Development and the Environment

Consumerism & Consumption

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Introduction
While production is concerned with how goods and services are made by people from materials and energy in their environment, consumption relates to how people use those goods and services to provide them with the things they need and want. Production and consumption are like two sides of the same coin since they are inter-related, therefore affecting each other.

Marketing and advertising

Marketing aims to influence peoples choices. It involves planning the conception, pricing, promotion and distribution of goods, services and ideas. Marketing techniques are used by all organisations to create awareness of their brands and products. Producer companies often claim that they are merely finding out what people want and then matching this to what they have to offer. In reality, many companies begin with a product that they know will be profitable and then advertise to develop a market for it. Advertisers assert that they are merely providing information to consumers to enable them to make informed choices. For some forms of advertising such as classified ads or notices pinned on the supermarket wall, this may be true. But most advertising aims to influence and persuade people rather than inform them. Advertisers play on peoples emotions, particularly fear or inadequacy, in order to build connections between products, brands and people. While adverts cannot make people buy things, they are very influential in shaping peoples behaviour. Some interesting facts are that: The amount spent globally on advertising aimed at boosting consumption topped $430 billion in 1998.

Consumption and the rise of a consumer society

Western consumerism is spreading across the planet as people search for meaning and fulfilment in ever better mobile (cell) phones and designer clothes. In the process the Earths finite resources are being plundered, more wealth is going to the richest, and the planet despoiled by poisonous wastes. The term consume means to use something, or to waste or destroy it. People have always used materials and energy from the environment to support themselves, but the manner in which globally countries are today becoming consumer societies is fundamentally different. People in consumer societies do not just use products to sustain themselves, but also consume them because of the symbolic meanings associated with the products. Todays consumer society is one in which high levels of material consumption are closely linked to identities, aspirations and leisure activities of the population. Linking this together has become the role of marketing and advertising in a capitalist free market world.

Spending on advertising has increased four-fold in Asia and five-fold in Latin America in the 1990s. Over 80% of Americans believe that they buy and consume far more than they need. By 1996, middle-class consumers in China, India, Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina, South Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand almost equalled the total population of the western industrialized countries. The top 20% of Malaysians and Chileans now have

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Theme: Development and the Environment Topic No 3: Consumerism & Consumption

higher average incomes than the average German or Japanese. Increasingly advertisers target young learners in order to shape consumption preferences early in life and to take advantage of the increased money that children have in the developed world. Because of this, countries such as Sweden and Norway ban childrens advertising while Denmark, Greece and Belgium restrict it. Others are thinking of following suit. In Namibia much of the marketing is carried out in the guise of social responsibility or greenwashing. Companies sponsor education about healthy teeth and use it to market their brand of toothpaste, or they sponsor sports competitions while at the same time selling soft drink products that are of little nutritional value. In addition, adverts on TV promote the environmentally friendliness of petroleum companies through sales of unleaded petrol, but fail to mention the vast damage caused to the atmosphere, rainforests, tundra or indigenous peoples ways of life and livelihoods by exhaust gases, oil wells and pipelines. by wealth rather than by self-sufficiency. Manufactured mass produced objects displace goods made by local materials and each new thing that appears on the market makes irrelevant all the previous ways of answering this need. The reason? With the rise of a capitalist system and mass production investors were concerned that goods might go unsold when peoples natural desires for food, clothing and shelter were satisfied. So they began pushing mass consumption as the key to continued economic growth and profits. To keep the system going, advertising peddled the benefits of disposability and a throw away society born. So the continual growth of markets for new products partly depends on our dissatisfaction with and continuous disposal of old things. Today most of the literature we see around us, urges us to consume and shop. Consumption and consumerism has become the dominant way of life and retail sales are used as a measure of health for an economy. But where is it all leading?

