consumerism

      Consumerism is a social and economic order that encourages the purchase of goods and services in ever-greater amounts. Consumersim today has an impact and plays a major role in the degradation of our economy.  Consumerism tells us what to buy, when to buy it and when to throw things out.  This leads us to own and waste a lot of stuff.  It has a huge effect on our economy because since we have the freedom to consume and by everything that we deem is important we need the money to do so which creates a demand for money and ultimately debt.  The United States holds a small percent of the worlds population and yet uses a great amount of the worlds resources and creates more than their share of waste.  What we don't realize is that materials that go into the stuff we by have to be extracted from natural resources and buy using up those resources and ultimately throwing them away as things get "old" we are causing our own downfall.  We can't grow another planet but we can all work together to take action to protect the Earth in which we live and all its natural resources.  We have created a culture in which people are encouraged to accumulate and show off material wealth to define their status in society.  The statement "keeping up with the Jonses"refers to the comparison to one's neighbor as a benchmark for social cast or the accumulation of material goods. To fail to "keep up with the Joneses" is perceived as demonstrating socio-economic or cultural inferiority.  We as a society have turned consumption into a necessity and this has resulted in rapidly stripping the World of its natural resources in order to satisfy this demand.  We all need to learn to live within the means of nature.