The consumerism in the 1920s paved the way for a changing life style and attitude over money and spending in America. Many Americans acknowledge that we, as a society, spend too much money, but this does not stop us from wasting millions of dollars on products and services that we never use. It is true that consumerism has some positive effects, such as improving the economy, creating more employment opportunities and increasing the standard of living. However, the over spending and excessive wasting associated with consumerism result in an unhealthy craving for goods, decreased value of spiritual and moral values and excessive greed; all of which plague American society. The end of World War I ushered in a new era of prosperity and steady economic growth in the United States.
Traditionally, Americans have sought to realize the American dream of success, fame and wealth through thrift and hard work. However, the industrialization of the 19th and 20th centuries began to erode the dream, replacing it with a philosophy of "get rich quick". A variety of seductive but elusive strategies have evolved, and today the three leading ways to instant wealth are large-prize television game shows, big-jackpot state lotteries and compensation lawsuits. In this article, Matthew Warshauer, Professor of History at Central Connecticut State University, examines why so many Americans are persuaded to seek these easy ways to their dream. How does one achieve the American Dream?
American loans were costly for America and it took them time and favors from other countries to get them back on track. Inequality and unequal income and wealth was a big benefactor as well because the rich became richer and the workers lives didn’t change and the big businesses carried on speculating on the exchange with all their money eventually to the destruction of the once so lavish life of America.
Money and Corruption in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby During the time in our country's history called the roaring twenties, society had a new obsession, money. Just shortly after the great depression, people's focus now fell on wealth and success in the economic realm. Many Americans would stop at nothing to become rich and money was the new factor in separation of classes within society. Wealth was a direct reflection of how successful a person really was and now became what many people strived to be, to be rich. Wealth became the new stable in the "American dream" that people yearned and chased after all their lives.
After gaining even more wealth the country can once again use the new wealth to make serious investments, entering into a cycle in which investments create more wealth and wealth is used to fund more investments and so eventually, the country becomes extremely wealthy. But if the country is never able to gain wealth like this then how will they ever become wealthy? The countries that can’t gain any wealth remain stuck in extreme poverty, unable dig themselves out without help. Countries stuck in extreme poverty are revealed by many different trends, including sucky infrastructure, poor health, overpopulation, a government who only cares about itself, etc. Many of these trends of poverty actually make things exponentially worse by repelling foreign entities who might want to help.
His greed for wanting Daisy drove him crazy; he revolved his whole life around obtaining money and achieving his dream of being with Daisy. These objects, materials, and opportunities that are put in front of anxious Americans are the root to their greed. Why have less when you can have more? The availability and appearance of all these things in life that are considered finer, better, and more respectable are what cause people to do anything in their power to obtain them. The strong wish to have money, power, and glory ruin the actuality of our being, and does not keep us true to ourselves.
With this new life brought hopes of freedom, opportunity, and work. In modern society, money and material wealth are always at the center of life. The American dream is no longer characterized by a Leave it to Beaver lifestyle, but rather much larger in scale. The world we live in today is a capitalistic society that targets itself at making enormous profits off the funds of consumers. Americans want to be rich so that they can gain more for themselves to fulfill their greed, which never can be fully satisfied.
Money, and how much of it you have, has taken over the minds of most American’s; they are starting to believe that the more money you have means the more things you can get. According to Sandel, rich Americans are taking advantage of jumping the queue. People have the option to pay more money to get better service at airports, get closer to the front of lines at amusement parks, and to get to the top of the Empire State Building faster than everyone else who pays the normal price (18-19). It is a great business strategy, and if you have the money to waste to get to the front of a roller coaster then you can afford to spend it. But this is not fair to the families that cannot afford it.
The consumers don’t pay close enough attention to where the products are made. Therefore, consumers are spending extra money and are causing outsourcing to thrive. The lack of knowledge Americans have on the subject of consumers affecting outsourcing is leading our country to economic stress but if we begin to recognize the issue, the jobs we could potentially save may be our own. First, we will look at an example of how consumers inadvertently continue to assist companies with outsourcing. The problem consumers do not realize is that by paying for some name brand products, we are allowing outsourcing to take place.
In addition, it has a huge political and economic impact, on those decisions that governments chose to engage in, for the betterment of their citizens and country. Money makes the world go round. Alternatively, as the famous ABBA song goes, "Money, Money, Money, must be funny in a rich man's world". That is precisely what international trade, but in particular free trade that all nations the world over participate in, is essentially all about. In order to understand any type of trade (international, free or restricted/limited), one has to know, how all of the Worlds money bartering and exchanges began.