Civil War Consumerism Analysis

America’s current standard of living is going to cause our demise. Consumerism is a problem throughout Americans culture since mass production began in the late nineteenth century. The obsession with consumerism has led to mindless wastes of resources, a diseased society and economic instability. Rick Wolff, a professor of economics at University of Massachusetts, states “economics of capitalism spread consumerism—now uncontrolled, ecologically harmful, and fiscally disastrous—throughout the United States”. Wolff’s viewpoint on consumerism aligns with mine. Believing that an economy based on promoting endless consumption is volatile and unsustainable. Consumerism can be analyzed and seen to be embedded by corporations and politicians.

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He explains the civil war being the historic event that turned America to expand further into the consumerist economy. Although it was labeled a war to combat slavery Berman explains, “prior to the Emancipation Proclamation, the North had proposed no change in the status of the Negro as a result of the war”. Making Berman labeling it as a war “between two conflicting economies” (Why American Failed 121). This could arguable be the expansion of the industrial north of mass production causing a ripple effect to mass consumption. The south was focused more on agriculture and exportation of goods, although it was at the cost of slavery at the time. The expansion of consumerism in American history led to its deadliest war with over six hundred thousand deaths. This shows the power of industries and corporations on political decision making. The north won the war and expansion of consumerism

Meaning corporations purposely make products that won’t last or will be otherwise social unacceptable to own in the near future. This is all a trick to cause the consumer to buy more of a product and spend more money. According to Annie Leonard, author of The Story of Stuff, “[designers] discussed how fast they can make stuff break and still leave the consumer with enough faith in the product to go buy another one” (11). This fuels consumption further than necessary and most importantly at an alarmingly wasteful way. Nothing shows more obsolescence than the technology market with computers and phones. Giles Salde wrote an award winning book about technology obsolescence and explains “a century of advertising has conditioned us to want more, better, and faster from any consumer good we purchase, in 2004 about 315 million working PCs were retired in North America” (Planned Obsolescence viewpoint). This shows the affect caused by corporations to increase profits at the cost of resources. They use new software and products being incompatible with previous versions of electronics to force consumers to buy more. You see this commonly with televisions, gaming systems, computers, and many other electronic