INTRODUCTION

Globalization changed not only the social dimension but also the economic
dimension. Consumerism is economically manifested in the chronic purchasing
of new goods and services, with little attention to their true need, durability,
product origin or the environmental consequences of manufacture and
disposal. Consumerism is driven by huge sums spent on advertising designed
to create both a desire to follow trends and the resultant personal self-reward
system based on acquisition. Materialism is one of the end results of
consumerism.
Nowadays, there is a tendency for people to consume different stuff every day,
all the time. They replace their old devices for newer ones or they buy
unnecessary things because they think they need them. An intended
consequence of this, promoted by those who profit from consumerism, is to
accelerate the discarding of the old, either because of lack of durability or a
change in fashion. One of the reasons why consumerism rises at higher rates is
that the products once considered luxuries are now seen as necessary.
However, this scenery has not always been like this. The aim of this research
paper is to describe the unstoppable consumerism in the United States. We are
going to begin by briefly outlining the background to this matter. Then, we are
going to describe the different fields in which these phenomena can be
visualized.
HISTORY
The United States is considered an abundant nation. In the 17th century, before
the Europeans came, it was a land full of natural resources such as fertile
farmland, trees and animals. Native Americans lived here and took profit of
those natural resources. However, when the Europeans arrived, they ravaged
with everything. The Amerindians did not have the necessary weapons to beat
the Europeans or/and keep them out.
These undeveloped resources were not the only reason why Americans became
wealthy. It is also important to consider the work the settlers made over this
virgin land. They exploit all the potential it had in order to take full advantage
of these resources.
Europeans were accustomed to be wealthy from birth, i.e. they ensured their
lives by inheriting material wealth from previous generation. However, once in
America, they had to change their lifestyles. Settlers had to leave aside the
assumption that they are rich because of their families and they had to obtain
a good social position by themselves.

Therefore, it was important to increase their personal wealth and material

comforts. The entire population started increasing their nations material
abundance as quickly as possible. This change in their paradigm makes them
judge themselves by materialistic standards. Instead of consider it as mark of
weak moral character; it represented a virtue, a positive incentive to work hard
and a reward for successful effort.
In the 1700s and 1800s, the Americans view of themselves as producers
changed to that one of consumers. Being farmers, they produced food and
other household goods. In the 1800s, the industrial revolution made possible
the mass production of manufactured goods and created an unusual economic
situation. The low costs and the availability of the products in outstanding
quantities lead to a new period in human history.
Nonetheless, it was in the 1900s when the Americans shifted their view from
producers to consumers. This was possible due to the mass advertising derived
from the invention of the radio in 1920 and the spread of television
programming in 1950. Through these inventions, it was easy for the companies
to reach large number of Americans at one time to make them buy their
products. Both the radio and the TV programming used the same technique:
entertainment programmes accompanied with short commercials.

WHAT CONSUMERISM IS
According to the Contemporary American Society, consumerism is the belief
that personal wellbeing and happiness depends to a very large extent on the
level of personal consumption, particularly on the purchase of material goods.
The idea is not simply that wellbeing depends upon a standard of living above
some threshold, but that at the centre of happiness is consumption and
material possessions. Following this concept, a consumerist society would be
that in which individuals spend a great deal of time and money consuming.
What people believe is that consumption is good, and more consumption is
even better.
WHY DO WE CONSUME?

*To answer the question why do we consume? we will base the next lines in
Dr. Juliet B. Schors lecture.
Schor maintains that conventional wisdom states, first, that consumption is
good. That all the products which have been improved are really new and are
improvements. That we consume because we love it and it has made our lives
better and more enjoyable. Secondly, it is also believed that more is better.
This superiority of more implies that sufficiency is never attained in toto. And
third, the consumers know best what they like far better than the
government; that is why the consumer market is left unattended by public
policy.
On the other side, it cannot be denied that consumption may have contributed
to human welfare, but once they are satisfied we should stop consuming. The
problem is that we are surrounded by powerful advertising images, which
equate the product with being cool, young, vital, sexy, or becoming an object
of desire. Thus, is extremely difficult to stop consuming.
THE CYCLE OF WORKING AND SPENDING.
In the economic field, the level of consumption is set mainly by peoples choice
about how much to work, and therefore how much income to earn. The
individual chooses between
Hours at work (which yield income) and leisure (a good in itself, but a costly
One because it entails foregoing income). The income earned then determines
The level of consumption. Thus, individual workers/consumers choose the level
of working hours and the quantity of consumption. The jobs require certain
hours to be completed. The workers can choose either to work or not to but
they cannot choose the schedule of the job. The majority is offered short-hours
jobs which increase their income. The problem arises from this situation: more
hours at work means less hours for leisure time. At the end, the employees use
the fact of working as hard as a valid reason for consuming comfort and
luxuries. Indeed, consumption is the major form of reward for long hours and a
harried pace of work.
WHAT AMERICAN CONSUMERS LIKE
When we talk about consumerism in the USA, we automatically wonder: What
do massive consumers like about this? It is worth to describe the interests of
American shoppers in order to give more details about the consumerism in this
country. In general, American consumers are keen on comfort, cleanliness,
novelty and convenience. Let us deepen these concepts.

