Consumerism and Its Discontents

[marmar]

Consumerism and Its Discontents

Monday, 27 May 2013 10:56
By Charles Derber, Truthout | Op-Ed


A quiet revolutionary struggle is brewing in the minds of the US "millennial" generation, those 80 million Americans between ages 16 and 34. They are wrestling with the fundamental edict of capitalism: Buy and you shall be happy. The millennials have not rejected consumerism, but they have also not embraced it fully. They experience its very real downsides - that also afflict millions of older Americans and go to the heart of capitalist sustainability and morality.

Recent polls by marketing firms and the respected Pew Research Center show strong environmental concerns among millennials, but hint at a broader issue: whether consumerism itself makes for a good life and society. Americans, especially the young, love their computers and sleep with their iPhones next to their pillows, but still worry about the negative sides of consumerism.

Technology itself may be contributing to what commentators have called the "death of ownership" culture, since the issue is not owning a book or television set, but having access through the web. Technology is changing the very idea of ownership. But broader factors - including the very availability of so much "stuff" - are contributing to making consumerism less new, exciting and "cool." ...................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/16582-consumerism-and-its-discontents

[Demeter]

1. The Cable Companies are distraught, certainly

They expected another generation of sheep to leave college, move into single family housing and sign up for $100+ cable packages, and for some reason, it just isn't happening!

If you own Comcast, or any other cable stock, sell now. Think of similarly stymied companies, and get out of them, too. I am not a financial person, just an observer.

[pscot]

2. Capitalist morality? Oxymoron.