Shopping as an American Culture Value Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Shopping as an American Culture Value - Essay ExampleThe contention is that though American culture has been manipulated into accept materialistic must have consumerism as a cultural value, there are those, past and present, who provide a glimmer of hope for a return to the better, more human-centered values of the American way of life.According to Rao (2004), writing from an Indian viewpoint, the American Dream encapsulated freedom, and democracy in a land of opportunities. In reviewing the book, Affluenza The All overwhelming Epidemic, he cited figures from De Graff et al (2003)Embedding of this value was reflected in one poll found that 93% of teenage American girls rate shop as their favorite activity. (Rao, 2004). He further contended that only about one quarter of mall shoppers are seeking to buy a specific item, the rest use shopping as therapy, for amusement, or just for its own sake. Americans in general would seem to have adopted shopping as a cultural value, a way of life . ... at that place is little doubt that people are buying, not from necessity, but spending above their means in order to acquire possessions in a inquisition for happiness and to belong to their culture. They must have the newest fashion, the best brand, the biggest house, the fastest car in order to feel valued.Social theory provides some answers as to how this has happened. In order for businesses to make profits, they no longer seek only to produce to meet needs, but make sure that demand levels stay high, and so claim the growth of a capitalist system. By marketing and motivating people to buy, this is accomplished a psychological manipulation appears to be in place.Advertising, marketing and the big money media have become central to the stimulation of demand through the continual invention of new wants. Theimages and identities they disseminate promise satisfactions earlier generations never dreamed of. They pop the question life-styles of endless acquisition and inexha ustible glamour, which can be had at the pleasurable price ofmerely buying more and more. (Noble, 2000, p. 231)This shows how people can be sucked into the shopping vortex, with little or no regard for its effects on the individual or the world in general. The impact worldwide, where poorer nations make the goods, on low afford (rendering American workers jobless), in sometimes slave-like conditions, to feed the greed of multinationals and consumers, presents an immoral and inhumane side of capitalism. Sanders (2000), in an article on Maytag and the North American Free passel Agreement, statedThe simple truth is that American workers cannot, and should not becompeting against desperate workers in developing countries who areforced to work for pennies an hour. (Why Overcoming