Consumerism and the quality of life

Research in developed countries shows that well before children can read, they can recognise brand names in stores and characters on products. Gradually material goods become aligned with social status, happiness and personal fulfilment. A persons identity becomes closely tied to their role as a consumer, whether or not the products they buy really do give any lasting satisfaction. Then, concerns for other people, our community and our environment become secondary in the quest for consumption and growth. Once we start measuring everything in money terms, we begin to confuse improvements in the quality of our lives with increases in the value of the stuff going through the economy. As well as money and goods consider these other aspects that make up the quality of our lives. Why should our status depend more on money and goods rather than these basic needs? Subsistence creation, health, shelter skills, work Protection security, society Affection friendship, family, love

The rise of consumer societies

Some would argue that human aspirations are infinite. We all long for the impossible. So when we are offered opportunities for growth and greater wealth, we all wish for it. In the past the contradiction between human desire and the circumstances of our brief lives has been the object of great religious teachings. Most major religions preached self-restraint, modest resource use, and non-attachment to material things. These were thought of as the starting points for wisdom. Today these doctrines of thrift and austerity have been swept away. The development of consumer societies has largely happened in the last 100 years. Capitalism offers the promise of everything being available now, rather than waiting for it later. The market teaches us what we do not have and what we might get. Status becomes measured

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Theme: Development and the Environment Topic No 3: Consumerism & Consumption

Understanding curiosity, education Participation responsibilities, interaction, community Leisure play, intimacy, privacy Creation skills, work, feedback Identity belonging, groups, recognition Freedom autonomy, rights, dissent

Namibian choices
Namibia and many other developing countries stand at a crossroad. Do they wish to develop into consumer societies where people measure their status by the things they consume or own? Or will they elect a government that places greater store on helping its citizens to connect with what they really value? Is the current path of development resulting in ever increasing inequalities in income and consumption? Do the conspicuous displays of material wealth seen in towns and cities actually deepen poverty and harm our perceptions of wellbeing? What can we do to ensure there is a home for everyone, plenty of clean water, and access to sanitation, health services and education? Should most investment be used to ensure that Namibias Millennium Development Goals are actually achieved? Certainly our schools should provide opportunities for learners to engage with such questions relating to production, consumption and waste issues. As educators FOR the environment should we be helping them to reflect critically on their values and those of the world around them and ask the big questions rather than merely accepting everything that is around them?

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Theme: Development and the Environment Topic No 3: Consumerism & Consumption Ideas to stress in your teaching and learning

The term to consume means to use something, or to waste or destroy it. More goods are being produced for sale today than ever before as a result of increasing consumer demand promoted by advertising and a desire to have an ever better lifestyle. Advertisers play on peoples emotions, particularly fear or inadequacy, in order to shape their behaviour towards buying a product. Many times more is spent on advertising food products than on nutrition and health education. Consumer advertising increasingly targets children top establish a pattern of buying certain goods early in life. As a result, the number of countries adverts targeted at children is increasing. Increasing consumption is a fundamental part of the capitalist system where nations and economies seek to grow and create more wealth. It is the main cause of resource depletion and degradation. Advertisers would have us believe that a persons identity is determined by the products we buy, use and wear. Others argue that there are more fundamental basic needs such as affection, protection, freedom and leisure. As Namibia changes, its citizens will need to engage in the consumerism debate and decide what their priorities for development are.

Glossary
Austerity Autonomy Capitalist A saving economy or act of self-denial, especially in respect of something regarded as a luxury. Political independence and self-government; personal independence and the capacity to make moral decisions and act on them. An economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and distribution of goods, characterised by a free competitive market. A capitalist economy is motivated by profit. Easily or clearly visible. The belief that the buying and selling of large quantities of consumer goods is beneficial to an economy or a sign of economic strength. The purchase and use of goods and services by consumers, or the quantity of goods and services purchased. A decline in somethings quality or performance. With an end or limit. International trade that is not subject to protective regulations or tariffs intended to restrict foreign imports. Originating, native to and typical of a region or country. Relating to the maintenance of public health and hygiene, especially the water supply and waste disposal system.

Conspicuous Consumerism Consumption Degradation Finite Free trade Indigenous Sanitation

Sources/Further Reading
Do the right things: a practical guide to ethical living The Little Earth Book, James Bruges See Change: learning and education for sustainability, Parliamentary Commission for New Zealand

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