GUJARAT NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY

Attalika Avenue, Knowledge Corridor, Koba, Gandhinagar-382007.

PROJECT REPORT- INTRODUCTION TO

SOCIOLOGY
Title of the Report: Consumerism and Human Economic Behaviour.

Submitted By:
B. Sai Sundaram & Venkata Supreeth.K
Section A & B,
Reg.No: ,17B175,
Batch of 2017-2022.
Submission Date: 11th April, 2018.
 ABSTRACT

Consumerism is defined as an active pursuit of material possessions in order to experience

maximum gratification. It is analogous to the global rise of capitalist mode of production and
Industrial revolution where there was a constant need to drive away competition and target
maximum consumption of the product, so that excess supply will find its demand in the market.
Today the commodity markets are flooded with goods that needs a constant stream of
shopaholics to reach the sales target. It is in this context that consumerism finds active and
positive endorsement from mass media via advertising. An estimate of 559 Billion dollars is
spent on advertising across the globe, indicating the magnitude and pervasiveness of this new
global economic and cultural order.
Consumerism also capitalizes on the consumer’s inherent desire to establish a particular social
identity based on his consumption pattern which creates consumer reference groups and social
stratification based on the kind of goods and services consumed. Jean Baudrillard’s theory of
Social stratification based on consumerist norms provides a dystopic picture of hyper-consuming
society which is characterized by unstable banking and depletion of scarce resources. In such
conditions the relations between fellow humans is largely governed by consumer dispositions
and the new social order based on ideal types of consumption.
Consumerism also leads to overproduction on one hand and depletion of resources on the other,
all in the whole generating waste which adds to the environment liability which goes unanswered
and falls upon the society as a cost. The strain caused on the credit system of a country to assist
the consumerist behavior of the users is an issue of grave concern as it impacts the national debt.

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 REVIEW OF LITERATURE

In Karl Marx’s Das Kapital emphasis has been laid out on the general working of a capitalist
order which aims at constant expansion to ensure a rise in the profits. In this pursuit, there is
seldom any thought given about the existing demand conditions of the market and push for
excess supply, and search for new markets to dump the goods so produced. This theory was
further extended by Immanuel Wallerstein in his work on New-Age Capitalism where
overproduction and the resulting global exports create an imbalance in the relations between
nations.
Jean Baudrillard’s Simulacra and Simulations is an explanation on how consumerism and
objectification determine the new social order and class lines traversed to become cultural
markers which form as the basis of stratification in a consumerist society, and how advertising is
seduction and programming at the same time, aimed at boosting sales. Many a critic of this
phenomenon make it a point to highlight the psychological insecurities that people witness in a
state run by simulations, how human desires are used for capitalization, commercial or
otherwise, by the elite of the society, who set the benchmark vide their consumption styles.
Thorstein Veblen in 1899 argues on how consumerism is a targeted and wasteful expenditure on
luxury goods with an inflated intrinsic value and utility.
Pierre Bourdieu argues, in his work “Habitus” on how capitalism shapes a new social order
based on the four kinds of capital a person possesses, which cumulatively is known as Habitus or
a sum total of a person’s personality. Here it is important to know that ultimately, it is a person’s
economic standing that dictates his choices and preferences, and the kind of consumer he is, and
will find his position in the hierarchy based on an ideal of consumerism. The idea of linking
gratification to the kind of product one consumes plays out at a psychological level, hence a
person’s tastes and preferences are molded by the information he receives via advertising, hence
mass-media witnesses a constant inflow of producers wishing to reach out the public.
James Bressnau argues in his work We Buy, Therefore We Are: Consumerism and Advertising,
that the steady increase on advertising and mass-media by major production houses adopts a
competition model, where bigger companies with more capital at disposal, effectively occupy
greater space in media, or in other words, more consumers are aware of their product, which
necessitates a producer’s presence in advertising in order to survive the market competition, he
also highlights the inherent class differences within consumer groups and ho most people try to
reach the ideal consumerist goal by adopting the lifestyle of the affluent, which creates a strain
on their economic conditions and affects their behavior

