Is Capitalism a Driving Force of Consumerism Globally - Essay Example

In specific, an economic system that advocates the notion of a free market, profit-making activities, and encourages privatization of various means of production is Capitalism. In capitalism, business individuals plan out their own business strategies due to minimum intrusion of the government, and thus, effective determination of various sources of capital becomes possible in such an economic system. Moreover, the nature of goods and services is another right of the businesspersons in the capitalism that enables them to decide the extent of profit in their businesses. Mostly related to the free market economy, it encourages the profit motive and investment by the private sector. This allows those with the necessary capital to gain profits and does not allow a high degree of government interference. The investors in the business sector are known as capitalists as they are the ones who own the means of production. Therefore, in the capitalist system it is the forces of demand and profit motive that dictate the use of the resources. The government has little or no say in the allocation or rationing of resources. The closest we can see to the purely capitalist system is in United States of America. Studies have indicated that mercantilism seems the most primitive appearances of capitalism that existed in the city of Rome and various Middle Eastern regions. In such a system, distribution of goods was the major mode for the realization of profit. Goods were bought at one site for a certain price, moved to another site, and sold at a higher price. As the Romans looked to expand their empires, the mercantilism expanded, and these ideas set in the history of humankind. Similar developments can be compared with the expansion of the Islamic empire spreading their influence in Africa, Asia and even in Europe. Experts believe that Muslims were the inspiration of medieval Europeans who were able to acquire the skills of mercantilism from them. One of the major reasons of such a hypothesis is due to a number of terms in European languages, such as tariff, traffic, etc indicate the touch of Arabic language. Thus, how is capitalism and mercantilism related? In this regard, analysis has indicated that mercantilism went through a process of evolution in the European region that resulted in its evolution in the form of economic activities, which now exist as Capitalism. The sources of production in modern times: land, materials, tools etc are all capital for the people and its owners are called capitalists. They accumulate capital and invest it to earn more and more profit. Moreover, philosophically, experts have been relating capitalism with the thoughts of Enlightenment that involved the notions of progress on large scale, which encouraged founders of capitalists to focus on the production of wealth with large production in the national economy. Therefore, in a concept derived whole sole from the idea of progress, the entire structure of capitalism as a way of thinking is built on the idea of economic growth. Moreover, there is an absence of prescribed end in such development of the economy while the objective of such a system is to enable nations to develop economically on a steady basis. Furthermore, analysis has pointed out the relation of altruism and self-interest with the capitalism. In addition, the production of goods and services performs two tasks by fulfilling requirements of the consumers, and the same time, securing a profit for owners of the means of production. However, in such fulfillment, evidence has noticed that capitalism has caused huge amount of production in the developed world that has resulted in the imbalance of goods and requirements. Moreover, capitalism is now involved in production of two many goods while not focusing on actual needs of the consumers. Still, capitalism has been successful in inclining the consumers to alter their requirements, in order to ensure survival of the economic system. Besides, to survive, capitalism has been focusing primarily on the requirements of wealthy people while overlooking the needs of the needy ones globally. In the Western half of the world, one can observe the dominance of the capitalist system. It is based on private ownership as opposed to the socialist economy with state or community ownership. Consumerism has been in wide connection with the capitalist system. It refers to an increasing desire to consume goods and services to achieve greater satisfaction. Consumerism is one of the driving forces of capitalism as it induces the masses to benefit from increased consumption and the capitalists in turn benefit from the profits that are earned due to these actions. In the last century, we have witnessed the spread of consumerism in all areas of life, even those areas like health and education that were previously controlled by the state. In addition, the human race has transformed from a work-oriented culture to a consumer-oriented society. Nowadays, people are no longer judged by their job status. Today, the judgment criterion is the lifestyle we lead, the products we use and the brands we portray. We are now identified by consumption and not our work, leading to an entirely new consumer culture. Capitalism leading to consumerism has become a global perspective as the capitalists aim to extend their influence to areas where there is scope to tap the markets in order to spread consumerism and increase their profits. This in turn is leading to the development of a world market and consequently, allowing maximization of profits. Processes such as Mcdonaldization (Ritzer, pp. 23-25, 2000), Americization, and Westernization are predominant of this world market. This leads to a widespread consumer culture. The third aspect of capitalist production according to Karl Marx is "the creation of a world market" (Marx, 1956, pp. 295-6). As we already know that under the capitalist system, the aim of the companies is to expand markets and maximise profits. Similarly, the aim of the masses is to buy maximum number of good quality goods at the least possible price. However, the most crucial point behind these aims is the negative impact that they are bringing about. The capitalists help promote consumerism and exploit the consumers. Simultaneously they both collectively contribute to climatic change and societal problems (Friedman, 2000, chapter 4). This will be discussed later in this article. Firstly, for consumers to consume