We no Longer Live in a Society of Producers; We Live in a Society of Consumers - Essay Example

? “We no longer live in a society of producers; we live in a society of consumers” Introduction The world until the nineteenth century was the world of agriculture. Majority of the people were farmers during that period and agriculture was the major revenue source for them. However, development of science and technology and the subsequent development of industries have put an end to the domination of agriculture as the major revenue source for the human. The latter half of nineteenth century and the beginning of twentieth century marked were marked as the industrial revolutions period. Increase production at any cost was the major slogan for most of the industries in this period. Economists had asked factory owners to increase production as much as possible and reduce the cost or expenditure as low as possible during this period. Globalization, liberalization, and privatization like modern principles entered the world during the latter part of twentieth century. Because of these revolutionary principles, the concept of business and trade has been changed a lot. Earlier, it was not easy for the product manufacturers to export the surplus goods. However, globalization helped them to find overseas markets for the surplus goods being produced. Moreover, globalization helped them to exploit cheap labour available in overseas countries for manufacturing goods and commodities. In short, increased access of overseas market and labour force helped organizations to overcome many of the production or business problems they faced in the past. Production is not at all a problem for the organizations at present. However, marketing seems to be the most difficult problem for them now. In other words, finding consumers for the products and commodities is the biggest problem facing by the companies at present. So, all the organizations are currently more focussed on finding consumers with the help of attractive advertisements and sales promotion techniques. They are successful in their attempt to make a consumer world. “We no longer live in a society of producers; we live in a society of consumers”. Transformation of the society from production to consumerism According to Bauman (1998), “Consumerism is the social analogue to the psychopathology of depression with its twin clashing symptoms of enervation and inability to sleep”(Bauman, 1998, p.94). Psychopathy is a personality or mental disorder. In Bauman’s opinion, consumerism and psychopathy are closely related. In other words, plenty of people are currently buying goods not for fulfilling their physical requirements, but for fulfilling their mental requirements. There are plenty of people in the world who purchase goods just for keeping their social status. For example, the entry of iPhone and Samsung Galaxy forced many people to buy it even though they do not have the necessary skills to operate them. Current consumers compare the goods in the hands of friends, relatives and neighbours with the goods in their own hands. Once they see some of their relatives or friends using an attractive and expensive commodity, they may try to purchase it even if they may not get any utility out of that commodity. Thus, the buying habits of the current people have changed a lot. Status seems to be the major motivation for the current consumers rather than utility while they purchase something. During the past two decades, rhetoric about the free market has cloaked changes in America’s economy that bears little relation to real competition and freedom of choice. From airline industry to the publishing businesses, from the railroads to telecommunications, American corporations have worked hard to avoid the rigors of the markets by elimination and absorbing their rivals. The Internet at the heart of today’s “New economy” created in the late 1970’s (Schlosser, 2005, p.260) As in the case of many other things, Americans are believed to be the major culprit in causing sudden changes in the society. Many people believe that current society changed from a production oriented society to a consumer oriented society mainly because of the massive developments happened in America during the end of twentieth century. The destruction of former Soviet Union helped America very much to enjoy monopoly in global political and economic matters. Moreover, the rapid development of technology helped them very much to get the things done in easy and cheaper ways. As a result of that wealth started accumulate at all parts of America. People, who struggled to find enough money for meeting family expenses, have started to explore ways to spend their money because of this transition. It should be noted that in most of the American families, all family members may have their own vehicles. Earlier, American families had only one vehicle for the entire traveling needs of the family; however they can afford to have individual vehicles at present because of the massive economic growth took place in America during the latter part of twentieth century. McDonaldization has shown every sign of being an inexorable process sweeping through seemingly impervious institutions (eg., religions) and regions (eg., European nations such as France). In 2008, its revenues were $ 23.5 billion. McDonalds which first began operations in 1955, had 31967 restaurants throughout the world at the beginning of 2008. It has around 500 McCafe locations in Germany alone and more than 1000 in Europe as a whole (Ritzer, p.1-2). The introduction of