Consumption is usually defined as
final purchase of goods and services. Consumption is at the end of the cycle of
economic activities that starts with an
evaluation of available resources and proceeds through production and
distribution of goods and services. One question we can raise is how long can
producers economically survive if no one buys their goods and services? From
this perspective, consumers are essential to the mechanism that makes the
economy running. Definition of “sovereign consumer” implies someone who
independently makes decisions. But what if those decisions are heavily
influenced by norms and aggressive marketing by enterprises? Who “rules” then?
When we look at an economy from this perspective, we can see that consumer behavior
is often cultivated as a means to the ends of producers, rather than the other
way around.
Some people have consumerist
values (the belief that meaning and satisfaction in life are to be found
through the purchase and use of consumer goods) or attitudes. They always want
to consume more, and their meaning and satisfaction in life, to a large extent,
is seen through the purchase of new consumer goods. Consumerism as part of
a historical process has created mass markets, industrialization, and cultural
attitudes that ensure that rising incomes are used to purchase ever-growing
commodities.
Our healthy and productive economy... demands that we make
consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into
rituals, that we seek our spiritual and ego satisfaction, in consumption... We
need things consumed, burned up, worn out, replaced, and discarded at an
ever-increasing rate.
Increasing consumption is an important goal in situations
where people have insufficient goods and services. However, as the human race
grows richer, it becomes significant to recognize that more consumption is not
always better. Increasing consumption can be worse for individuals who may
suffer from overeating, psychological disturbances from certain kinds of
overstimulation, and from exclusive or excessive attention to material things. It is evident that there can be such a
thing as too much consumption. The use of reference groups creates a
paradox: we can apparently never have enough to be satisfied, because there is
always someone with more than we have. More consumption of goods that use
up nonsustainable resources in their production and generate waste materials
also means more degradation of the natural environment. High-consuming
countries have an impact on the natural environment that is out of proportion
to their populations.
One response of the society on this destructive consumption
style is dumpsters diving. Dumpster diving practice emerged as an environmentally
and socially conscious way of life contrary to the wastefulness of consumer
society and throw-away culture, and is becoming part of reality.