Firstly, the term comfort refers to a state of physical ease and freedom from
pain or constraint. The willingness for comfort goes back to the times when
America was being invaded by the Europeans. In those days, life was tough
and there were very few facilities. This experience may be the reason why
people wanted more goods that would make life more comfortable. Nowadays,
the desire of Americans to have comforts on their lives is reflected in the way
they consume technologies, in the way they eat or transport, etc.
Americans are also obsessed with cleanliness. They want to have their lives
strictly tidy, they seek perfectionism. This applies merely in the idea of
keeping all parts of the body clean. Perhaps this is connected with the Puritan
heritage, a Protestant church group whose members were among the first
settlers of America. The Puritans thought that the humans must had their
entire body well cleaned so as to wash away all the dirt and evil tendencies,
sexual desire included. Therefore, for more Americans it is very important to
keep clean not only their bodies, but also their clothes, houses, cars and even
pets.
Another aspect of American consumers is their desire for things that are new
and different. This love for novelty leads to inventiveness. This means that they
are constantly inventing new products and improving old ones. One typical
example is the company Apple that is creating a new iPhone every year in
order to be innovative. Moreover, advertising plays an important role to
encourage people to replace their old stuff for new ones. And if they cannot
afford something new, advertisers encourage consumers to charge it on a
credit card.
Finally, there is a fourth aspect that characterizes the American consumers:
they love convenience. There has been a great increase in the acquisition of
devices designed to reduce the housework time. Nowadays, almost everyone
has some of these devices such as microwaves, washing machines, liquidizer,
dishwasher, etc. at home. However, the time that Americans save is quickly
spent on other activities.
A clear example of the American desire for convenience is fast-food
restaurants, which are found in every corner of the country. Fast-food
restaurants such as McDonalds and KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken), serve a wide
variety of menus to customers in a short-time period.
Finally, there is a fourth aspect that characterizes the American consumers:
they love convenience. There has been a great increase in the acquisition of
devices designed to reduce the housework time. Nowadays, almost everyone
has some of these devices such as microwaves, washing machines, liquidizer,
dishwasher, etc. at home. However, the time that Americans save is quickly
spent on other activities.

A clear example of the American desire for convenience is the fast food. Far
behind us is the time when home wives cooked homemade food. Nowadays,
the so popular fast-food restaurants are an alternative for having meals. Those
restaurants offer a varied menu that it is ready in less than 5 minutes and
customers can either eat their food at the restaurant or take it home. Another
tendency is food deliveries that hand out food from the menus of different
restaurants such as Pizza Hut or Panda Express for a small charge. People just
make a phone call and they get their meals home. However, for those who
prefer to prepare their food at home, there are convenience foods packaged
and ready to cook, or are even pre-cooked. They are known as Easy box or
frozen food. Supermarkets and groceries are full of them.
Microwaves and washing machines, as well as fast food, are convenient
because they help American consumers to reduce the time spent on house
chores. However, Alexander Tocqueville saw a paradox in the American
character. He said that Americans were so busy working to acquire comforts
and conveniences that they were unable to relax and to enjoy leisure time
when they had it (American Ways, an introduction to the American culture;
2005)
SPORTS
Sports are an important part of the American culture. This kind of recreation
has become commercialized. Thus, the sport industry is the one of the largest
industries in the United States. Spectators sport is a major part of this sport
industry and it is estimated that U.S. consumers spend almost $17.1 billion
dollars a year on tickets to sporting events (Plunkett, 2008 - Journal of Sport
Management, 2010).
Not only the ticket sales are critical to the success of professional sport
organizations, but also other factors such as merchandising. The number of
competing teams is increasing at a high speed, and so do the sport markets.
Special leisure clothing, sporting equipment and attendance at expensive
sporting events rife with advertising and corporate sponsorship are some of the
manifestation of consumerism within the sports.
The most popular sports in the US are American football and baseball, although
there are many other sports that have a massive participation among the
society. Since describing consumerism in the different popular American sports
would be too extensive, we are going to focus only on the effects that football
has on the social consumers.
American football (better known simply as football) is one of the most popular
sports in the USA, as said above. It is played in leagues of different size, age
and quality, in all regions of the country. The National Football League (NFL) is

currently the only major professional American football league in the United
States. Also, high school and college football are very popular too.
The NFL season goes from September to December, ending with the playoffs
and the so popular Super Bowl in January and February. This massive event
gathers thousands of people who spend on Super Bowl parties and related
merchandisejerseys, beverages, pigs-in-blankets, and so on a great amount
of money. However, there are some others who prefer to watch the matches at
home in order to save money. Though they manifest other types of
consumerism since they tend to buy new TVs specifically for the game.
Over the years, the Super Bowl has become a monumental day for
consumerism. Among the TV viewers, 37% of them reported that they watch
the Super Bowl because of the commercials (according to A Harris Interactive
survey commissioned by Coupon Cabin, mentioned on the article from Brad
Tuttle at TIME).
The effect that advertising has on the consumer society is inevitable. On one
hand they may be funny, but on the other hand they influence people to buy
unnecessary products. Advertisements are everywhere, even in sportive
events. The Super Bowl can be an ideal place to advertise different kind of
products since it has a massive audience.
On the whole, "Sports is another crucial example of the indoctrination
system . . . It offers people something to pay attention to that is of no
importance . . . It keeps them from worrying about things that matter to their
lives that they might have an idea of something about . . . People have the
most exotic information and understanding about all sorts of arcane issues . . .
It's a way of building up irrational attitudes of submission to authority, and
group cohesion behind leadership elements, in fact its training in irrational
jingoism . . . That's why energy is devoted to supporting them . . . and
advertisers are willing to pay for them." (Noam Chomsky from Manufacturing
Consent)