globalization helped many heavily populated countries such as India and China to develop rapidly along with other countries. Thus consumerism started to expand its wings to all parts of the world. Even the food habits of the global public have changed a lot because of the intrusion of consumerism. Current generation is not much interested in cooking foods in their kitchen and they are increasingly relying fast food restaurants for their food needs. Thus, fast food restaurants started to operate at different parts of the world to exploit the changing life styles of the people. Increase production at any cost was the slogan adopted by the industries in the nineteenth and twentieth century. Many economists argued that any effort to increase domestic production may bring more job opportunities more revenue to the country. However, globalization has brought many challenges to these traditional economic principles. Instead of production, marketing captured dominance in the business world for the last couple of decades. Even good products failed in the market because of inadequate marketing strategies whereas many cheap quality products are tasting success with the help of clever marketing strategies. The shift of attention from production to marketing has helped organizations to increase consumerism. Knowingly or unknowingly people started to increase their purchasing habits because of the clever marketing campaigns implemented by the companies. And for the longest time, the making of things remained, at least in principle, the heart of all industrialized economies. But by the eighties, pushed along by that decade’s recession, some of the most powerful manufactures in the word had begun to falter. At around this time, a new kind of corporation began to rival the traditional all-American manufacturers for market share; these were the Nikes and Microsoft and later Tommy Hilfigers and Intels. They claimed that producing goods was only an incidental part of their operations, and that thanks to recent victories in trade liberalization and labour law reform; they were able to have their products made for them, by contractors, many of them overseas. Their real work lay not in manufacturing, but in marketing (Kelin, 2009, p.4) Abercrombie et al. (2006), pointed out that “Commercialization of cultural products and the global spread of an ideology of consumerism have the effect of replacing or supplementing more localized culture” (Abercrombie et al., 2006, p.168). For example, even though situated in a hot climatic region, India was a country in which soft drinks such as Pepsi and Coca Cola failed to create any waves until a couple of decades before. At present, these soft drink manufacturers are giving more attention to their Indian operations because of the increasing consumerism in India. At present Indians family packs of Pepsi and Coke are selling more rapidly than individual packs. In other words, Indians accept soft drinks as their family drinks now. It should be noted that the climatic conditions in Indian region has not been changed very much in recent times; however the spending habits and the life styles of the people changed a lot in recent past. It is easy for the current consumers to purchase any goods from anywhere in the world now because of globalization. The development of computers and internet and the subsequent developments in E-commerce have given the opportunity to the consumers to purchase foreign goods. It is possible for the current consumers to know the prices of any product at any place with the help of internet and bar code technology. Many application software are currently available to scan the bar codes of products and find out the prices of those products in international market. For example, modern smartphones, operating on Android operating system can conduct Google search for knowing the prices of the products using a simple barcode scanning application. In short, advancements in technology helped a lot in increasing consumerism in this world. In many cases, a purchasing situation occurs out of the fear of losing social recognition. For example, keeping an ordinary phone may not bring much social recognition to a person. On the other hand, the owners of an iPhone or Samsung Galaxy S2 may get more social recognition at present. Same way owners of an ordinary car or television set may not be respected properly in the society nowadays. On the other hand owners of expensive cars or other goods may get better acceptance in the society. These illusions often motivate the consumers to change or their old goods for purchasing new ones. Recognition is a primary psychological need for human beings and hence most of their purchasing decisions were influenced by their desire to get recognition from others. The wide spread popularity of social networks is increasing consumerism in one way or another. People often exchange information about the new products through social networks in the modern era. For example, the release information of latest models of iPads is circulating through social networks. Those who explore social networks for other purposes may come across with these new information and features of the latest models of iPads. It is quite possible that such people may develop more curiosity to know about the details of newer versions of iPads and finally they may purchase it. It is not necessary that this person had any intention to purchase an iPad before. Current consumers are surrounded by millions of information which can influence or increase their purchasing behavior. Advertising