The Consumer Society

The Consumer Society: The Urge to Splurge

Introduction

This essay deals with the phenomenon of consumer society and whether it is something advantageous or inadequate for the overall economy and society at large. In this paper, we will seek to develop a thesis statement, which will be tested by arguments, both against and in favor of the statement. In the end, we will be testing our thesis statement, with the facts proposed in the report. Consumer Society is a now a very familiar term, which leads our mind to the excessive adverting and marketing offers at hand these days. In order to discuss that in more detail, we will move on to our next section of the report.

Thesis Statement

Consumer Society is not beneficial for the society and economy at large

Discussion

This section of the report includes the basic understanding of the consumer society and analyzes the thesis of this essay, that consumer society is inadequate for long run in the society. In order to move ahead with this research, we first need to know what consumer society is. The understanding of the basic concept of consumer society will lead us to the numerous points in favor or against the thesis statement mentioned earlier.

Consumer Society

The term consumer society is used to describe a society in which consumers are encouraged to consume goods and services abundantly. This concept appeared as a result of mass production of goods, which revealed that it was easier to make the products we sell, so entrepreneurial effort shifted to the marketing. This model is based on roaring twenties stretched, with a prolonged period of economic depression, until around 1970, began what some call, Third Industrial Revolution, the revolution in microelectronics, the automation and computing, made possible by new media, robots and computers. Specifically, it was after the Second World War in the early 50's, when production gained great importance, contributing to increased needs, among other reasons, because the demands of the capitalist development led to a situation in which the consumer demand got encouraged and directed in a market in constant expansion and qualitative transformation, leading to the internal structural change following the production of primitive capitalism.

In postindustrial society, economic growth is linked mainly to the need of conquering new markets, which gives very special importance to advertising. In this society, the crowding and profusion are the most important descriptive features. On the other hand, this society is characterized not only by rapid growth of the individual costs, but also by the growth of the costs incurred by third parties on behalf of individuals.

Consumer Society is the totality of social relations in which the key role played by individual consumption, mediated by the market. Such a society is a natural product of mature capitalism. Of course, in any society, the individual consumption would be the basis of its production. But only at a certain stage of development of individual consumption is subjected to a deep institutionalization and becomes a key factor in economic ...