Escalating American Consumerism 2015 UPDATE

Running Head: ESCALATING AMERICAN CONSUMERISM
Escalating American Consumerism:
Effects on the Family Unit, Healthcare, and Politics
Derek Lough
University of San Francisco
Contact: dmlough86@gmail.com
Updated 4/3/2015

ESCALATING AMERICAN CONSUMERISM 2
The effects of a 2008 recession in the United States of America are still prevalent, yet
Americans spent a record amount of money over the 2011 Black Friday Weekend (Dickler,
2011). Most American consumption over the holiday weekend focused on “discretionary
purchases” instead of necessities (Dickler, 2011) despite a social movement focusing on how
greed’s effects on society resulting in hundreds of the most populated cities in the country being
“Occupied”. How has this escalation of American consumerism affected the family unit? Or
healthcare? Or politics? Though only 5 percent of the Occupy Wall Street movement call for
abandoning capitalism (Hayat, 2011), I was still shocked that my fellow Americans would
continue to consume in an escalating fashion especially as the net worth of people under thirty-
five fell by 68 percent between 1984 and 2009 (Cohn, 2011) and 19.8 percent of high school
students in 2010 were living in poverty (U.S. Census Bureau, 2010). This review of literature
focused on American consumerism will address its effects on the family unit, healthcare, and
politics.
In the first section, the material will focus on the evolution of consumption in America
and the appropriate educational framework from which to analyze it, beginning with a review of
the paradigm shift that occurred between the 1950s family unit and that of today, as well as the
development of its progeny. Then I will look at how this consumption affects Americans’ health
in relations to advertising and consumerist ideals present in the healthcare industry. An
examination of the literature concerning consumerism and three varied political responses will
conclude this review. It is my hope to draw critical awareness to how this intensification of
consumption-culture in the United States affects us as individuals, in our most intimate
relationships, as well as the balance of power in politics.

Cultural Analysis of American Consumerism
Consumption under a Cultural Framework
Though every person on the planet is affected by consumerism on some level, few
scholars acknowledge the powerful role consumption plays in education. Reframing adult
educators to embrace their role as facilitators of political influence, Sandlin (2005) argues that it
is essential to recognize different models of behavior concerning consumerism and enlighten
students to the different reactions possible under the current economic system. The purpose of
transitioning consumer education from the collection of skills and knowledge - needed to
effectively make decisions, manage resources, and participate as a citizen-consumer - to focusing
on limiting consumption, combating over-capitalism, and “jamming corporate-sponsored
consumer culture (Sandlin, 2005, p. 166) lies in the unseen political nature of educators. As
Sardar and Van Loon (1999) point out, the purpose of cultural studies “is to expose power
relationships and examine how these relationships influence and shape cultural studies” (as cited
in Sandlin, 2005). While the original nature of consumer education is framed within the current
economic system, the Occupy Movement - in addition to the grievances articulated in this review
- expresses the importance of imparting critical thinking to students, giving them the skills to
reassess a system for the future.
Control as a Necessity
In order to understand the culture of consumerism that exists in the United States, it is
essential to understand how much of a necessity the feeling of control is to the lives of
Americans. Gans (1988) narrows the restraints of his analysis to middle America and its
perpetual need for control through individualism. By stating the lack of control concerning the

