The Dangers of Consumerism: A Threat to Our Planet’s Future

I would like to begin with this quote from the Sociologist and Economist Thorstein Veblen:

“It is true of dress in even a higher degree than of most other items of consumption, that people will undergo a very considerable degree of privation in the comforts or the necessaries of life in order to afford what is considered a decent amount of wasteful consumption; so that it is by no means an uncommon occurrence, in an inclement climate, for people to go ill clad in order to appear well dressed.” (The Theory of the Leisure Class, 1899).

Human society always seems to move in the same direction. This is especially true of the 20^th and 21^st Centuries. The social dynamics of these eras has been unprecedented and has further been catalysed principally by improved and affordable communication, easy access to information and effective transportation systems. This has created a global village that is intricately interdependent. Inherent in this phenomenon is the tendency to do things the way they are done elsewhere, especially in lands that are perceived to be more ‘civilised’ and ‘prosperous’. While that is not wrong in itself, blindly following what others do can be very deceptive; even fatal. This realization should move discerning people and businesses to avoid travelling down the road the majority is going. The statement “The voice of the people is the voice of God”, invariably promotes popular opinion as sacred. However, time and again, it has been proven that the majority can also go wrong, thus rendering inoperative that mantra.

“After the second world war, American economists and the government of the day decided to revive economic activity by creating a culture in which people were encouraged to accumulate and show off material wealth, to the point where it defined their status in society and their self-image”

Is it not true that those who succeed in creating wealth or becoming heroes are those who dare to do things differently, going against popular opinion? For instance, if Bill Gates had believed that a university degree was the all-important thing that was needed to succeed in life, would he have dropped out of college to innovate and create to change the world the way he did and build such an empire of a business?

In the track ‘Touch Your Dreams” in his last Album ‘Respect’, the late music legend Lucky Philip Dube said “Don’t let them tell you it is impossible. That is what they told all heroes before. In a hero’s mind the word does not exist”. Why are heroes always told it is impossible? Simply because of this: They decide to travel, not in the same direction as others do, but the opposite. Other times they choose to take an entirely different road. This is the mentality that socially responsible businesses should develop rather than going the way the world has travelled over the years, especially, in promoting consumerism to the detriment of the environment.

“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 and our ego satisfaction in consumption. We need things consumed, burned up, worn out, replaced and discarded at an ever-increasing rate”.

Victor Lebow

In this article, discover the destructive impact of consumerism on our planet and society. Learn how to break free from the cycle of consumption and embrace sustainable living for a better future.

What is consumerism?

A definition of consumerism, according to Webster’s dictionary, is

“The theory that an increasing consumption of goods is economically desirable.” It continues to state that “The older term and concept of “conspicuous consumption” originated at the turn of the 20th century in the writings of sociologist and economist, Thorstein Veblen” who was credited to have made the comment about consumerism quoted at the outset of this article.

Consumerism is not an altogether modern phenomenon. It has been associated with ancient empires that flourished materially, among whom were Egypt, Babylon, Greece and Rome. However, consumerism has especially become more pronounced in the second half of the 20^th Century and the 21^st Century. Hence, an examination of how this has come about would be quite instructive in our understanding of the phenomenon and thus take bold corrective measures that would both curb it and help to alleviate its negative consequences.

Modern consumerism

Writing in the New Scientist magazine, Andy Coghlan paraphrased William Rees of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada as saying that “After the second world war, American economists and the government of the day decided to revive economic activity by creating a culture in which people were encouraged to accumulate and show off material wealth, to the point where it defined

Currently, we are “consuming 30 per cent more material than is sustainable from the world’s resources.

their status in society and their self-image”. Coghlan said in his article that Rees quoted economist Victor Lebow as saying in 1955: “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 and our ego satisfaction in consumption. We need things consumed, burned up, worn out, replaced and discarded at an ever-increasing rate”.

