Bankruptcy

Consumption is too important to be left to Consumers

By Mechele Dickerson

Professor George Ritzer, another sociologist (University of Maryland), presented a hyper paper ("Hyperconsumption" and "Hyperdebt": A "Hypercritical" Analysis). He argues that it has now become part of our public duty to consume. We were asked to consume after 9-11. We have been encouraged (really, really, encouraged ? just ask WalMart) to spend the stimulus tax checks some of us might be receiving over the next few weeks. While consumers aren?t dupes, he stressed, we are being encouraged to do what producers want us to do.

Much of Prof. Ritzer?s talk described what he calls the "Cathedrals of Consumption."  These Cathedrals include:  Disneyland and other theme parks (which are visited more often than the Eiffel Tower, the Grand Canyon and most other natural or historical attractions); McDonald?s; fully-enclosed shopping malls (and later mega-malls); Toys R Us (and other super stores); Amazon.com and other aspects of the information highway (online gambling, porn). The Cathedrals make it much easier to consume, but, of course, the only way to pay for many of these things is by credit (specifically, using a credit card). These Cathedrals have caused us to live in an era of hyperconsumption.

Because we have a duty to consume, it is no longer good enough just to spend all we earn or all we have saved. Instead, we?re encouraged to go even deeper into debt in order to spend even more. Prof. Ritzer noted the shift in our economy from a producer to a service economy and stressed that the service economy depends on hyperconsumption.  He showed the things (and, there are lots of them) that make hyperconsumtion possible: proliferation and dependence on ATMs; transportation delivery speed (how quickly you can get the book you ordered from Amazon.com); the (until recently) ease of getting home mortgages and credit card.

Prof. Ritzer then explained his views of hyperdebt, i.e., more debt that one "needs." Consumers increasingly go deeper in debt than they either intend (for example, people don?t always understand the ramifications of ARMs or payday loans or paying only the minimum credit card balance) or can afford (for example, subprime loans help people get homes they couldn?t afford). Prof. Ritzer concluded by discussing some good news, and then the bad news. Increasingly, there?s an equal distribution of wealth globally. That?s the good news (except for some folks in the US). Prof. Ritzer fears, however, that we are facing a decline in the US standard of living since it?s just impossible for us to consume (or borrow) our way out of our debt problems.

The final sociologist for the morning, Professor Robert Antonio (University of Kansas), responded to Prof. Ritzer?s paper and stressed that people often discover things in the Cathedrals of Consumption that they didn?t know they needed.  He questions whether our capacity to consume is infinite, and whether we may be nearing the end in the growth in consumption/accumulation.  He then linked environmental concerns and other ecological crises, to global consumption.

Full post as published by Credit Slips on May 02, 2008 (boomark / email).