systems of economics and politics, personal employment and allocation of national resources,
Gans argues that the highly diverse population is unable to influence the organizational impact of
government (p. xi). This dissatisfaction with political and economic institutions leads the
population to determine their own happiness within the terms of their everyday lives. Gabriel and
Lang (1995) argue this happiness is found in consumption due to the many choices and ability to
acquire possessions which reflects personal freedom (p. 8).
Though symptoms of consumerism can be traced to as early as the mid-nineteenth
century (Stearns, 2006, p.48), it wasn’t until the 1950s in post-WWII America that the escalation
of this culture boomed (p. 77). While the significance of the factors that led to this evolution has
been debated, the results are evident worldwide in nearly every conceivable fashion. The focus
of this literature review remains on the family, healthcare, and politics, yet consumerism
influences psychology, entertainment, athletics, and many other facets of everyday life. One
reason for that comes from the planned launch of this phenomenon as an effort to capitalize on
the high levels of production the United States enjoyed during the Second World War. Victor
Lebow (1955) succinctly laid the foundation for the ideology of American consumerism as a
means for economic prosperity:
“Our enormously productive economy… demands that we make
consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of
goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction, our ego
satisfaction, in consumption… We need things consumed, burned
up, worn out, replaced, and discarded at an ever increasing rate.”
Annie Leonard’s use of this quote in The Story of Stuff (2011) creates a powerful argument for
the purposeful design of an economic system relying on the manipulation of citizens at the cost
of natural resources and human lives (p. 10). Whether the corporations and government actively
pursued this objective or not, the societal values that were important prior to the 1950s no longer

remained imperative; instead our place in the consumer hierarchy rose to vital concern for the
majority (Hill, 2002, p. 274).
Identity Formation
In this current economic system, rather than preserving the societal identities formed
around community, meritocracy, and service that were deemed precious prior to WWII, Annie
Leonard emphasizes the lack of value members of the human race have when they are not
purchasing or possessing items meant for consumption (Leonard, 2011, p. 4). Hill (2002)
continues on this line of thought when he cites Slater (1997), who argues that the consumption of
goods forms our social identities and positions us to exhibit these identities within society.
Focusing on middle America and the working class, this creation of this role can be traced back
to the transformation of advertising from utility to linking consumer goods with essential human
needs (Hill, p. 274).
Advertising, as Chin argues, derives from the idea that the targets are of middle-class
regarding their goals and resources (as cited in Hill, 2002). Due to the economic prosperity
perceived as nearly holistic in the 1950s, manufacturers and producers used mass psychology to
push a new definition of class on the population (Stearns, 2006) shifting their themes towards
self-improvement and image (p. 137). The middle-class of the United States indulged in many
consumer goods as an expression of desire for a better life. This transformation was made
possible due to the escalating availability of television sets across the nation, as Stearns denotes
that advertising and television were united from conception (p. 140). This eventually evolved to
cross-selling and shared-advertising between television and film entertainment, the music
industry, toy manufacturing, and sustenance using mass-marketing (Stearns, p. 140). Reinforcing

the concept that material abundance is a means towards happiness, the variety of advertising and
products for consumption provided limitless paths towards personal growth and satisfaction still
prevalent today.
Unfortunately for the working class, systemic poverty does not allow them to participate
in the hierarchy of American consumerism to the same extent that middle-class prosperity
allowed the majority of the country to fuel their desires for most of the past fifty years (Hill,
2002). This does not mean that those living in poverty are not subjected to the same 3000
advertisements that other Americans view each day (Leonard, 2011). Television, radio, and ads
in public spaces all attribute to the collective desire for material possessions. The reaction to this
bombardment has been dually analyzed by various scholars, with some views receiving
particular criticism. Hill (2002) reviews the literature of Oscar Lewis (1959) whose “culture of
poverty” theorizes that those without access to material wealth respond with low-self esteem and
despair (p. 275). Harsh criticism followed Lewis, as Hill points to Leeds (1971), providing the
dissent that the behaviors exhibited in poverty would coincide with those of the wealthy if
monetary restrictions disappeared (p. 276). Eventually the various industries provided choice
enough to bring the poor and disenfranchised into the fold of consumerism, so well in fact that
“by 2001…over half of all Americans had almost no savings and a third lived paycheck to
paycheck, often in considerable consumer debt” (Stearns, p. 142). The process by which these
statistics occurred will be reviewed forthwith, specifically focusing on American consumerism’s
deconstructive effect on the family, healthcare, and politics in the United States.