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 INTRODUCTION

Consumerism as a Human Economic Behavior evolved with the advent of the modern economic
understanding. Broadly put, it is a manifestation of human desire to collect and derive
satisfaction from consumption of goods. To the extent that Classical Economics rests its
assertion that the aim of human life is to maximize gratification. Human life is a pursuit of
products. The age of Industrial Revolution ensured that goods that were hitherto prized were
made open to all, by increasing production on an exponential scale. Politically and socially, it
translated into a level market and field for political and social equality of experiences, thereby
erasing all class differences. The markets united societies before the states could evolve.
Karl Marx describes the characteristics of a capitalist economy which is to attain maximum
profits and constant expansion in search for raw materials and markets to ensure that the massive
supply chain finds its demand.
Consumerism as a social attitude evolved gradually as the Western Society moved from a state
of scarcity to a state of abundance. Along with profits came new ideas as to the expansion of
supply by raising demand. It is in this context that consumerism witnessed its active promotion
in forms of advertising and information- symmetry. The paradigm of the day was to be an
informed consumer, who is well aware of his desires and needs, as well as the utility he derives
from a particular good.
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 1from
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.

1
Veblen, Thorstein (1899): The Theory of the Leisure Class: an economic study of institutions, Dover Publications,
Mineola, N.Y., 1994, ISBN 0-486-28062-4.

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 “ In the almost complete absence of other sustained macro-political and social narratives —
concern about global climate change notwithstanding — the pursuit of the 'good
life' through practices of what is known as 'consumerism' has become one of the
dominant global social forces, cutting across differences of religion, class, gender,
ethnicity and nationality. It is the other side of the dominant ideology of market
globalism and is central to what Manfred Steger calls the 'global imaginary'.2

Karl Marx, in his work Das Kapital gives theoretical foundations of how products rule human
lives, and consumerist attitudes lead to dehumanizing and disastrous results in late stage
capitalism. He describes the phenomenon of commodity fetishism and reification where products
dominate human relations, and human experience is reduced to use and exchange values of
commodities in the market. 3
It is important to understand the social implications of the Consumerist attitude and how it
shapes our society and ecosystem, as most of the society’s institutions and class structures are
built around the delicate structure of human relations which forms the subject matter of
Sociological studies. Impacts of Consumerism can be felt in the realm of global geo-politics,
International Relations and Economics, Marketing and Environmental legal studies, where it is
necessary to understand the human impact on the planet and lead the communities towards
sustainable development.
Consumerism, inter-alia governs and works on the fundamental desire of consumers to feel good
and worthy enough in their social settings, where the kind of goods one consumes determines
his/her social ranking which inextricably translates to a disparity between classes based on
economic grounds as a consumer’s choices are limited by his/her income.
Interpretations of Consumerism are subject to the perspective, as its description and role in
market is viewed differently by Liberals, Conservatives, Marxists and Post-Modernists. Market
players capitalizing on consumer behavior can thrive so, either by appealing or by manipulating
consumer preferences by various means.
Therefore, commodity fetishism expresses the alienation, objectification and estrangement of
human beings from their work, from others and from themselves. For Marx the very essence of
who we are, our very humanity is established through our work, through our labour power. The
very essence of what it is to be human is, Marx believes, our creativity. In factories man becomes
alienated from his own work and in effect his whole self – work becomes external to the worker,
he is working for somebody else in capitalism, estranging himself from his own work and
becoming exploited.
 ‘[his work] is not a part of his nature, consequently he does not fulfil himself in his work
but denies himself, has a feeling of misery, not of well-being, does not develop freely a
physical and mental energy, but is physically exhausted and mentally debased’ 

2
James, Paul; Szeman, Imre (2010). Globalization and Culture, Vol. 3: Global-Local Consumption. London: Sage
Publications. p. xb
3
Karl Marx, Das Kapital, Vol II, 11:39. 1885.

