Mass Consumption and the Westernization of the World - Essay Example

Mass Consumption and the Westernization of the World Introduction Mass consumption is a society’s ideology that promotes excessive purchase of goods and services. This social ideology can be seen mostly in the western cultures where excessive consumption of goods is an order for the day. Although this attitude is mostly a western culture, it has been seen to be extending to the rest of the world. There is a concern on whether the introduction of this mass consumption attitude will lead to the westernization of the world. America has a unique culture and no doubt this culture is getting hold in the rest of the world being caused by the establishment of a consumer society in these other areas (Glickman, 1999). A culture of Mass consumption can be good for the economy since as more people spend, there is increased activity in the economy, which promotes the growth of the economic system. Credit cards are also another integral part of a consumer society and they support the culture of mass consumption (Ritzer, 2010). Credit cards utilization in the modern world has made it very easy for members of the society to not only access their own money but also made the giving of soft loans easier and more automated. Prior to the introduction of credit cards, individuals may have to go through long processes before they were given a loan by a bank. As the rest of the world becomes consumer societies, they will have to embrace the culture of credit cards within their societies. The culture of credit cards as a financial tool, as opposed to just as a way to offer financial transactions, is being used more in most regions of the globe, and mostly in China where economic boom in the last two decades has made it attractive to the corporations that benefit from this kind of mass consumption. This increased mass consumption does not happen on itself but is woven into a culture that supports it. In other words, mass consumption is not a culture in its self but an element within an even bigger culture, a culture that is seen to be a western culture. The western culture that supports mass consumption has the following tenets that will be distributed to the rest of the world if consumerism gets around the world. Negative capitalistic attitudes As the rest of the world becomes mass consumers, this will become an inevitable result. There is a reason why negative capitalism is inherently linked to mass consumption. First, due to the fact that mass consumption leads to people spending too much, they start having to want to make more and more money. As the love for more money increases in individuals, morals seem to be given a back seat and therefore everyone is able to now have different perspectives (Annesley, 1998). Within a consumer society, everyone desires to have extra money in order to satisfy their appetite for expenditure. As they focus too much on their need for more money, there will be no time to think about the others. This will led to capitalist attitudes, but not the right kind of capitalism. This mass consumption culture is more centered in the American cultural fabric that has become an international symbol for mass consumption and not present in the East, especially in the East, Africa and South America. As mass consumption spreads to the rest of the world, it will bring with it this nature of the western culture. In fact, this kind of capitalism is intrinsically related to mass consumption (Ritzer, 2010). This was as was seen in the last American economic crisis where many individual, especially corporate leaders acted in selfish way that led to the near-collapse of the economy. Capitalism depends on the existence of a mass consumer society. On the other hand, mass consumption also depends on this kind a culture of capitalism and self love. This kind of capitalistic culture provides the fuel in which mass consumption is nurtured. The mass consumption on the other hand creates a viable and conducive environment that makes this kind of capitalism possible due to the fact that this kind of culture has to depend on the increased level of spending. Self centeredness and the American Narcissism As Lunbeck (2014) says, social critics have in the past argued that Americans make one of the most narcissistic societies. This attitude of self importance in USA is as a caused by the fact that in the American culture, people are judged based their individual achievement and not necessarily from what the society has achieved. If an individual intends to make a name, they will have to prove themselves. As Jurmain (2011) argues, the behavior of individuals within a society can be taken as the extrapolation of the way the society he lives in regard things. In this regard, the culture of mass consumption is acquired from the attitudes of the people in a society. Just like the way in America the culture of mass consumption has been fueled by the cultural attitudes of the people who make the society, similar cultural attitudes will take rook in the rest of the world as mass consumption becomes a global culture. The admiration for individual achievement self centeredness is a basic ingredient in the making of a consumer society. This is then clearly indicated in the way the people spend their money. In America for instance, owning a home is regarded as the height of personal achievement. Apart from that, owning economic indicators such as a big car, sending one’s child to the best school, living in a good neighborhood, wearing the most expensive clothes, stuffing ones home with gadgets and electronics, etc are all important indicators of one’s economic and financial achievement. This attitudes supports mass consumption by the society and without them, mass consumption would not be present in a society (Glickman, 1999). This is a major nut in any society that embraces mass consumption as part of its culture and as the same attitude and culture spreads to the rest f the world, this will have to be carried along. The culture of mass consumption as witnessed in USA, and attitude of selfishness by individuals, are related and they are inseparable without killing one. It is important to note that in this regard, mass consumption does not refer to the buying of goods, but rather to two main factors about personal spending which are; 1) spending beyond ones resources and 2) buying unnecessary items. The second part actually tells it all. This is because the only reason why people buy things they don’t need is because they are trying to look good. They are actually trying to look better than everyone else. This indicates just how much a culture of mass consumption is hinged on self centeredness of individuals. Without this self centeredness and deep desire to become better than everyone else, mass consumption would almost have no part in the modern economy (Glickman, 1999). Lack of concern for the future There is also an increased lack of concern