Family-Consumerist Dynamics
Deconstructing the Family
The formation and sustainability of the family dynamic in the United States has been
deconstructed and changed through the escalation of American consumerism. Stearns (2006)
offers support for this process by analyzing the creation of the family through the processes of
courtship and dating. The values of the traditional courtship, like many other values, transformed
after 1910 due to consumerism (p. 58). The focal division from conventional to new may be
reflected in the how young couples spend their time and money. As consumption rose, Stearns
postulates that dating served to compare various suitors for their prowess as a consumer;
combining romantics and a costly event provided a baseline for material affection for both men
and women (2006).
Material wealth is the driving force behind many familial decisions about living
arrangements, employment, and even having children. So many factors for both the middle and
working classes are affected by American consumerism that Hill (2002) provides a thematic
interpretation of data concerning various subpopulations of the United States. One of the
descriptions reflects a family forced to move out of their home when a coal mining operation
closes. Due to insufficient employment options for comparable living standards, the husband and
wife move into a trailer, spending the next few years watching their possessions fall to disarray
due to the decline in pay, various negative emotions overwhelm them until prayer is their only
redress. (Hill, p. 280). Furthermore, Hill describes another case of material wealth depletion
where a husband is forced to commute hundreds of miles for an equivalent position, in order to
keep the same standard of living, even if he was forced to be away from his family to achieve it

(p. 282). The prevalence of material restrictions can have a wide variety of negative effects on
the family.
One such circumstance is the high probability of divorce. Stearns (2006) argues that
consumerism has affected the divorce rates in the United States due to bickering over living
standards. Amato and Keith (1991) agree that divorce has steadily risen since the 1950s, with
over 1 million new children facing the legal dissolution of their family unit every year (p. 26). A
shocking projection by Bumpass (1984) shows that nearly twice as many black children born to
married parents will face divorce as compared to white children (as cited in Amato). As finances
are the 2nd
most cited reason for divorce in the United States this statistic is less surprising when
taking into consideration the fact that white households have a median wealth twenty times that
of African-American households (Kochhar, 2011). There are as many examples of this as there is
children experiencing divorce, but Amato maintains that the child tends to come into conflict
with one parent or both due to decisions by one parent or the other (Amato, 1986, as cited in
1991). One method of parents currying favor with the child is through consumerism.
Raising the Consumer-Child
Childrearing has increasingly shifted from a community venture to an individualized
effort, the socio-psychological effects of which may only be becoming visible now. Stearns
(2006) discusses the entrance of consumerism on the parental behaviors concerning how they
nurture their child, arguing that advice manuals and limited time promote the gifting of consumer
goods to children as an adequate substitution for affection and presence. Worse yet, he
convincingly makes his case that replacing negative emotions with objects of desire has become
a normal parental process—as well as something that is passed on generationally—so much so,

in fact, that most of the population believes that this is a normal response. Introducing these
consumerist tendencies so early allows a more expansive blossoming of compensation for
unsatisfactory lives later in life (Stearns, 2006, p. 60). This naturalization of consumption from
parent to child is the foundation of escalating American consumerism, perpetuating itself from
generation to generation (Stearns, 2006).
Consuming Religion
Stearns (2006) continues to provide a timeline for escalating American consumption with
his book Consumerism in World History: The Global Transformation of Desire, where he
discusses the earliest religious protests against excess expenditure occurring in the early to mid-
19th
century (p. 68). This didn’t stop American missionaries from exporting their consumerist
ideals “virtually everywhere they went” (p. 64). Furthermore, he discusses Protestant criticisms
by ministers in the United States, addressing the lack of moral fiber exhibited in the “parade of
luxury” when such time could be spent worshiping God (Stearns, p. 57). Using Max Weber’s
model from his paper The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism where he argues than due
to a lack of emphasis on the Catholic “grace,” Protestants believed that if you worked hard and
were a devout Christian, God would reward you with financial prosperity (Weber, 1904),
Cantoni (2010) contends that Protestants and Catholics lacked any significant different in
regional wealth in the long run (p. 34).
As if purchasing the latest styles and products guaranteed favor with the Lord, Americans
took this philosophy to heart when celebrating holidays nationwide. Stearns contends that the
earliest Christmas presents purchased commercially provided happiness for families one-hundred
and eighty years ago (2006, p. 58), yet through escalation it is more likely a child today will feel