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 CONSUMERISM AND HUMAN ECONOMIC BEHAVIOR

A new art of living, a new way of living, claims advertising, (and fashionable magazines): a
pleasant shopping experience, in a single air-conditioned location; one is able to purchase food,
products for the apartment or summer home, clothing, flowers, the latest novel, or the latest
gadget in a single trip, while husband and children watch a film; and then later you can all dine
together on the spot.4

Jean Baudrillard explores the possibility that consumption has become the chief basis of the
social order and of its internal classifications. He argues that consumer objects constitute a
classification system that codes behavior and groups. As such, consumer objects must be
analyzed by use of linguistic categories rather than those of Marxian or liberal economics,
Freudian or behaviorist psychology, anthropological or sociological theories of needs. Consumer
objects have their effect in structuring behavior through a linguistic sign function. Advertising
codes products through symbols that differentiate them from other products, thereby fitting the
object into a series. The object has its effect when it is consumed by transferring its "meaning" to
the individual consumer. A potentially infinite play of signs is thus instituted which orders
society while providing the individual with an illusory sense of freedom and self-determination.5
Behavioral Economics is a new field of study where Human consumption and demand are
studied in a scientific manner to derive conclusion that establish a relationship between market
forces at play and consumer preferences.
Aggressive marketing and advertising has become one of chief necessities for producers to
penetrate deeper and search for new markets by targeting different segments of the market. The
key to all of this is to capitalize on the inherent human desire for happiness and achieving full
potential of their lives. This forms the basis for a consumerist attitude where people are
increasingly made convinced that happiness lies in utilizing the goods and services available in
the market. 6
What attracts the interest of Sociologists is the effects that consumerism has on constitution a
new-age global order where the society is reorganized economically and socially based on the
patterns of consumption an individual exhibits.
To give a fair example, Cosmetic industries spend millions on advertising their products in a way
that the use of their product is a way to achieve the consumer’s dream of looking beautiful,
however while doing so, the industry relies on existing social standards of beauty or promote
new ones. The result directly translates to greater sales and profits. In a way, advertising is an
4
Jean Baudrillard, “Consumer Society” Selected Writings of Jean Budrillard, Pg. 32.
5
Ibid. Para 3
6
James Brusseau,” We Buy, Therefore We Are: Consumerism and Advertising” Chapter 12.3, Flat World
Knowledge, L.L.C., 2014, ISBN 1936126397, 9781936126392

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investment with a motive of expanding markets. Today it is essential for a producer to mark his
presence in media in order for his product to survive competition. Those small-scale producers
who lack the capital to advertise, find themselves driven out of the market. 7
Perhaps the simplest mechanism fostering a mass culture that underwrites consumerism is
marketing. Advertising is everywhere: on television, on billboards, in newspapers and
magazines. Corporations pay enormous sums for “naming rights” of public facilities so that their
brand is kept in people’s minds. Educational news programs provided free to schools contain
advertisements directed at children. Marketing research devises ever more sophisticated means
of reaching the public and shaping people’s preferences. This includes intensive advertising
directed at young children. Lucy Hughes, the director of strategy for the large communications
management company, Initiative Media, has done extensive research developing advertising
strategies to exploit what she calls the “Nag Factor.” The basic problem is simple: since children
don’t have a lot of money to spend themselves, how can advertisers get their parents to buy
things for them? The solution is to help cultivate the art of nagging by modeling effective
nagging behavior in advertisements. In an interview, Hughes reports that “the way a child nags
to the parent will have an impact on whether or not the parent will buy the product.” Her
research has demonstrated that “anywhere from 20 percent to 40 percent of purchases would not
have occurred unless the children had nagged the parents.” So, instead of directing
advertisements for children’s products mainly at parents, children are the targeted and shown
how to nag for good results. By some estimates, spending by businesses for marketing directed at
children increased from around $1-2 billion in 1990 to over $15 billion fifteen years later.8
Consumer Reference Groups:
Advertising in particular, and the mass media more generally, have contributed to a gradual
ratcheting up of what can be called the consumption norms in American society. Consumption
norms refer to the level of consumption that people see as needed to be living well. One way of
thinking about this is in terms of basic sociological concept of a “reference group.” A reference
group is the category of people to which one refers when trying to figure out how well one is
doing or how one should behave. This idea has very wide application in sociology. Among
teenagers this is very important in terms of understanding such things as school achievement.
Here the term often used is “peer group”. A bright student who is part of a peer group in which
academic achievement is regarded as uncool is much more likely to do badly in school than an
equally bright kid who is part of an academically-oriented peer group. A “consumption reference
group” refers to the category of people with whom one compares oneself around consumption
norms. Most people do not compare themselves to Bill Gates and say “I am doing badly because
I don’t live as well as that”. So, the question for consumerism is: what are the standards of living
that people use to define “doing well” and has this changed? There was a time, not in the distant
past, when for most people consumption norms were defined largely by people very much like
themselves in their immediate social environment. Today, consumption norms are heavily
shaped by images that people see in the mass media, especially on TV, rather than simply by the

