For example, until the second world war here in the
United States working people were more apt to define themselves, to think about themselves,
as "workers," not as "consumers." The working people, the working class. You can see it even now
percolating up. But the dominant theme for the last 75 years has been "consumers." Because,
you see, if you think of yourself as a "worker" you right away understand that you're a worker and
somebody else is a boss. It's an identity that explains and contains in it the differences
amongst us. "Consumer" doesn't work like that, because the boss consumes and the employee
consumes. And this is an attempt to say we're all in it together. You know, like for the last year
we're all in it together to fight the pandemic except, if you know anything, you understand some
of us are much better off fighting that pandemic than others. For example, those who kept their
jobs and those who lost them, those who run the industries that fired millions of Americans, all
of that. So "worker" is an identity in our society that leads you right to understand differences.
"Consumer" tries to erase all of that. And here's a couple of ways it becomes important.
If you think of yourself primarily as a consumer then the thing that interests you most (for
example, when you have a struggle on the job) is getting more money because that can allow you
to consume more. And yet a thousand studies show that the quality of your life during the work day,
you know, five out of seven days, [the] best hours of the day you're either getting ready for work,
or doing the work, or recovering from the work. So, the quality of that time, how it
impacts your personality, your mental health, your physical health is at least as important as what
you're buying and consuming. But you kind of lose sight of that which is what the employer wants,
because the employer can recover whatever it is he has to pay you in higher wage by changing the
conditions of your work, making you work harder, making you work faster making you come earlier,
making you stay later. And if none of those things suffice there's this other interesting thing
that employers can do: they can jack up the price of what they sell
to recoup whatever they have to pay you in a higher wage. And you're going to have to use
your higher wage to pay the higher price leaving you not that much better off. So
be wary of consumerism, of focusing your life on consumption. It's what people want you to do
who do not have your best interests at heart and that's the politest way I know how to say that.