Should we be surprised that this is exactly how most of the world’s richest economies are driven? Goods are no longer produced to last; they are meant to be used and discarded in no time so that mass production can continue to propel big business for economic growth. While many would object to the statement that we have made “consumption our way of life”, and buy and use goods as a ritual, “that we seek our spiritual satisfaction and our ego satisfaction in consumption”, it is still a fact that we have an insatiable desire to consume; and we do so without consideration to the environment and our own responsibility of creating wealth by generating businesses that pursue laudable social goals. We have rather become pawns of advertisers, even as Coghlan quotes Rees as saying: “Lebow and his cronies got together to ‘create’ the modern advertising industry, which plays to primitive beliefs. It makes you feel insecure, because the advertising industry turned our sense of self-worth into a symbolic presentation of the possessions we have. We’ve turned consumption into a necessity, and how we define ourselves.”

The dire effects of consumerism

What has been the result of such a tendency? In that same article titled Consumerism is ‘eating the future’ Coghlan says “The result is a world in which rampant consumption in rich countries is rapidly outstripping the resources in the world needed to satisfy demand.” Currently, we are “consuming 30 per cent more material than is sustainable from the world’s resources”, Rees mentioned to Coghlan. Hence, those countries that have either already depleted their resources or lack them now seek to greedily exploit such materials from poorer nations who still have them in abundance, such as in Africa.

If this is the road the so-called developed world has travelled, have we not learned enough from their experience to avoid that same path? Unfortunately, though, we’re also travelling down that road. And big business is promoting that. Yet, once again, unfortunately, the majority of those big businesses are foreign. And through crafty advertising and the presentation of glamorous lifestyles in the media, especially in entertainment, we are blindly copying those lifestyles to the detriment of our social fibre, economy and environment.

In one of my Sociology classes, a professor said the typical sociologist, when he is contemplative, observes people as they go and come wondering where they come from, who their parents might be and whether they are alive at all, and so on and so forth.

Don’t be surprised then when I say I was inspired to write this piece while sitting at the Accra Mall, Ghana for a meeting. While there, I could observe how many people streamed in there, as they did other shopping and entertainment centres. While it is true that many come there for purposes other than to shop, such as for window-shopping and other reasons (even to look for dates), the majority go there to spend and consume. In my thought as a typical social thinker, I asked: “Why are all these people here? Just to buy, buy, buy! And for what reason? To consume!” Of course, it’s not wrong to purchase and enjoy life’s necessities. Besides, those purchases enable those businesses from whom those goods are bought to make sales and thus thrive. However, when those purchases become impulsive or are deemed to put one in a certain social class or pedestal, it becomes a bane on the economy and the environment.

One thing that struck me was that the majority of those I was observing could be salaried workers and who normally think of consumption rather than investing. Thus what they earn or receive goes into buying and enjoying consumer goods, making those businesses richer. And since they are never satisfied, they would always expect their employers to raise their salaries, and the same vicious cycle of earning and consuming continues without thinking of investing. And even if they do think about investing, they shrug and sometimes even whine that they don’t earn enough to enable them invest! My question then is: If we continue like this, how would Africa’s economy ever grow?

We can take a cue from what happened in many western economies starting in 2007. As already discussed, these economies run on consumption. And since cash is needed to facilitate consumption, they have had to run on credit because many people can’t afford what they buy! The result is that, apart from the few smart ones who realized at some point that they couldn’t possibly succeed unless they started businesses of their own and took the bold steps to do such, the majority were in a vicious cycle of earn, pay taxes, spend and if the money was not enough, use credit. No wonder many were buried in an avalanche of debts! And with the inability to pay back those debts what happened? They lost their homes because of inability to service mortgages, and with no one to buy those homes since many were in debt those banks and ancillary businesses lost their monies, leading to a financial crunch and lay-offs! Are we learning?