for the future that comes with consumerism. As the society becomes more of a mass consumption society, caution is thrown out and the present becomes much more important to the individual that the future. The culture of saving had always been at the centre of all societies, even in the west and in American in particular. However, as mass consumption came in, newer generations have failed to recognize the need to have savings and they are increasingly spending not only all their income but beyond what they have already earned. As mass consumption encroach the other regions of the world, the same lack of concern for the future has also come with it. A good example for this may be seen in Asia. In China, the concept of saving has for a long time been held in high regard. Parents have always taught their children the need to save for the future. However, as western culture of mass consumption has encroached China and the newer younger generations are getting swept off with the desire to own more and more products, saving money for future use is not celebrated. New breed of generation of people are moving from their traditional culture of saving, working hard, spending less that they earn etc to the new American way of overspending. Credit Cards and the Americanization of the world Credit cards are at the centre of the American culture and have been the main fuel increasing the rates of mass consumption in the United States of America (Ritzer, 2010). Credit cards stand at the heart of the any society where mass consumption is encouraged. If the same culture of mass consumption gets to the rest of the world, the use of credit cards as a financial too will inevitably follow. As this takes root in other regions of the world, the credit cards will increase in importance as part of the spending culture will increase in order to support this new way of life. This is feared that it may have a negative impact on the world economy. If the rest of the world, or at least most of it, embraces the credit card culture, the risk of the world economy suffering an even bigger depression in the future is high (Ritzer, 2010). Yet, as the mass consumption of commodities increase, the remaining regions of the world are fast learning from the West, especially the USA, the utility of these credit cards. It is, however definitely not the use of credit cards that is a problem, since the use of credit has a lot of advantages in making the economy to run with lower costs and easy ways to transfer money. However, it is the culture of misuse of the credit cards to support mass consumption that is the problem. As the rest of the word start adopting the western culture of mass consumption, the misuse of credit cards will be inevitable. Needles to say, this kind of consumerism will lead to the cost of living increasing in these countries such as China. As the cost of living increases and the people still want to spend more, the use of credit cards will be inevitable. This will especially be made easy since the companies that provide the credit cards would want that to happen since they benefit the most when consumers overspend and have to pay hefty interests on their credit cards (Frank, 1997). The other main factors that will make mass consumption to lead to the rest of the world having to adopt western and especially American culture is the fact that in a nutshell, globalization is the spread of the American business into the rest of the world. American companies have benefited from the fact that Americans are consumerists. They benefit from the very nature of the American culture of mass consumption and therefore seek to exploit this in the maximum possible way (Frank, 1997). As these companies go to the rest of the world as has been seen, they will need to make sure that the American culture of mass consumption will be adopted in the other regions. This is going to be achieved through mass media which has been very useful tool to change the way people think. These firms know that in the absence of this culture, it is going to be very hard for them to survive in any market. The best evidence of this kind of new future can be identified with the situation in China. As the mass consumption attitude has started to get hold in Chinese cities such as Hong Kong and Beijing, the spirit of capitalism and self centeredness has also taken over. The last few years have seen young Chinese men adopting consumerism. In fact, these young Chinese, most of whom are youth who have just started earning, can be seen going for shopping tours in European cities such as in London and Paris. According to report, people are more likely to bump on a Chinese in a London mall or Paris mall than he is to bump on the local people. This indicates that the American culture of mass consumption has already taken root especially among the younger people in the East. As the younger generation start adapting to the American consumerism, they have also had to learn the other aspects of American culture. Not only are these people self driven and self centered, they are also becoming more capitalistic in attitude. This is new in a country that was once a communist nation where individual goals were not as celebrated as in the United States. The new capitalism has also acted as the fuel for the ebonies in most of these eastern nations such as China, India, and Thailand etc. People in China are adopting this culture of mass consumption as well as the spirit of capitalism and this has helped then economy in their nation to achieve development faster. However, the main concern that lingers for most social analysts is how long it will have to be before the negative aspects of this new culture will be felt. Conclusion The culture of mass consumption is hinged on a cultural fabric that is woven using certain aspects of culture and cultural attitudes as found in the American culture. Without this fabric acting as the holding material, the culture of mass consumption would not hold. In this regard it is inevitable that as the rest of the world embraces mass consumption, as is now witnessed in many countries such as China, they will also have to adopt the American culture. Reference list: Annesley, J. (1998). Blank Fictions: Consumerism, Culture, and the Contemporary American Novel. New York, NY: Pluto Press. Frank, T. (1997). The Conquest of Cool: Business Culture, Counterculture, and the Rise of Hip Consumerism. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Glickman, L. (1999). Consumer Society in American History: A Reader. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. Jurmain, R. (2011). Introduction to Physical Anthropology 2011-2012 Edition. Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning. Lunbeck, E. (2014). The Americanization of Narcissism. Boston, MA: Harvard University Press. Ritzer, G. (2010). Expressing America: A Critique of the Global Credit Card Society. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications. Read More