disappointment on Christmas than joy (Hill, 2002). Through the creation of holidays in the
United States, the commercialization of familial sentiments has been completed, and paper cards
for Valentine’s day and the innovation of birthday gifts has exploded into a worldwide
phenomenon since 1855 (Stearns, 2006). The exploitation of the family continued in the 1900s
with the invention of Mother’s Day. What was meant to be a day of reflection, joy, and
togetherness became something more recognizable as consumerism today. Anna Jarvis, an
original advocate for the holiday, changed her tune only nine years after its conception, “This is
not what I intended, I wanted it to be a day of sentiment, not profit” (Stearns, p. 58). One only
needs to walk through a department store any day between Black Friday and Christmas to
understand the transformation religious and familial holidays have incurred in the last century.
Health Consumption and Consumerist Healthcare
Body Image
If the escalation in American consumerism actively deconstructed the 1950s concept of
the family unit, could it have a similar effect on citizens at the personal level? Featherstone
(2010) explores how the body, image and consumption interact in society in relation to the
prevalence of video and photography. He argues that the dominant mode of representation
relating to one’s self-image evolved from the increased use of photography by all areas of public
and society (Featherstone, 2010). During the Second World War, and immediately after, there
was an increased advertisement campaign to push low self-esteem on the population, shrouding
the message of poor body image with moral connotation (Stearns, 2006). In a study analyzing the
effects of television advertising, Lavine (1999) found that women exposed to sexist ads judged
their own bodies as larger than it was in reality and that men judged themselves thinner than their

ideal body size (as presented in the ads). Considering that over 90 percent of American homes
have a television (Nielson, as cited in Lavine, p. 1049), Featherstone (2010) argues that women
assume that by transforming themselves into the women they perceive as ideal, and desire to
become, they be “better able to move through interpersonal spaces and [be] more able to enjoy
the full range of lifestyle opportunities and pleasures on offer” (p. 196). These transformations
can be achieved using various methods from dieting and exercise, pills, or cosmetic surgery;
however the individual pursues it, personal metamorphosis has become a cultural archetype in
the United States (Featherstone, 2010).
Transformation
Though Featherstone (2010) argues that in order to completely change oneself they must
methodically act and look in such a way that they pretend to be the person they wish to become
(p. 196), Americans use a variety of techniques to fulfill themselves emotionally and physically.
Though the world of fashion mostly lay at the feet of women beginning in the 1950s,various self-
image products began being consumed by men at a rapid and escalating pace in the 1980s and
1990s (Stearns, 2006). Today any walk through a major value store would present dozens (if not
hundreds) of different cosmetic, athletic, and hygienic products targeted specifically at men.
Aside from material items for purchase, Americans employ dieting supplements and elective
surgery to complete their metamorphosis. The increased use of these processes, Featherstone
(2010) argues, is due to the innovation of reality television programming where ordinary women
were able to become younger-looking and aesthetically pleasing on a regular basis. Considering
the Botox industry is now valued at more than a billion dollars a year (Cooke, 2008, as cited in
Featherstone), it seems that both men and women have fewer concerns about the ability to
express certain emotions than they do about the health concerns of a neurotoxin.

