Topics
Advertising and Marketing
Airline Industry
Animal Cruelty
Auto and Transportation
Business and Industry
Buyer Beware
Children and Family Concerns
Consumer Alerts
Crime & the Justice System
Drugs and Supplements
Education and Schools
Entertainment, Art & Artists
Environment
Finance and Investing
Food and Beverage
Fraud
Gambling
Government
Health, Nutrition & Fitness
History
Home and Real Estate
Insurance
Law and Politics
Medical Matters
Misc
News Media
Observations, Myths & Thoughts
Product Safety
Religion
Restaurants and Fast Food
Security and Terrorism
Society and Culture
Sports
Statistics and Studies
Surgery
The Business of Beauty
The Workplace
Travel and Recreation
|
CONSUMERISM AND THE CHILDREN
Our children are the "cash crop" for advertisers! Despite all of our many
more possessions and conveniences today, there seems to be more discontent among
children and within families than ever before!
Kids today, in America, may not feel they are worthy unless the HAVE the
latest, greatest gadgets and material trappings, as least so it seems. If the
whole world consumed as much as the USA does, this could be a potential
environmental and global disaster!
The overuse of the earth's natural resources today will be felt by the
grandchildren of tomorrow. The USA should set a better example of what the
"good life" is, or in the future the so-called good life, as we know it, may not
even exist!
Up until the 20th Century, to be a consumer was a "bad thing", but as
materialism took hold, happiness today then became defined by how much you can
consume, and how many consumer goods you can accumulate. Our psyche is
manipulated by advertisers and used against consumers to stimulate unnecessary
desires and spending.
No one ever really questions if consuming twice as much as we actually need
is really good or not. Meanwhile, we still only elect politicians who promise
to grow the size of the U.S. economy. Over-consumption is and will be the
mother of all our environmental problems!
If the economy is "up", then why does much of the citizenry feel "down?"
The "endless, shameless consumptive" standard of living in America has been
confused with "quality of life" and promoted irresponsibly, unethically, and
possibly even immorally by marketers. Hopefully, today's pre-teens will be
tomorrow's anti-materialistic revolutionaries! Economic stability will HAVE to
replace economic expansion someday. It has to IF planet Earth's resources are
to survive long term and into the year 3000.
SUPPLEMENTAL SOURCE: PBS-TV "AFFLUENCE" 9/15/97
Back
|