A consumer society

Consumer society is a term widely used to represent the capitalist system's

production advances, which intensified throughout the twentieth century, notably in
the United States, and which subsequently spread - and is still spreading - throughout
the world. In this sense, economic and social development is driven by the increase in
consumption, which results in profit to commerce and large companies, generating
more jobs, increasing income, which leads to even more consumption. A break in this
model would represent a crisis, because income would decrease, unemployment would
rise and access to basic elements would be more difficult.

Already in the past, factories want to produce mass production, but for this, it is
necessary that the products be disseminated, and then models of development are
established, based on the improvement of income and credit facilitated with the aim of
further amplifying consumption. The problem is consumption is a contradictory and
ineffective way of sustaining the development of societies.

Criticisms of the consumer society are directed not only by the economic
perspective, but also by the environmental bias. After all, one of the effects of
consumerism is the expansion of exploitation of natural resources to the generation of
raw materials for the manufacture of more and more goods. This leads to the
devastation of forests and the depletion of even renewable resources, such as water for
consumption, forests and soil. In addition, non-renewable resources are counting the
days to full shortage, such as the oil reserves and various minerals used to manufacture
the most different products used by society.

One of the most criticized aspects of the consumer society is programmed

obsolescence - or planned obsolescence - that consists in the production of goods
previously made to be quickly discarded, causing the consumer to buy a new product
soon. Thus, consumption increases, but also increases the demand for natural resources
and maximizes the production of garbage, raising even more the environmental
problem resulting from this process.
 Thus, besides the adoption of social policies of control over exaggerated
consumerism, it is necessary to find alternative economic means to the consumption-
based development. Nonetheless, it is also necessary to promote recycling policies, as
well as to reuse or reuse products that are no longer used, thus containing garbage
generation and unrestrained demand for raw materials.