Consumerism is NOT Capitalism

No, I am NOT a communist. Neither am I an anarchist. I’ve sometimes been accused of such things; mainly by colleagues in Social Communication, Marketing and Advertising. I assume it is because nowadays I often speak against Consumerism.

I see Consumerism as a form of Radical Capitalism, and as most radicalisms, it produces important distortions from the initial proposition. What this means is that, though I am favourable to Capitalism – mainly because no one came up with a better option yet – I am indeed opposed to the concept of Consumerism as an answer to contemporary socioeconomic problems.

Why? Because I don’t think we can make the world a better place by pushing things people don’t need into their lives and into their homes. I don’t think we can make this a better world by ravishing its natural resources with increasingly greater velocity to make these products that no one really needs. I don’t think we are building a better future by selling mobile phones, credit cards and bank accounts to our children just as soon as they can learn to speak.

What I do think is that we exacerbate our social problems by creating social distinctions based on wealth. I do think we endanger our planet by exploiting its natural resources irresponsibly to generate products that serve mainly the purpose of setting people apart as tokens of wealth and poor replacements for true hapiness. I do think our kids deserve to be looked at not as convenient consumers, but as innocent children deserving of our love.

So, while I think commerce and the industry play an important socioeconomic role, I also think we have allowed greed to permeate these activities to the last degree. This same greed is what taints our contemporary society and it is the source of various important evils of our time. This greed is congruent with the words "insatiable", "waste", "pollution", "inequity" and ultimately "Consumerism".

Think what you like of me, but I am no communist/anarchist. What I am is responsible.