and sales promotions are powerful channels which can influence the purchasing decisions of the consumers. The actual intention of any advertising campaign is to introduce the product in the market or to increase the awareness or familiarity of the product in the market. However modern advertising campaigns are misleading. Manufacturers wanted to sell their products at any cost. For that purpose they are spreading rumours and false information about the product. In other words, advertising campaigns help marketers to promise much and deliver less. Poor consumers fall victims of such campaigns. Even for selling mosquito repellents or poisonous goods, advertisers seek the services of celebrities. Hero worshipping and celebrity worshipping is more in the modern society compared to the older societies. The words of the celebrities are divine and valuable for many of the fans. Product manufacturers know this fact very well and they mislead or cheat the consumers with the help of misleading ads. For example, in order to sell a mosquito repellent in Indian market, Bollywood celebrity Vidya Balan claims that the usage of this cream on body is safe. Vidya Balan, the new face for GoodKnight Naturals, says, "When it comes to applying products on my skin, I am very cautious. Goodknight Naturals mosquito repellent cream has unbelievable properties which make my skin feel safe whilst protecting me from mosquitoes during outdoor shoots, and the best part is that it is non-sticky (Chawla, 2009). It should be noted that mosquito repellants can cause major health problems. However, in the above advertisement, Vidya Balan even smells the mosquito repellent and explains the pleasant smell. A layman or fan of Vidya Balan watching that advertising may immediately purchase that product and may imitate what Vidya Balan does in that advertisement. In short, misleading advertisements are increasing consumerism up to certain extent. Many people believe that the current consumers are passive victims in the marketing system. In their opinion, advertisers and marketers are exploiting the weakness of the consumers very much and the poor consumers forced to purchase items based on the false promises provided by the marketers and advertisers. Product manufacturers know the sentiments of the people very well and they develop strategies to exploit it. For example, hair loss is a big problem for many people. Those who are too much worried about becoming bald at an early age may try to regrow hair with the help of products available in the market. There are plenty of hair regrowth products available in the market which claims surprising and unbelievable results. Rogaine, Propecia etc are some of the medicines available in the market which claim that hair regrowth is possible. Millions of people all over the world use these products to regrow their hair. However, many studies proved that the success percentage of these products is extremely low. In other words, only few people are getting some kind of benefits whereas majority of the people develop a feeling of cheating after the usage of such medicines. In short, fabricated or exaggerated claims put forward by the product manufacturers is increasing consumerism. Many people have the illusion that increased consumerism may affect only the persons who are addicted to it. In fact increased consumerism at one part of the world can affect other parts of the world also. For example, Americans use more shopping bags than any other people in the world. The raw materials needed to manufacture these shopping bags may come from Africa or Asia. Thus, natural resources of these regions are destroyed because of the increased consumerism in America. It should be noted that many of the people in African countries are struggling to eat food at least once in every day. At the same time, Westerners are believed to be wasting foods. McDermott (2010) pointed out that “an average European uses some 43 kilos of natural resources daily, while the average US resident more than doubles that at 88 kilograms” (McDermott, 2010). In short, increased consumerism result in wastage of natural resources and foods at some part of the world at a time when people in other parts of the world are struggling to find enough food and resources for their survival. Increased consumerism increases accumulation of toxic wastages. Developed countries are responsible for accumulation of toxic waste; however these wastes are deposited in the poor countries. For example, outdated computers are accumulating huge in number in developed countries. These outdated computers are exported to poor countries free of cost by developed countries in order to avoid the accumulation of e-wastes. Developing or poor countries do not have the necessary technologies to process wastes without causing any damages to the environment and the people. Thus, they forced to keep these wastes in their territories in an unsafe manner. In short, increased consumerism causes environmental problems in poor countries. Even though consumerism started in developed word, it is currently spreading to developing world also. For example, China and India are the first and second most heavily populated countries in the world. Per capita income of Indian and Chinese are much lesser than that of the Americans. However, the economies of India and China are growing rapidly at present whereas American economy is struggling for a revival after the recent recession. So, product manufactures are currently shifting their attention to Asian region from American and European region. Some