7
Erik Olin Wright “American Society- How it works” Chapter 7. Pg. 3, ISBN 978-0-393-93067-2
8
Joel Bakan, “The Corporation: the pathological pursuit of power”: The Free Press, 2004), pp. 119-122

7
actual standards of living of people like themselves. The reference group for consumption is no
longer just defined by “keeping up with the Joneses next door” – a very local, neighborhood
reference group – but keeping up with the Joneses on TV as displayed in advertisements and
sitcoms. Consider a typical commercial for television sets shown during a football broadcast: the
TVs that are advertised are not modest sets costing a few hundred dollars, but giant flat screen
TVs hung on the wall. The homes and apartments in most sitcoms are not the typical kind of
housing lived in by a family earning around the median income, but the living quarters of
affluent yuppies in fashionable apartment buildings or expensive suburbs. Research on the
impact of television has suggested that viewing television increases people’s estimates of how
affluent American society is. The mass media conveys a picture of consumption standards of an
average “middle class” life style that actually corresponds to the upper end of the income
distribution. The result is a large gap between what most people can afford and what they feel
they should consume.9

This statistic presents the global advertising spending from 2010 to 2016 and provides a forecast
until 2018. The source projected that global advertising spending would amount to
approximately 557.99 billion U.S. dollars in 2018, up from 534.8 billion a year earlier, which
gives an annual growth rate of 4.3 percent. 10

9
O'Guinn, Thomas C. and L.J. Shrum, 1997 "The Role of Television in the Construction of Consumer Reality",
Journal of Consumer Research, 23 (4)
10
Statista “Global Spending on Advertising and Media”, https://www.statista.com/statistics/236943/global-
advertising-spending/, (Last Visited: 7th April, 2018)

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 EFFECTS OF CONSUMERISM ON SOCIETY

Consumerism and Social Stratification:

Social class is a useful construct for explaining consumption behavior because it offers insight
into both the various resources that limit consumer choice and the preferences that direct the
allocation of those resources.
Perhaps the significance of this proposition can be illustrated by way of a comparison. Economic
theory of consumer behavior starts with a consumer's budget constraint and his preferences for
some assortment of goods and then sets about determining how the consumer will allocate his
scarce financial resources so as to maximize utility. The theoretical apparatus inevitably leads to
this point of equilibrium, but only if the consumer's tastes can be treated as given. Social class
analysis steps into this vacuum, giving evidence that important differences in lifestyles and
consumption patterns stem from corresponding differences in social standing. But not only does
this perspective offer insight into consumer preferences and tastes, but it also deepens our
understanding of the particular constraints under which the consumer acts in the marketplace.
There are at least four resource dimensions that are encompassed in social class structure:11
1. Financial. The concentration of wealth at the very top of the social spectrum in the United
States is enormous. Gilbert and Kahl (1982) estimate that the so-called capitalist class,
which accounts for 1 percent of the U.S. population, controls about half the country's
wealth. Considering the entire class structure, we find that the class-income correlation
can be estimated at about 0.412. This figure, while quite significant, underlines the fact
that income class and social class are not interchangeable concepts.13
2. Social. People tend to associate with social class equals in their friendships, marriages,
organizational memberships, and residential choices. Furthermore, as social class rank
increases so too does level of social participation. Thus higher social class rank suggests
a wider social network than does lower, which is characterized by kin-oriented ties that
are further restricted in a geographical sense (Coleman 1983). Social skill and
occupational position seem inextricably linked; entrance and advancement into many
middle and upper-middle class occupations depends significantly upon one's ability to
demonstrate certain social attitudes and traits. Similarly the occupational position of
parents strongly colors the socialization of their children, thereby inculcating social
values which may either facilitate or inhibit occupational achievement. Cultural.
Familiarity with cultural matters and the possession of cultural credentials appears to be
strongly associated with higher social class standing (Bourdieu 1973). Cultural capital is
sometimes acquired--typically through the acquisition of appropriate academic
11
Bourdieu, Pierre (1973), "Cultural Reproduction and Social Reproduction," in Knowledge, Education, and
Cultural Change, Richard Brown, ed. London: Tavistock.
12
Coleman, Richard P. (1983), "The Continuing Significance of Social Class to Marketing," Journal of Consumer
Research, 10 (December), 265-280.
13
Cohen, R., G. Fraenkel, and J. Brewer (1968), "The Language of the Hard-Core Poor: Implications for Culture
Conflict," Sociological Quarterly, 9 (Winter), 19-28.

