How did Americans go from being simply customers into becoming rabid "consumers"?

[brentspeak]

The word "consumers" conjures up images of people mindlessly stuffing their faces in pig-like fashion with soylent green-type crap. And I once read a piece written by some free-market "economist" -- a guy who shills for the Mall-Wart economy -- who was exultant that "Americans' capacity to consume has greatly increased..." His praise of people "consuming" made me sick to my stomach.

What happened to being producers who are occasional customers?

:banghead:

[msongs]

1. fire consumes, customers use - it's a derogatory term for sure nt

[lostnotforgotten]

2. Television, Television, Television - Get Rid of Your Television!

eom

[tabasco]

6. Exactamundo.

I was gonna say "after 50 years of teevee."

[tridim]

10. I watch lots of television and I'm not a rabid consumer.

:shrug:

[toadzilla]

12. got rid of mine years ago!

[Orsino]

24. Yes. Radio only occupied one sensory input channel.

TV uses two, and is therefore better able to imply the others. Shit gets in you.

[Donnachaidh]

3. television and marketing from small kids on up

Ever watch a saturday morning cartoon? It's brainwashing at it's finest. When you have idiots standing in line for DAYS to buy an expensive toy, that will be even more expensive to use -- you have PIGGY IDIOTS.

[MadHound]

4. It's a process that's been decades in the making

As the manufacturing base in this country has disappeared, the economy has had to replace it with consumerism to keep the wheels of the economy turning. They've done this through massive ad campaigns, which essentially means brainwashing people into believing that they need the latest, greatest whatever.

What gets me is not the transformation from customer to consumer, but rather from citizen to consumer. That's the scary one.

[NOW tense]

13. We as a nation

have completely screwed up our understanding of wants and needs.

[Jackpine Radical]

5. My wife & I saw this kid pushing his own little shopping cart

out of the grocery store this afternoon. The cart had a sort of banner on it that said "Consumer in Training." We both nearly gagged.

[gratuitous]

7. YEARS of intensive conditioning

When someone tries to pooh-pooh something that's on TV or radio, remember that very little gets on the airwaves by accident. These messages and the messengers have been researched to a fare-thee-well. And the American citizen has been as commodified as orange juice or cigarettes, reduced to the same market analysis and branding.

The oil companies came real close to upsetting the apple cart, though. The precipitous spike in gas prices caused a lot of people to take a careful look at their spending habits, and a thinking consumer is anathema to a culture of mindless consumerism. Certainly the culture will try to revive the mindless aspect of consumerism, but a lot of good profit centers got messed up bad by the oil companies. That's part of the reason we're currently being allowed to rip on them; other marketers are also pissed at their overweening greed that woke up so many consumers.

[annabanana]

8. An American family used to be a production unit.

Before factories. Everyone made something, or assisted in the manufacture. We sewed our own clothes, made our own cloth even.. Grew & raised our own food. Families would specialize in things that the communities needed .

As production moved out of the home, we slowly bought more and made less...

[Mike 03]

9. A book needs to be written on this topic

It's the missing link that could reattach us to our souls.

[ljm2002]

11. It was a conscious manipulation...

...that I have watched happen during my lifetime.

Back in the day, we understood that we were citizens. We may not have always been "good" citizens, but we knew that being a proud American meant being a citizen of a free country. Now it meant different things to different people, and what "free" meant to me may not have been what it meant to my neighbor. But in general we understood what it meant in broad terms.

It used to be, a person would not think of wearing a company's logo unless: (a) you worked at the company and did it in the course of your job; (b) you worked at the company and it was a freebie or thank-you gift; (c) it was a promotional giveaway; or (d) the company paid you to do it.

I remember after the 60's, observing how the dialog changed. It was no longer Democracy vs. Communism, and we were no longer Citizens. Instead the dialog became Capitalism vs. Communism, and the populace at large began to be referred to as consumers. Along with that came the wish to sport corporate logos, where young people would actually clamor for brand-name goods and wanted to wear the ones with the logo prominently displayed.

In other words, our dialog became corrupted. I believe this was a conscious push by the big-money corporate bastards who really pull the strings, and the brainwashing has been pretty damned effective.

[earth mom]

14. Seems to me it went from Americans being referred to as citizens to then being called consumers.

Notice how the people of this country are rarely referred to as citizens?

[leftofthedial]

15. two generations of nonstop marketing.

[BootinUp]

16. When we became "educated" on the economy probably

on a side note, you helped me pick an old movie to watch tonight.

[kestrel91316]

17. Look at the murderous frenzies on Black Friday again and tell me that

"consumers" doesn't apply, along with stuffing faces in pig-like fashion, as you put it.

IMHO "pig-like" is far too kind.

Today is Buy Nothing Day for some of us, and other than $2 of produce and a $1 lottery ticket ($100 mil, not gonna pass it up), I've bought NOTHING.

[melody]

18. Check out video of apes when cut off from food sources

It's reminiscent of Walmart on Black Friday (quite literally today :(

[housewolf]

19. What bothers me more is when did we go from being CITIZENS

to being consumers?????????

[lin_e65]

20. An old story...

Goes something like this: Henry Ford, after building his Model Ts on the assembly line realized that once he sold them to all the rich people, who would then buy them? His partner came up with the idea that if you paid the worker enough, he could eventually afford to buy an auto. Thus was the creation of consumerism. It is blatant in out society, a disease that has metastasized throughout every class. I'm an old bag here-born in the 1950s. I remember taking shoes to the shoemaker to have them repaired. My granmother used to darn socks. We used old (but clean) underwear as rags. But as a country we consume the mostin the world. That's why the world is in such a financial crisis. If we stop spending, everything, I mean everything slows down.

I'm slowly weaning myself-it's hard. I get the shakes every now and then. Withdrawl is difficult. I've almost completely stopped shopping. I will go out and buy the groceries I need. My goodness, I spend more time with my family. I read. I make comments on blogs. My goodness!! There IS something more than shopping in life!!!!

[Historic NY]

21. "the got to have it right now mentality"...brought on by credit cards.

years ago people waited and saved up to buy an item w/o credit cards or put it in lay-a-way.

[stillcool]

22. Bargain Fever...My husband..

saw a wanted listing on Craig's List for people to stand in line and get..whatever. They offered $50.00 one day, then $100.00 the next..then he saw someone with an entrepreneurial spirit listing line-standers, guaranteed to get whatever you want, for $250.00. I'm tempted to send the listings to Bill O'Reilly. Something for him to jerk-off with.

[Doremus]

23. CEOs, Madison Avenue and the eternal quest for MORE MORE MORE profits n/t