of the recent statistics showed that Indians and Chinese, who used bicycles in the past, are using motor bikes and cars at present. Young consumers did not consider themselves to be passive victims or conformist. They need to feel they are cool and in. This is a general expression, which suggests that they need to fit in and they accept only what has been given them on a silver platter right under their very nose. Media, for example MTV. And consequently everybody wants to be a hip hopper. The most critical perspectives on conformity were articulated in terms of ‘herd-like’ or ‘sheep-like’ behavior, an expression describing a mass of ignorant and mindless followers. A certain group of people sets some trends and indoctrinates and infects with their ideas the rest of society. And this part of society takes it. Because they fear that they won’t be in. And they wanna’ fit in (Pysn?akova, n. d, p.32). Consumerism is currently spreading all over the world as a culture rather than a life style. Trend setting is often done by some celebrities and others follow them. For example, David Beckham is believed to be a trend setter. Millions of fans all over the world are imitating Beckham in one way or another. Metro sexuality is a newly evolved term in cosmetic industry mainly because of the contributions from Beckham like celibrities. Earlier, only females were particular in keeping or maintaining their figure and appearance in good shape. Men in the past were not much interested in protecting their shape or appearance. Thus, cosmetic product manufacturers forced to produce goods which address the needs of only the female community. However, they realised that it is difficult for them to survive in the market without exploiting the male community. So, they deliberately introduced a term called metro sexuality to motivate the male community to think about their physical appearance. The active participation of men along with women in the consumer market is a blessing for fashion or cosmetic industry. Bauman, (2000) mentioned that “Consumers may be running after pleasurable tactile, visual or olfactory sensations” (Bauman, 2000, p.81). Some companies enjoy monopoly in the market which increases consumerism. For example, Microsoft is holding monopoly in operating system market and consumers forced to purchase Windows and MS Office like software products for huge prices. It should be noted that majority of the PC’s all over the world use Windows as the operating system and it is difficult for them to replace windows with any other operating system. Microsoft knows this fact very well and they introduces newer versions (claimed to be newer!) of windows time to time to exploit consumers. Many people believe that the newer versions of Windows are only the modified versions of earlier versions and there is nothing new in it. However, they forced to buy it because of the absence of alternate options to operate their computers. Conclusions Without any doubt, one can say that “We no longer live in a society of producers; we live in a society of consumers”. The economic principles and business principles are changing day by day as a result of the development of new technologies and changing life styles of the people. Business people were interested in increasing production in the past; however, they are currently trying to strengthen their marketing activities. Effective marketing campaigns increase consumerism. Purchasing is no more a physical need but a psychological need. Many people have the habit of purchasing certain things not for using it, but for getting social recognition. Increased consumerism at one part of the world is affecting other parts also. The available resources in the universe are getting decreased as time goes on. On the other hand, exploitation of resources is taking place at a rapid pace because of increased consumerism. In a civilized world like ours, people should think seriously about the consequences of increasing consumerism. In other words, we should reduce our purchasing activities as much as possible to save something for the future generation. References Abercrombie, N., Hill, S. & Turner, B.S. 2006. The Penguin Dictionary of Sociology. Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics); 5th edition (August 29, 2006) Bauman, Z. 1998. Globalization, the human consequences. Publisher: Columbia University Press (September 15, 1998) Bauman, Z. 2000. Liquid Modernity. Publisher: Polity; 1 edition (June 16, 2000) Chawla, R. 2009. Vidya Balan to endorse GoodKnight cream, [Online], Available at: http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/news/2009/10/01/13323/index.html [Accessed 14 May 2012] Klein, N. 2009. No Logo. Publisher: Picador; 10th Anniversary Edition (November 24, 2009) McDermott, M. 2010. Cult of Consumerism at Root of Planet's Environmental Degradation & Destruction”. Treehugger. [Online], Available at: http://www.treehugger.com/corporate-responsibility/cult-of-consumerism-at-root-of-planets-environmental-degradation-destruction.html [Accessed 14 May 2012] Pysn?akova, M. (n. d), The ‘post-revolutionary’ Czech consumer generation. [Online], Available at: http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/youth/Source/Resources/Forum21/II_Issue_No5/II_No5_PostRevol_Czech_consumer_generation_en.pdf [Accessed 14 May 2012] Ritzer, G. 2010. The McDonaldization of Society 6. Publisher: Sage Publications, Inc; Sixth Edition edition (June 2, 2010) Schlosser, E. 2005. Fast Food Nation. Publisher: Harper Perennial; First Harper Perennial Edition (July 5, 2005) Read More