9
 credentials or through participation in cultural affairs--in an effort to enhance or improve
one's social standing.
3. Time. Perceptions of time appear to be strongly conditioned by social class membership.
Three findings in particular emerge: (1) lower class members reveal a more restricted
orientation to future events than those from the middle class (2) lower class members
with upwardly mobile aspirations and who have had an opportunity to gain anticipatory
socialization into middle class values and standards are less likely to have constricted
time horizons than their social class counterparts without such aspirations; (3) regardless
of social class level, persons with constricted time perspectives are at a competitive
disadvantage in meeting the institutionalized role demands of the middle-class world. The
value and availability of time also varies across social classes. Because their time is
worth more in economic terms, individuals with higher social class standing frequently
find themselves with little leisure time (Linder 1970). At the same time, higher class
standing implies greater freedom and flexibility in managing time constraints without at
all denying the centrality of income and wealth as a determinant of consumer choice,
most social class theorists would maintain that economic resources are typically mediated
and augmented by other resource dimensions. In addition to making distinctions among
various types of resources-financial, social, cultural and time-related-one should also
make a distinction between the resources one brings to the market and the particular
manner in which those resources are deployed. The latter distinction between
consumption possibilities and actual consumption patterns mirrors the distinction Weber
makes between class and status dimensions.14

The Problem of Credit: Effects of consumerism on Economy:

Advertising may promote a hyper-consumerist life style, and the shift upward in a typical
person’s consumption reference group might make people want to consume at higher level than
they can really afford, but people still need to be able to buy things. One way this could be
organized is for people to buy their basic necessities from their earnings, and then save what is
left over until they have accumulated enough to purchase the wonderful forms of consumption
promoted in the consumerist life style. The problem, of course, is that a culture of consumerism
fosters desires to consume things right now. The delayed gratification of careful saving goes very
much against the grain.
An alternative is to devise a system in which people can easily borrow money to buy things now
and pay back the loans over a long period of time. This is what consumer credit accomplishes,
and nothing has fueled consumer credit more than the credit card. Until the 1950s, credit cards
were in very limited use, mostly in the form of cards issued by specific merchants or groups of
merchants. In 1958 the general purpose credit card was born when Bank of America created a
bankcard that eventually became the Visa card. In 1966 a group of banks joined together to create
what became Mastercard. Since then the credit card industry has grown by leaps and bounds,

14
Curtis, Richard F., and Elton F. Jackson (1977), “Inequality in American Communities”, New York: Academic
Press.

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making significant amounts of consumer credit available to nearly everyone with minimal
screening. The basic facts about consumer debt in the United States are astounding:

• The size of the total consumer debt grew (in constant dollars) nearly 3 times in size from
$898 billion in 1980 to $2.6 trillion in 2008.
• Between 1970 and 2004, the percentage of families with credit cards grew from 51% to
75%, and the percentage carrying a balance on their cards, and thus paying interest on
credit card debt, increased from 37% to 56%.
• In 1968, consumers’ total credit card debt was $8.8 billion (averaged over the year, in
2008 dollars). By 2008 the total averaged over $942 billion.
• The average American household’s credit card debt in 1989 was about $3000. In 2007 it
was $7,300.10
• U.S households received approximately 5.2 billion offers for new credit cards in 2007.11
• 41% of college students with credit cards carried a balance from month to month, and the
median amount was $1,000.1215

