Consumption and Happiness
The disappearance of world scale wars after 1950s, and developments in technology which resulted in the production of increasingly more materials and commodities have created a capitalist society in which money came to represent power. Such a system has provided many advantages in terms of facilitating growth in the world, developments in technology and integration of the world by enabling the production and consumption of the same material all around the world. Peter Saunders in his Why Capitalism is Good for the Soul, gives a detailed analysis of these benefits of capital society. Tim Jackson, on the other hand, makes a comparison between modes of consumption, taking into account all viable arguments. It seems that although capitalism has provided some benefits to the world, its emphasis on consumption has negatively affected the society and consuming less can make the society happier because it will generate more leisure time of self discovery and protect the environment.
Consuming less will generate more leisure for people which can be used as time for self discovery and emotional needs. In a world where competition intensifies in every field, people increasingly spend more time at work in order to purchase material needs. This causes a lack of focus on other life activities which causes an imbalance between work and life. People spend more time at work in order for acquisition of their material needs. However, pursuing such goals never make people really happy. This leads to less time of leisure. However, a study by the “University of Chicago discovered that the only category to be positively related to happiness was leisure.” (Rosenbloom, 2) People can only become happy during their leisure but not from attainment of materialistic gains. Yet, the consumption culture has almost destroyed the time people spend at leisure, with their family and friends. Parents may spend all their time at work trying to provide the material needs to their children disregarding their other needs for “subsistence, protection, affection, understanding, participation.” (Jackson, 24) Therefore, the opportunity to attain real happiness is missed by both the child and parent. Furthermore, leisure time is a time for “self realization.” (Saunders, 5) During their leisure people are able to discover their interests and by following these interests they become able to develop an authentic identity rather than taking up the identity imposed by media or strive to fulfill the false needs that are promoted by advertisements. In this way, people will be able to discover the true self which is different from the models on advertisements and only by discovering this self, having fun with family and friends during leisure can provide happiness and this is only possible by arranging a work life balance which contains a lot of leisure.
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Consuming less will also ensure a better environment for people which will contribute to human happiness. In order to meet the growing demand for consumption commodities, environment is constantly being exploited. The world’s resources are constantly being utilized for consumption. Rivers become dirty as a result of toxic wastes, forests are destroyed and if the ongoing situation continues, it is never possible to reach sustainable consumption as the environment will be worn out. Since the human desire for commodities is plonexia in Aristotle’s terms, humans will continue to contaminate and cause destruction for environment in their attempt to fulfill their “insatiable desire for more.” (Jackson, 20) Most proponents of consumption as natural disregard this. They argue that it is natural to try to attract the opposite sex by impressing her according to evolution theory. (Jackson, 27) However, a healthy environment for human beings is also necessary which is what disregarded by supporters of consumption as natural. The need to provide commodities for consumer culture, environment is exploited to such an extent that people will soon have nothing to consume if the consumption continues at its current level. Therefore, it is significant to decrease commodity consumption thereby saving the environment.
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Despite clear disadvantages of consuming culture, some people argue that consumption is necessary and natural for human beings and makes them happy. Jackson states that consumption is the rational choices of humans and he states as follows: “in this rational choice model, the consumer is visualized as a rational actor attempting to maximize well being and utility within constraints of the market.” (21) This indicates that the consumer purchases commodities that answer his genuine needs and desires. Furthermore, it is argued that consumption is a natural process which makes people happy because it enables him to attract the attention of the opposite sex. Nonetheless, it is groundless to argue that consumption is purely the result of human needs and his rational acts. Consumption culture imposes many “false needs” on people and prompts them to buy these products. (Saunders, 6) Being affected by the image that is promoted in the advertisements, people usually spend on false needs which indicates that these needs have been created by consumer culture itself. Furthermore, if people are really better off by consuming more, then the happiest people would be expected to be from the countries that have higher per capita incomes. However, studies indicate that there is a general dissatisfaction in Britain and US, two of the world’s richest countries while people are happiest in poorest countries which are Bangladesh, Azerbaijan and Nigeria. Hence, consuming commodities can never make people attain happiness.
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In conclusion, consumerism is a rising trend and way of living in today’s world. While it is significant for people to consume in order to meet their needs such as food and housing, consumption today has turned into a habit that aims to make people elated. Many people today consume products to indicate social status which is believed to be related to his happiness. However, consumption of commodities will never satisfy human beings nor make them happy. While focusing their attention on consumption and believing that consumption will prompt happiness, people spend more time at work, leaving less leisure. In such a situation, they fail to attain self discovery and find out what really makes them happy as authentic individuals. Furthermore, the environment is also constantly subject to destruction owing to consumption trends of people and the assumed relation between consumption commodities and happiness. Therefore, people need to get rid of their consuming behaviors and adopt a simplistic lifestyle that is both environmentally friendly and more authentic.
Works Cited
Jackson, Tim. Live Better by Consuming Less? Journal of Industrial Ecology. Volume 9, Number 1-2. 2005.
Rosenbloom, Stephanie. “But Will It Make You Happy?” August 7, 2010.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/08/business/08consume.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1>.
Saunders, Peter. Why Capitalism is Good for the Soul. The Insider, Spring 2008.
