Why Anti-Consumerism Is Elitist Junk

http://search.proquest.com.ezpxy.fanshawec.ca/printviewfil...

Back to previous page

Search strategy

Set# Searched for Databases Results

1 of 4

13-04-20 07:32 PM

http://search.proquest.com.ezpxy.fanshawec.ca/printviewfil...

document 1 of 1

REVIEW: Why anti-consumerism is elitist junk

REVIEW: Why anti-consumerism is elitist junk. (2009). Fund Strategy, , 25. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview /214600512?accountid=39340

Abstract (summary)

None available.

Full Text

All Consuming How shopping got us into this mess and how we can find our way out By Neal Lawson Penguin 2009 Apart from its branding, Neal Lawson's All Consuming is virtually indistinguishable from the plethora of books attacking consumerism. It also embodies a similar elitist disdain for the masses. Anyone wanting to buy a book attacking consumerism is faced with an embarrassing range of choices. There are so many different tracts, using so many different terms, saying more or less the same thing. The differences between competing brands of soap powder are more significant. Terms used by anti-consumerists to attack consumerism include consumer addiction, compulsive acquisition disorder, enoughism, luxury fever, oniomania, shopaholism and stiffitis. Neal Lawson, the author of All Consuming and chair of a "democratic left" pressure group, prefers turbo-consumerism. Lawson's arguments are as well worn as a stone-washed pair of Levi's jeans. He goes into excruciating detail about how the plethora of consumer goods is ruining our lives. In Lawson's view, Britain has long passed the era of scarcity. He says we live in an era of superabundance in which greater choice only makes us miserable. We are more concerned with symbols and brands as a mark of our status than meeting our basic needs. Similar arguments have been made, with considerably more finesse, by earlier authors. The notion of conspicuous consumption can be dated back to Thorstein Veblen's The Theory of the Leisure Class, first...