Theory
“Conspicuous Consumerism”, the word was coined by famous economist and socialist ‘Thorstein Veblen’ in 1899. Acc. to oxford’s dictionary the word conspicuous means ‘easy to notice; likely to attract’, and the word consumerism means ‘buying and using goods and services’. So collectively any goods or services bought in order to get notice or to attract attention can be called “conspicuous consumerism”. Conspicuous consumerism demands spending capacity therefore only the rich can afford it. Hence, if a person is rich it is most likely that he is intelligent; he may not be virtuous, but most likely intelligent. When the intelligent people squander(to waste money) on materialist things then it becomes a vogue(fashion) for all the classes of people, thus, it becomes infectious to the society. The stigmatic(a feeling of wrong)character of this mentality is no longer considered by the populace(population).
The reasons behind this are somewhat vague and somewhat comprehensive.
Comprehension:
The conspicuous behaviour of rich person attracts people towards him. His actions become more righteous and his materialism becomes the sceptre (consider prize) of his ability to think, ideate and flourish.
Vague:
Such a module of social appreciation seekers is non-sustainable. A better approach for social admiration is altruism(charity). Altruism not only shows that the individual is rich but also demonstrates that he is virtuous and looks forward to sustainable development of civilization.
Hidden aspects of conspicuous consumerism
Recently, the famous writer, a youth icon and a IIM-A graduate Chetan Bhagat, stated in his column on November 20th, 2011 that “Kingfisher airlines has lost over 1000 crore last year and owes 7000 crore to its lenders. Financial analysts across the globe will agree that airlines sector is one of the worst sectors to make money. But the glamour of owning airlines is what interests people like Mr. Mallaya, anybody will agree that there are only a few business as sexy as owning a airline”. Now the hidden aspect of this scenario is, if kingfisher is not able to come out of this situation public sector banks which have lent thousands of crore to this airline will procure a huge loss and the ultimate effect will come to the common people of India, who will become the victim of some people’s bad decision making. This is one of the best paradigms(example) of conspicuous consumerism in current point of time.
Environmental effects
Conspicuous consumerism gives birth to higher need of materialistic goods, higher consumption of fossil fuels by means of cars (luxury or hedge back). In order to generate these needs the manufacturing of goods is increased thus generating higher co2 and other GHG(green house gases). The price for the fashion of luxury is paid by the environment as most of the amenities are fuelled with electricity or some other kind of fuel which generates GHG. I could go on and on with such examples where conspicuous consumerism is producing unwanted gases and doing unrepairable harm to the environment, from dyed clothes which are made from highly toxic and and polluting chemicals, to luxurious electrical appliances.
Guest post:
“Conspicuous Consumerism”, the word was coined by famous economist and socialist ‘Thorstein Veblen’ in 1899. Acc. to oxford’s dictionary the word conspicuous means ‘easy to notice; likely to attract’, and the word consumerism means ‘buying and using goods and services’. So collectively any goods or services bought in order to get notice or to attract attention can be called “conspicuous consumerism”. Conspicuous consumerism demands spending capacity therefore only the rich can afford it. Hence, if a person is rich it is most likely that he is intelligent; he may not be virtuous, but most likely intelligent. When the intelligent people squander(to waste money) on materialist things then it becomes a vogue(fashion) for all the classes of people, thus, it becomes infectious to the society. The stigmatic(a feeling of wrong)character of this mentality is no longer considered by the populace(population).
The reasons behind this are somewhat vague and somewhat comprehensive.
Comprehension:
The conspicuous behaviour of rich person attracts people towards him. His actions become more righteous and his materialism becomes the sceptre (consider prize) of his ability to think, ideate and flourish.
Vague:
Such a module of social appreciation seekers is non-sustainable. A better approach for social admiration is altruism(charity). Altruism not only shows that the individual is rich but also demonstrates that he is virtuous and looks forward to sustainable development of civilization.
Hidden aspects of conspicuous consumerism
Recently, the famous writer, a youth icon and a IIM-A graduate Chetan Bhagat, stated in his column on November 20th, 2011 that “Kingfisher airlines has lost over 1000 crore last year and owes 7000 crore to its lenders. Financial analysts across the globe will agree that airlines sector is one of the worst sectors to make money. But the glamour of owning airlines is what interests people like Mr. Mallaya, anybody will agree that there are only a few business as sexy as owning a airline”. Now the hidden aspect of this scenario is, if kingfisher is not able to come out of this situation public sector banks which have lent thousands of crore to this airline will procure a huge loss and the ultimate effect will come to the common people of India, who will become the victim of some people’s bad decision making. This is one of the best paradigms(example) of conspicuous consumerism in current point of time.
Environmental effects
Conspicuous consumerism gives birth to higher need of materialistic goods, higher consumption of fossil fuels by means of cars (luxury or hedge back). In order to generate these needs the manufacturing of goods is increased thus generating higher co2 and other GHG(green house gases). The price for the fashion of luxury is paid by the environment as most of the amenities are fuelled with electricity or some other kind of fuel which generates GHG. I could go on and on with such examples where conspicuous consumerism is producing unwanted gases and doing unrepairable harm to the environment, from dyed clothes which are made from highly toxic and and polluting chemicals, to luxurious electrical appliances.
Guest post:
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