the most important factor is the availability of money. In addition, this is unequally distributed in the capitalist society. We are well aware that not all people hold the factors of production/capital. Capital is concentrated in a few hands- capitalists. Therefore, when capitalists are promoting consumerism among the masses it is not necessary that everyone have the choice to spend/consume. The question that arises here is that whether capitalism-consumerism helps maintain the wealth and capital in few hands or it helps to reallocate capital. Miles (1998) believes that capitalism and consumerism creates an illusion of choice for all, specifically the poor. He states, “Consumerism cannot be all things to all men and women. Rather, it protects those with resources from those without” (1998: 149). Therefore, Miles’s viewpoint is quite clear that the capitalist society does not help the poor. In fact, it keeps them in the illusion that they are progressing when they are actually being exploited. However, Miles’s argument is short lived as in some areas he has been found to be incorrect. He claimed, “Internet... [Is] clearly beyond the means of the majority of people... [and is] largely the preserve of the privileged who can access it through business or education” (1998: 147). In 1998, internet had just come out in the open but as time has passed even the poor and those without the capital now have access to computer and internet. Nowadays, it is the era of wireless communication we are progressing at a phenomenal pace. It may not be wrong to state that consumerism creates a barrier/ divide between rich and the poor. However, its alternative communism has also not contributed much in history except bringing about disruption and ruins. Karl Marx, a prominent supporter of communism had advocated this system during the industrial era. It may have seemed feasible then but in reality, it was an illusion. The current capitalist system in this global era has contributed to consumption, which in turn has promoted progress and growth. Friedman (2000, chapter4) explains how after the end of Cold War, democracy has progressed under this capitalist system. It is the private sector that has helped promote inventions like computers, satellites and various other appliances for the betterment of humankind. Therefore, due to this capitalist mindset, consumerism has been promoted as the common person has started to benefit from these inventions. In addition, the capitalist culture can be known for exploitation of the consumer and now we will look at it from a slightly different perspective. This will concentrate more on how capitalist culture is bringing about a rapid consumer culture thereby promoting consumerism simultaneously. Capitalism has been known to be a threat to this world because it seems to be bringing about homogenisation. This is because it aims to get near the free market economy. This homogenisation is also the principle of multinational companies as they try to create world brands. Popular brands like Pepsi, Coca Cola, Marlboro, and Nike aim to become the ideal and lone brands in the world. This threatens to bring about consumerism rather than commercialisation. This acts as a threat to the third world as it creates and illusion making it difficult to distinguish between needs and wants. This may not be in the interests of the populations in such countries as they may be lured to give up their own cultures and adopt a new consumer culture. According to Tomlinson (2001), “analyses of the culture of capitalism have placed the cultural practice of consumption at the centre.” This when interpreted seems perhaps the backbone of capitalism as the production of more and more goods and services for consumption is the basic principle of capitalism. These products use the various cultural experiences, convert them to products, tag them with a price, and sell them for profits. This is the culture encouraged by capitalism. This is widely accepted by critics all around who agree to the fact that “consumption is the cultural telos of capitalism as an economic system” (Tomlinson, pg.122, 2001). To give an example, Tomlinson refers to the work of W. W. Rostow, who stated in his work ‘The Stages of Economic Growth’ 1960, that the final stage of capitalist modernity will be “The Era of High Mass Consumption.” All the critics of capitalist culture agree that capitalism results in economic inequities. Not everyone can have the same level of consumption. They also believe that this will have a negative ecological impact due to the growth caused by mass consumption. However, most important to them is the impact that will occur on the culture. This theory also has some critical weaknesses. Theorists state that capitalism promotes homogenous principles built in capitalist modernity. However, it is not evident enough that global marketing leads to global cultural homogenization. Although it is undeniable that capitalism results in urbanization, development, introduction of mass communication and various other developments, there is no evidence, which conclusively indicates that capitalism, is a threat to the society. In addition, the consumerist culture may not entirely be a by-product or result of capitalism. It can be the result of entirely different factors. To conclude, capitalist culture and consumer culture may not necessarily be based upon exploitation and exclusion. It focuses on economic growth and improvement of standard of living. The problems are just an unintended result. Conclusively, the paper has analyzed some of the important features of the capitalism while evaluating the role of Capitalism as a driving force of consumerism on global level. In this regard, the paper identified various researches related to the topic; however, it is expectation of the research that future researches on the same hypothesis will enable a more comprehensive understanding of the economic system. It is anticipation that the abovementioned discussion will be beneficial for students and professionals in better understanding of the topic. References Friedman, Thomas. (2000). the Lexus and the Olive Tree. Harper Collins: London. Marx, Karl. (1956). Karl Marx: Selected Writings in Sociology & Social Policy. Watts & Co: London. Miles, Steven. (1998). Consumerism: as a way of life. Sage: London. Ritzer, George. (2000). the Mcdonaldization of Society. Pine Forge Press: London. Tomlinson, John. (2001). Cultural imperialism: a critical introduction. Springer Read More