I get so worried when I see financial institutions encouraging consumers to come for loans to buy cars, homes, home appliances and the like. Are these things really assets? Do they help the owners to earn more money or lose more and become slaves to those financial institutions, with the risk of even losing those possessions if they should default because of some mishap? Can we appreciate one reason why a lot of young people are stressed and unhappy and dying, both in Africa and western countries? And what is the culprit? Consumerism–“Equating personal happiness with the purchasing of material possessions and consumption” which is downright illusionary!

If we continue to run our businesses along these lines, we would only be killing ourselves and the economy. The reason is this: We are unable to absorb the glut of the unemployed who are our potential customers. Yet, since we don’t encourage those already employed to invest and consume out of the profits therefrom derived, there are few businesses to offer employment. Hence with higher unemployment rates who would buy our goods and services? And can we ourselves live in security when, because of frustration, some of these unemployed one decide that they would take from us by force what we have? Unless we changed our business practices today, our businesses and the economy would be doomed to failure!

Yet, another negative effect of consumerism which is taking root in Africa is this: We have been made to identify with things; with certain brands. And to foster social relationships along that line, i.e., with people who patronize our kind of brands and goods.

One American lady once told me her observation of African society about two decades ago. She said she had realized that social relationships in Africa were not so much based on one’s status in society or his possessions but rather the qualities in them. While I agreed with her to some extent, I would agree with her even less, about twenty (20) years down the line today. People today, more than ever before, are defining social relationships along the lines of “Where does he work?” “What car does he drive?” “Where does he shop?” “Where does he hang-out on week-ends” and the like. And even “Where does he go to church!” since some of the churches are associated with financial success and consumerism. This is very, very unhealthy, for want of a better expression!

With consumerism comes the throwaway society. Do you remember economist Victor Lebow’s words as quoted earlier? Part of it said: “We need things consumed, burned up, worn out, replaced and discarded at an ever-increasing rate”. What has been the result? The world is now living in an avalanche of garbage!

Going back to the article Consumerism is ‘eating the future’ in the New Scientist, Andy Coghlan made this poignant observation: “More specifically, all we’re doing is what all other creatures have ever done to survive, expanding into whatever territory is available and using up whatever resources are available, just like a bacterial culture growing in a Petri dish till all the nutrients are used up. What happens then, of course, is that the bugs then die in a sea of their own waste…. But there’s worse. Not only are we simply doing what all creatures do: we’re doing it better. In recent times we’re doing it even faster because of changes in society that encourage and celebrate conspicuous and excessive consumption”.

Quoting Rees he said: “We’re still driven by growing and expanding, so we will use up all the oil, we will use up all the coal, and we will keep going till we fill the Petri dish and pollute ourselves out of existence.” How sad!

According to one source, taking the waste generated in the United States alone, “an equivalent weight of water could fill 68,000 Olympic-size pools.” Another one says “Some years ago, it was estimated that the residents of New York City alone produced enough garbage each year to bury the city’s huge Central Park under 13 feet [4 m] of refuse! (The park covers an area of 843 acres [341 ha], or about 6 percent of the surface area of the borough of Manhattan)”.

How serious is the damage that such garbage is causing to our planet as a result of the throwaway society? The same source quoted earlier says “An Italian environmental association estimates that a glass bottle thrown into the sea will take 1,000 years to decompose. In contrast, paper tissues will decompose in only three months. A cigarette butt pollutes the sea for up to 5 years; plastic bags, 10 to 20 years; nylon articles, 30 to 40 years; cans, 500 years; and polystyrene, 1,000 years.” Yet we keep on producing these materials due to commercial greed and ineptness at creativity, being satisfied with the status-quo. And advertisers don’t help the situation either. The British newspaper The Guardian says succinctly: “Advertisers help us to answer needs we never knew we had.” If we are thus convinced to believe we have such needs and we fill them but realize later that ‘new’ ones have come, where ‘new’ means ‘modern’, ‘better’ and superior’, what do we end up doing? Throw away! The results are destruction of the ozone layer, global warming with its attendant rise in the level of the sea and tidal waves and the like. Despite all the evidence, big business that is the cause of industrial pollution would always find smart PRO’s and journalists to counter-argue!

