Consumerism
Overview
Thorstein Veblen
Thorstein Bunde Veblen, born Torsten Bunde Veblen was an American economist and sociologist, and a leader of the so-called institutional economics movement...
. Veblen's subject of examination, the newly emergent middle class arising at the turn of the twentieth century, comes to full fruition by the end of the twentieth century through the process of globalization
Globalization
Globalization refers to the increasingly global relationships of culture, people and economic activity. Most often, it refers to economics: the global distribution of the production of goods and services, through reduction of barriers to international trade such as tariffs, export fees, and import...
.
The term "consumerism" is also used to refer to the consumerist movement, consumer protection
Consumer protection
Consumer protection laws designed to ensure fair trade competition and the free flow of truthful information in the marketplace. The laws are designed to prevent businesses that engage in fraud or specified unfair practices from gaining an advantage over competitors and may provide additional...
or consumer activism
Consumer activism
Consumer activism is activism undertaken on behalf of consumers, to assert consumer rights.-Objectives and tactics:Goals include making goods and services available to consumers safer, better quality, environmentally friendly, and more readily available....
, which seeks to protect and inform consumers by requiring such practices as honest packaging and advertising, product guarantees, and improved safety standards.
Unanswered Questions
Discussions
Quotations
"Mammon, n.: The god of the world's leading religion." - Ambrose Bierce
"He who knows he has enough is rich" - Tao Te Ching Chapter 33
"Excess and deficiency are equally are at fault." - Confucius, XI 15
"Eat and drink, but waste not by excess; verily He loves not the excessive." - Islam Qu'ran 7.31
"Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which does not satisfy." Isaiah 55:2
Category:Commerce