Credit card companies have aggressively promoted this expansion of consumer debt. They
advertise their cards by showing how pleasant life is when you use a credit card to buy what you
desire and by sending unsolicited cards to millions of people a year. While credit card companies
make money off of each transaction, since merchants have to pay a fee to the credit card
company, they make most of their money off of late fees and interest payments. In a sense,
therefore, the credit card company is particularly eager to get people to use credit cards to buy
things that are more expensive than they can really afford, for this is precisely the kinds of
purchases that are hard to pay off. In 2007 about half of credit card users on average did not pay
off their bills each month. According to a 2006 report by the Government Accounting Office,
around 70% of the revenues of credit card issuers came from interest charges on unpaid balances,
and another 10% come from penalty fees.

Two kinds of processes underlie the salience of positional goods. The first is the psychological
process in which the satisfaction one derives from owning something depends in part of one’s
perception of what other people own. Frank gives a vivid example of this in a thought
experiment. Consider the choice between two possible worlds: “World A, in which you will live
in a 4,000-square-foot house and others will live in 6,000-square-foot houses; and World B, in
which you will live in a 3,000-squarefoot house and others in 2,000-square-foot houses.” If the
only thing people cared about was their absolute level of consumption, everyone would choose
A, but this is simply not the case. Many, perhaps most people, would choose the second world.
Part of this might be because of a desire to avoid envy of everyone else in World A or to feel
superior to everyone else in World B, but mostly, Frank argues, the choice of World B reflects
the fact that the subjective meaning and value of a given size of house depends heavily on the
context, on the frame of reference of comparison within which a person lives. The second

15
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, “Report to the Congress on Practices of the Consumer Credit
Industry in Soliciting and Extending Credit and their Effects on Consumer Debt and Insolvency” (Washington, D.C.:
Federal Reserve, 2006),

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mechanism behind the consumption of positional goods is less a question of the subjective
meaning or status linked to particular kinds of consumption, than the ways in which other
important interests that people have become linked to positional goods. Consider, again, the
problem of choosing a house size, but now in the empirical context of the dramatic increase in
the size of new home construction in the United States since the early 1980s. The access of
children to good schools depends to an important extent on the neighborhood in which they live.
As overall economic inequality increases, inequalities across neighborhoods increase, and this
will tend to increase inequalities in schooling. This increases pressure on middle class people to
try to live in more expensive neighborhoods than they can easily afford. People feel pressure to
buy large, expensive houses not simply because of a consumption desire for big houses as such
or because of the subjective sense of relative deprivation in living in smaller houses, but in order
to move up the neighborhood hierarchy and thus gain access to better schools. The consumption
norm for housing for the “middle class,” therefore, is driven in part by the increasing inequality
in income above the middle of the income distribution.16

Consumerism and Environment Liability:

Overconsumption is the root of almost all environmental issues, while modern generations
already live at the expense of the future ones. The opportunities and the necessity of tackling the
effects of consumerism on the environment in the instruction of a particular school subject were
evident from the definition of sustainable development and the educational concept arising from
it. They encompass the concepts such as: environment-imposed limitations, satisfaction of
human needs (the stress here is on the needs, rather than wants) and intergenerational
responsibility. The potential and the need for tackling these issues in teaching as a means of
preparing the children and the youth for a key role in a sustainable society, the role of
“sustainable“ consumers, was based on the following assumptions:
1) If environmental issues are mostly the consequence of consumerism, then their solution may
lie in a different system of knowledge and values, as well as in a changed behavior of people as
individual consumers;
2) Education is one of the crucial factors in the realization of this goal.17

In recent years, Post-Modern and Post-Behavioral Advocates stress on the ecological and
environmental impact that overconsumption will create upon the sustainability of the world and
push for more sustainable development goals, and have reiterated that the U.S pattern of
consumption is not sustainable on a global level, unless there is an advancement in the state of
technology that is in operation to tackle with the growing carbon footprint and global
temperatures.

16
Robert H. Frank, “Post-Consumer Prosperity: finding new opportunities among the economic wreckage”, The
American Prospect, Volume, 20:3, April, 2009. p.12
17
Zorica P. Veinovic “Environmental Impact of Consumerism from the Perspective of the Social, Environmental
and Scientific Education” University of Belgrade, Jan 30th 2017

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