Choice in Healthcare
An aging population should certainly rank healthcare as one of the their primary concerns,
yet the discussion over how American consumerism affects the industry is incomplete. Gilleard
and Higgs (1998) contend that the those with material wealth, but post retirement benefit the
most from the shifting paradigm of a government safety net to the ensuring of customer
satisfaction through a consumerist perspective (p.236). Furthermore, they argue that the elderly
with limited material wealth must rely on the government or are unable to participate in the life-
extending industry, as opposed to those with the material wealth to actually “exercise choice
between competing providers in public health and social care market, those without such power”
(Gilleard, 236). According to the US Census Bureau, as of 2011 a full twenty-percent of fourth-
agers (those aged sixty-five years and older) have less than 400 dollars in assets and must depend
fully on the state for their healthcare (as cited in Vornonitsky, p. 7).
The concept of choice in healthcare extends to the younger generations as well. Scholars
have shown that escalating consumerism in these fields is detrimental to children (Lindley, 2004).
A study of children suffering from functional abdominal pain (FAP) shows that continued
negative results after several referrals over a 12 months period “was associated with
psychological services” for the family and patient, whereas those who maintained a unilateral
doctor-patient relationship, showing trust in the advice of the medical professional has positive
outcomes (Lindley, 2004). Whether distrust of doctors or a consumerist mentality - where the
family continuously sought a more favorable option - this behavior often led to aggression and
manipulative complaints, resulting in continued poor health. Gilleard and Higgs (1998) argue

that the United States model of personal assistance afforded to independent living and those with
disabilities led to the “consumer-directed” attitude visible in the healthcare industry (p. 244).
Healthcare plays a prominent role in American politics; and as the final section of the review will
show, so too does the escalation of American consumerism.
Politics of Consumption
Good Consumer-Citizens
In the weeks after September 11, 2001 President Bush told the nation to go shopping and
strengthen tourism. Some argue his act of “popular deference” instead of a call for engaged
citizenry was meant to distract from the allegations against Iraq (Bacevich, 2008), and as a
means to fund a two-front war without raising taxes. Americans escalated their consumption per
his request, and as Dickler (2011) points out, even in the time of recession that rampant
consumerism did not stop. Even prior to the terrorist attacks of 9/11, adhering to capitalist ideals
had been praised since the fifties as a way to combat the United States enemies. Demonizing
communism and fascism during WW-II and beyond (Stearns, 2006), the Bush Administration
only reinforced what had become habitual and normal—outspending our financial capacity. Even
traditional consumer education teaches its students that to navigate the complicated free-market
is to gain an advantage over everyday consumers (Sandlin, 2005). Moreover, like President Bush,
this paradigm shifts the critical eye of the consumer onto the producers rather than the system
itself (Sandlin, p.175), focusing in the symptoms rather than the root cause. Soper argues in Re-
thinking the ‘Good Life’ than no citizen would righteously agree that naming their familial
connections and best interests to be subsidiary to those of the state (p. 207) is their duty to their
government, yet Americans escalated their addiction to spending when the states requested it.

However, as not every citizen participated in this shopping extravaganza, further research should
point towards reasons middle and working class consumers might possess when choosing not to
spend their money.
Individualism: Altruism and Hedonism
Sandlin (2005) argues that consumer education as a political site raises the critical-
thinking skills of students to such a degree that another type of consumer is formed, one
concerned with the effects this consumption culture has on other facets of life (p. 175). Building
on that, maintaining high standards of living is deeply-interconnected to more consideration
being taken with “freedom, environmental preservation, and sustainability” (Soper, 2007, p. 210).
This altruistic consumer would probably have been an individual who once had faced injustice in
terms of consumption decisions leading to a new awareness of wider concerns related to their
personal experience (Soper, 2007).
The consumer can evolve his or her behavior internally to reflect a hope of a wider
alternative behavior eventually being adopted. Various studies support this line of thinking,
postulating key variables of these consumers as young with a high level of discontent, unlikely to
possess much faith in government enacting their personal choice of policy, with a higher
education, an interest in politics, and high level of civic initiative (Newman, p. 9). Another study
contributes to these findings, with results showing that “individuals who express environmental
concerns tend to consume public affairs programming and nature documentaries at higher levels”
(Shah, 2007, p. 221). Furthermore, scholarly work by Soper adds that this framework, while
enlightening some consumers, polarizes the majority, due to the assigning of blame for society’s

