Amerika

In human history, consumerism seems to be a relatively recent arrival. Some of it was brought on by the availability of mass-manufactured products, something that really only kicked in a century and a half ago, but much of it involves our financial system.

During the 1930s, a system named Keynesianism became popular. It argued that in order to avoid recession, government had to “prime the pump” by injecting stimulus money into the economy, usually through welfare programs and mass purchases of stuff like military and civilian engineering.

At first with the New Deal, and later in the 1960s with the Great Society, America fused socialism with Keynesianism. The government took in much more in taxes to pay for the entitlements state — entitlements are payments made directly to citizens — and then paid out a lot, which translated into people buying more stuff.

Life got simple. You did not save; Social Security was your retirement. You did not engage in as much charity, since you paid taxes so welfare would take care of the poor and non-white. Schooling was paid for, and so was a lot of medical costs. The American citizen relaxed into a sofa-occupying blob that did not think of the future.

What to do with all that disposable income? Diversity killed culture, government killed savings, and then social mobility encouraged competition, “keeping up with the Joneses.” Luxury brands went mainstream instead of being small boutiques in London or Paris where the upper crust bought rare excellent things instead of adequate mass-produced substitutes.

Consumers consume, by nature. They must buy food, housing, medicine, and other daily life necessities. When the money gets cycled into government however, consumers have nothing else but consumption. Culture is dead; the only way to interact with others is to go out and buy things, even if only a cup of coffee.

However, when society collapses, all we have left are products and government. People buy to have something to do, to feel power, to assuage fears, or to fill the growing emptiness that happens when culture goes away. Culture, which upholds values and behaviors, can make us feel more confident that what we are doing is right.

To have culture, you need to have an ethnic group which belongs to that culture, which otherwise seems arbitrary and therefore, people pick and choose what they want and end up with a muddle. Consumerism came about because we rejected culture and adopted a culture of money and victimhood instead, and having a culture again is the only way to reverse this.

Tags: consumerism, Culture