In Ghana for example, the cities’ authorities are struggling to grapple with garbage and its associated environmental hazards. Yet businesses would always lobby and counter argue to maintain their profit. The gutters are choked with garbage, blocking the free-flow of rainwater, thus causing flooding with the slightest down-pour!  The beaches are polluted with black polythene bags and human faeces. The forests are depleting. The atmosphere is so polluted that rainwater is no longer safe to drink!

The solution

Is industry listening? Are big and small businesses alike listening? Are you listening? What is the solution? We must stop running our lives as dependent solely on economic growth without considering the environment. We must begin to recycle what we’ve used and give what we don’t need to those that need them instead of throwing them away. We should begin to use biodegradable materials for our packaging. We should curb consumerism through socially responsible business practices and advertising; not driven merely by materialism. If we do so, the dividends will be enormous; cleaner air to breathe, fewer or no pandemics, longer life expectancy, better relationships, peace of mind, contentment and above all joy!

“The earth dies screaming!” The time to start remedying it is NOW! And it begins with YOU! Otherwise, as Dube said in his song earlier quoted, “When you’re 80 years old, Thinking about your past, Regretting every minute of your life that you’ve lost, You will wonder where the time went. If you do the right thing, It could be talking to you”.

Don’t tell me it’s impossible; you would only be echoing the popular refrain which is very untrue. I would like to conclude with these two beautiful songs written for our beautiful Planet Earth:

“A warm dry wind is all that breaks the silence The highways quiet Cars across the land People lie, eyes closed, no longer dreaming Your country needs you, let’s strike up the band Despite all odds we must defend our land Like scattered pebbles, cars lie silent waiting Oilless engines seized by dirt and sand Bodies hanging limp, no longer bleeding Half eaten meals lie rotting on the tables Money clutched within a bony hand Shutters down, the banks are not receiving. The earth dies screaming!”

The earth dies screaming by UB40

“What about sunrise What about rain What about all the things That you said we were to gain What about killing fields Is there a time What about all the things That you said was yours and mine Did you ever stop to notice all the blood we’ve shed before Did you ever stop to notice the crying Earth the weeping shores What have we done to the world Look what we’ve done

What about all the peace That you pledge your only son What about flowering fields Is there a time What about all the dreams That you said was yours and mine Did you ever stop to notice all the children dead from war Did you ever stop to notice the crying Earth the weeping shores I used to dream I used to glance beyond the stars Now I don’t know where we are Although I know we’ve drifted far Hey, what about yesterday What about the seas The heavens are falling down I can’t even breathe What about the bleeding Earth Can’t we feel its wounds What about nature’s worth (ooo,ooo) It’s our planet’s womb What about animals We’ve turned kingdoms to dust What about elephants Have we lost their trust What about crying whales We’re ravaging the seas What about forest trails (ooo, ooo) Burnt despite our pleas What about the holy land Torn apart by greed What about the common man Can’t we set him free What about children dying Can’t you hear them cry Where did we go wrong
(ooo, ooo) Someone tell me why What about babies What about the days What about all their joy What about the man What about the crying man What about Abraham What about death again (ooo, ooo) Do we give a damn?

–The Earth Song by Michael Jackson

I would be most grateful for your views; whether you agree or disagree with any of my thoughts or you have some contribution.

The author Jules Nartey-Tokoli is Founder and Group CEO at Groupe Soleil Vision, comprising Soleil Consults (US), LLC, NubianBiz.Com, ShopNubian.Com and Soleil Publications. He has lived and worked in both Ghana and the United States, having extensive experience in Strategy, Management, Entrepreneurship, Premium Audit Advisory and Web consulting. He has also published several articles on Strategy, Management, Corporate Governance, Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Economics, e-Commerce, Information Technology (IT), Customer Service/Care, Sales, Marketing, Communication, Branding, Education, among others. 

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