How Americans Became Uber-Consumers

Sometimes, it helps to have an historical perspective on our behavior as a society. In 1883, when I was a college senior at Sarah Lawrence, I studied a period in the late 18th and early 19th centuries called the Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Revolution is when we were convinced that buying stuff would transform our lives. The greatest force in the evolution of our country from a mostly rural, family-owned farming society into the present day predominantly urban/suburban, mammoth capitalistic system was the Industrial Revolution. The roots of the Industrial Revolution started in England and as merchants and industrialists began to gain power and money, and through the mechanization of production, the previously held belief in the Protestant Work Ethic was replaced. Prior to the Industrial Revolution, people worked for the sake of working because the belief was that idleness was a terrible sin and working warded off the temptations in life. rnDuring the Industrial Revolution, the captains of industry realized that there was an unprecedented amount of money to be made because the mechanization of production yielded an abundance of product. Assembly lines were able to produce goods at a rate unheard of before mechanization began. Industry leaders had two challenges: how would they get people to buy the goods that they had a surplus of and how could they maximize profits. The Protestant Work Ethic—with its bullying approach of work-to-keep-you-out-of-trouble principle—needed to be abolished and replaced with the work-to-make-you-spend-money principle. Creating avid consumers was the next challenge and this was resolved through advertising and the creation of the concept of leisure. rnThe messages in advertisements at the turn-of-the-century and for years following were clear: work to buy things because you deserve it; because possessions will improve your life and make it more gratifying; and, because you want to show your monetary worth to your neighbors. The concept of idleness was replaced with leisure. The promise of success, wealth, freedom, status and power replaced the fear of God as the incentive to work. rnAdvertisements assured people that products could improve their lives. In 1930 a writer in Printers’ Ink commented that: “Advertising helps to keep the masses dissatisfied with their mode of life, discontented with ugly things around them.” To fit in with ones social peers, great emphasis was placed on buying the “correct” material goods. According to Stuart Ewen, author of Captains of Consciousness: “It was a world in which the individual was constantly judged by others, a world in which there was a total absence of positive bonds between people.” rnA novel that perfectly captures the early part of the 20th Century is Babbitt, by the famous satirist of American culture, Sinclair Lewis. The Babbitt family lives in the city of Zenith. For George Babbitt, material wares: “Were his proofs of excellence; at first the sign, then the substitute, for joy and passion and wisdom.” rnBy the 1920’s, Americans were ardent consumers. White-collar workers spent all day working indoors, yearning for their leisure time. For many, leisure time was spent doing what the advertisements advised: purchasing goods and showing those goods off at socially acceptable gatherings. rnAdditionally, the Scientific Management Movement, initiated in the later part of the 19th Century by Fredrick Winslow Taylor, contributed greatly to the success of creating American consumers. rnScientific management was the key to regulating individuals during work. “Taylor…gathered up all the obsessional energies of the work ethic and set them loose in the factories, turning the drive for order and thought against the traditions of craft and independence.”32 Factory workers left their farm and craft jobs to work indoors making products. What had been thoughtful, creative work became repetitive, thoughtless tasks. Work discipline was critical: it forced workers to be on time, to work punctually and to communicate little while on the job. rnScientific Management soon spread to office jobs and middle-class workers were also subjected to routine-oriented, specific, repetitious tasks. Workers were controlled because they lacked an understanding of how their place of business operated, as they were privy only to their small part within the organization. The mechanization of many jobs made them mind-numbingly boring—hence the yearning for satisfaction was solved by shopping, and owning products; a fundamental form of pleasure to those whose lives were dulled by their tedious jobs. Excerpt from the award winning book, Harmonious Environment: Beautify, Detoxify & Energize Your Life, Your Home & Your Planet, copyright 2007rn