Capitalism: Never Enough?

New York is a consumer paradise. That's one of the reasons it is a shopping mecca for so many people from around the world. Folks who can afford it want to have an apartment here, the 'Big Brands' want to have a store on 5th Avenue, and the rest of us want to look in the store windows and buy stuff. New York, of course, doesn't have an exclusive on being a magnet for shoppers -- most big cities have their own version of a street lined with designer stores overflowing with opulent offerings. As I travel from city to city, I find myself wondering how all of these stores stay in business. How many Rolex watches, Chanel handbags and Mont Blanc pens can one use? And now these 'pushers' for shopaholics and the rich are invading airports like ants at a picnic.

I understand capitalism. And I understand business. But in the wake of last year's financial meltdown (attributed mostly to greed), the impact of the recession on ordinary lives, and trillions in consumer debt, it seems like a good time to ask, "How much is enough?" If we as a society are really committed to the notion that "more is always better" and if we believe we can sustain economic growth indefinitely, then we are 'hooked' going to make that next purchase just as surely as an alcoholic derelict on Skid Row is 'hooked' as they reach for another drink.

I think the epidemic of designer stores is just symptomatic of the buying binge we've been on for the last half-century. To be sure, it has created unprecedented prosperity and a higher standard of living for many. In Annie Leonard's "The Story of Stuff" she quotes retail analyst Victor Lebow, one of the architects of our current economic system, as saying, "Our enormously 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 satisfaction, our ego satisfaction in consumption... .We need things consumed, burned up, replaced and discarded at an ever accelerating rate."

But as an engine for humanity, it is not sufficient to simply buy and sell. Many economists today are suggesting we must not rely on growth as our sole criteria for judging a 'healthy' economy -- that we must find ways to measure the quality of people's lives and the impacts we are having that are not based on just dollars and cents. We have all heard that money can't buy happiness. Now we're having to acknowledge that happiness is not a commodity to be bought and sold, and we can no longer afford to be addicted to consumption.

If we look at our current economic woes through the lens of addiction, then conventional wisdom and all the 12-Step programs would agree that there are at least two 'facts' that seem to apply:

1. An addict cannot get 'out of the box' of their addiction by themselves, and
2. Addicts live in denial until they 'hit bottom'.

I don't know how all of this will play out at the national or international levels, but I believe we're beginning to see a lot of people waking up and challenging their faith in capitalism. I have not yet seen Michael Moore's newest documentary, Capitalism: A Love Story, but from what I have read, I suspect he is once again showing the price we pay when we give our power and hand over our future to technocrats and mechanistic institutions.

I am not against the theory of Capitalism as a means for distributing goods and services, just as I am not against alcohol. I am, however, against Capitalism or any economic theory when it becomes an ideology, just as I am against a pervasive culture of drinking and drugs in which individuals lose their capacity to choose (or even question their choices).

When our practices become so pervasive that they 'take over' people's thinking to the extent they self-destruct (for example, through excessive drinking or excessive debt), then we need to stop and ask what is really going on. We need to challenge our most basic beliefs and assumptions about what we want, how we are living and the choices we are making.

Creating any new habit is difficult. And getting beyond an addiction can be extremely challenging. But having the courage to take stock and get clear about what we want is the essence of what makes us who we are. This is exactly what we need to do to create the foundations for whatever possible future we want.

© 2009 Jim Selman. All rights reserved.

 

 

Comments

[WYHKTai-Tai]

I think this ties in handily to the other threads on HP Living about Women's Unhappiness. I would say Everyone's unhappiness. Addiction is a perfect analogy. Always wanting more, feeling like one NEEDS more. That's what I take from this anyway.

No it doesn't excuse the extreme greed of the few who generated this economic disaster, (perhaps they were the worst "junkies" of all?) but regardless, it's a very self-destructive mentality.

It's not just about people who can't live without that 2nd Rollie, there are a lot of us of more modest means, middle classers, for whom, life wasn't complete without that new dress from Talbots. OK, it's not horrendous, but with a closet-full of similar dresses, I really didn't NEEED it. In this new climate, my family has had to sit ourselves down and settle out, what do we need? What extra's are really going to be worth the expense. I have to say, it's made us realize, in our own way we were also profligate with our cash and we ARE more content without it. It feels like getting off the hamster wheel!

[dadw5boys]

You missed one important part of consumerism. The design for the dump to create turnover and sales at an ever increasing rate to keep high profits comming in.

[zopa]

"When our practices become so pervasive that they 'take over' people's thinking to the extent they self-destruct (for example, through excessive drinking or excessive debt), then we need to stop and ask what is really going on. We need to challenge our most basic beliefs and assumptions about what we want, how we are living and the choices we are making."

All this amounts to is blaming the victim. The orgy of market deregulation over the past 30 years has now resulted in three disaster filled bubbles-and-crashes in equities: 1987, 2000, and 2008. This is just like they behaved from the first bubble--the 15th Century "tulipmania" in Holland--to the Great Crash of 1929. They behaved this way then because of lack of adequate oversight and regulation and they behave this way now for the same reason. People buying consumer goods or individuals who enjoy making lots and lots of money the risky way have little to nothing to do with it.

These same markets did not behave this way from 1940 to 1980. Equities rose and fell, but did not bubble and burst. Those same years saw the greatest real and non-speculative increase in stock values the market has ever seen. Why? Because of adequate oversight and regulation in the public interest.

Stop blaming the victim. No more breast beating. No more mea culpas by proxy for supposedly "credit addicted" ordinary people. Fix the problem. Regulate the money markets adequately.

[dadw5boys]

The too big to fails are being dismanteled quitely.

[CDarwin]

In "Key Largo", the Bogart character says that he understands Rocco (played by Edward G. Robinson): Rocco just wants more. These criminal bastards that got us into this mess were worse tahn Rocco: they wanted MORE THAN EVERYONE ELSE. Perhaps when the next crash comes in 2 or 3 years (thanks, Obama, for pushing so hard for financial reforms), they'll finally realize that they killed the goose that laid the golden egg. They'll have "more" than everyone else, but what will they be able to buy with it?

[dadw5boys]

Obama has to wait to get International Banking agreements or face useles regulations here at home.