Consumerists

Consumerism is a social and economic order and ideology that encourages the acquisition of goods and services in ever-increasing amounts. With the industrial revolution, but particularly in the 20th century, mass production led to an economic crisis: there was overproduction — the supply of goods would grow beyond consumer demand, and so manufacturers turned to planned obsolescence and advertising to increase consumer spending. An early criticism of consumerism is Thorstein Veblen's best known book, The Theory of the Leisure Class from 1899, which critically examined newly widespread values and economic institutions emerging along with newly widespread "leisure time," at the turn of the 20th century. In it Veblen "views the activities and spending habits of this leisure class in terms of conspicuous and vicarious consumption and waste. Both are related to the display of status and not to functionality or usefulness."

In economics, "consumerism" may refer to economic policies which emphasise consumption. In an abstract sense, it is the consideration that the free choice of consumers should strongly orient the choice by manufacturers of what is produced and how, and therefore orient the economic organization of a society (compare producerism, especially in the British sense of the term). In this sense, consumerism expresses the idea not of "one man, one voice", but of "one dollar, one voice", which may or may not reflect the contribution of people to society.

The term "consumerism" has several definitions. These definitions may not be related to each other and confusingly, they conflict with each other.

In a 1955 speech, John Bugas (number two at the Ford Motor Company) coined the term "consumerism" as a substitute for "capitalism" to better describe the American economy:

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