larger issues to the one doing the consumption (p. 208). Not every scholar’s work concludes that
these individual choices are altogether altruistic.
Dubbed “alternative hedonism” by Soper, she contends that some consumers choose a
lifestyle similar to those citizens described above, yet is derived from the selfish behavior
patterns noticeably consistent with the Gans (1988) definition of middle American individualism
where a consumer would change his or her lifestyle and consumption choices due to externalities
personally affecting them, such as forfeiting the use of a car in exchange for utilizing the
diminishing public area preserves before they disappear or for personal body transformation
(Soper, 2007). The loss of traditions, experiences, opportunities and advantages which are no
longer available due to societal and corporate forces shifts the paradigm of desire from objects
available today to those that will never be present again (Soper, 2007). This yearning for
fulfillment doesn’t reside only in the individual, however; organized and determined groups of
citizens, either with an altruistic mindset or personal experience of injustice utilize their
collective citizenry to affect political change as well.
Collective Action
Just as escalating consumerism in the United States inspires individuals to change their
consumption practices, groups of citizens have shown to be particularly effective at collectively
politicizing their demands to the point of changing government and corporate practices. One
method with many examples of this comes in the form of boycotts, beginning as early as the
Boston Tea Party in 1773 (Jacobs, 2001). A different and sustained form of collected citizenry
can be viewed today at the site of Occupy Wall St; termed a social movement, this type of
consumption politics directs and acquires groups of Americans from across the country to protest

similar or identical political or corporate methodologies (Sandlin, 2005). A social media
revolution in the United States dubbed “Bank Transfer Day” directly resulted in the preemptive
dissolution of Bank of America’s recently announced debit card fee policy (Berman, 2011).
Soper (2005) contends that a third facet of cultural consumer education addressing collective
politicizing is the result of consumers critically questioning the entire system and structure of
consumption in the United States as it pertains to their lives and the lives of their fellow citizens,
creating anti-consumers (p. 177).
Aside from social movements like the Students Against Sweatshops, another tactic for
change is for citizens to “culture jam,” or to utilize the same strategies and mediums used for
advertisement against the enemy industries (Sandlin, p. 177). Organizations such as Adbusters
Media Foundation target television consumers by substituting advertisements for goods with
messages meant to break the ideological hold on citizens. As Leonard (2011) stated, the average
American views over 3000 advertisements each day, and “culture jammers” seek to break that
monotony by communicating anti-consumerist critical-thinking ideals directly, or as one scholar
put it, those on the weak end of the power spectrum are “able to use the resources provided by
the strong in their own interests, and to oppose the interests of those who provided the resources
in the first place” (Fiske, 2000, p. 314, as cited in Sandlin). Via collective actions, few are able to
propel the interests of the majority against the powers of the minority, despite varied results.
In Summary
Prior to the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), one can trace the
escalation of American consumerism using the thread of government-policy decisions, where it
preserved a booming national-turned-global economy born from a decisive military victory in the

Second World War. Suggestions for further research include examining how the implementation
of the Affordable Care Act has positively, or negatively, affected the areas stated above—in
terms of psychology and material wealth. Prior to the ACA, consumerism found traction through
advertisements and increasingly-sophisticated technology endorsing a myriad of goods while
simultaneously structuring individualistic identity formation through promoting superficial
political participation; sustained by a barrage of desire-inducing images beginning at infancy,
trends in consumption show the need to consume grows stronger over time unless deterred
(Stearns, 2006; Gans, 1998). While utilizing a cultural framework, one views this multi-
generational feat in terms of the relationship between those in power and those without (Sandlin,
2005). Reviewing the effects of this escalation with specific attention on the family unit show a
rising decrease in material wealth, a shift from the 1950s nuclear family, changes in parental
behavior as well as the manner in which families celebrate religion and holidays. Industry and
innovation inspired transformations of body and identity; in doing so, it also monetized the value
of health and brought detrimental consumerism into healthcare. Employing various methods of
consumer education can result in critically aware consumers and anti-consumers, drawing private
and public attention to corporate and government policies while inviting citizens to join together
in an effort for change.

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