Its prompted by the people who buy those commercials.
Who are capitalists.
Yes they are capitalists. They aren't capitalism. Capitalists are major actors in a capitalist system. They are not the system, they certainly aren't the ideas and philosophy behind the system.
WTF Tim. Capitalists are the human embodiment of capitalism just as Americans are the human embodiment of America.
I can't find the person who made this statement but a relevant quote is "what's wrong with capitalism is capitalists, what's wrong with communism is communism".
That's right.......theories are always most perfect when in theory. When humans get involved, we bring our imperfections to those theories and the waters get muddied.
"Capitalism creates the wealth that allows the consumption, and it gives people the freedom to use that wealth for consumption, but consumption is desirable for most people with or without capitalism."
Not necessarily......if there were only two clothing styles for each gender, I suspect the purchasing of clothes would drop preciptiously.
I'm talking about the desire for consumption not consumption. If people have more money and more choices they are likely to consume more. But if they don't have money or many choices the desire doesn't really go away unless the choices are so limited that they don't even realize that they could in theory have more options.
And that's where capitalism steps in....it encourages the number of choices and encourages people to accumulate money in order to buy those choices.
Before capitalism, Russians had few choices in the market place and did very little consumption. With the advent of capitalism, they now have numerous choices. I am not blaming capitalism necessarily or entirely, but this transition from limited to many choices is literally killing people in Russia. Since the USSR fell apart, the lifespan of the average Russian has decreased dramatically.........the lifespan for a man has declined to 58 years. Alcoholism has increased significantly in a population already alcohol prone.
In the malaise of the Russians, there is a message to us.....that capitalism can be harmful to your health. Because we grew up in capitalism, we are able to adapt more easily to capitalism's dysfunction. However, that does not mean that its negative aspects leave us untouched. On the contrary, this society is having more and more difficulty keeping things together.
The consumption habits of the above people may have appeared great for their economic system and societies but it appears puny when compared to their equals in a capitalistic society. To use an extreme example, Cleopatra may have had a two dozen pairs of sandals or whatever passed for footwear back then in her wardrobe but Imelda Marcos had over 3000 pairs, thanks to the bounty of capitalism.
Imelda Marcos cared more about shoes. The Pharaohs has more gold in their burial chambers. Desires vary. Its possible that Imelda consumed more overall, but she is from a much wealthier society.
But one that is very poor by world standards. It was an affront to every person starving or subsisting in the Phillippines. She knew that but still capitalism allowed/justified her need to feed her fetish.
She certainly consumed less as a percentage of the economy and almost certainly consumed less as a multiple of the consumption of the people around her.
Is that how you've learned to sleep at night? I am sure Marcos adopted a similar tactic.
It may well be true that humans are innately consumptive but capitalism enables that consumption in the same way liquor enables an alcoholic.
Consuming isn't the same as alcoholism, at least not for the vast majority of people.
Yes, it is. There are 12 step programs to help people who are addicted to shopping just as there are 12 step programs for alcoholism.
Even for those who intensely crave consumption the enabling effect is more like that of the way money enables an alcoholic. Capitalism produces the wealth that can go to consumption.
You keep ignoring a major premise of capitalism........the need for consumption.....that's how capitalism thrives. It depends mightily on the consumption by people. Therefore, it encourages consumption at every turn.
Alcohol is a physically addictive substance and it doesn't open up opportunities the way capitalism does.
Its not physically addictive.......its psychologically addictive like over shopping, like over sexing, like over drugging, like over eating. Everyone has a different drug of choice........for some, consuming is that drug.
ted |
