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Published in:
2010 | OriginalPaper | Chapter
Consumer Cultures
Published in: The Objects of Affection
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People need to eat, be clothed, and take care of other biological imperatives, so consumption is a part of everyone’s life in every society. But in some societies, generally in isolated agrarian ones, people live in what is essentially a subsistence economy, and consumption of material goods is not a major part of their lives. At the other extreme we have consumer cultures in which buying new products and services plays a major role in most everyone’s lives, often to the detriment of public spending for roads, schools, medical care, and other similar public needs. The simplest way to define consumer cultures is that they are societies in which spending for private “needs” and desires overwhelms spending on public ones.