What drives consumerism?

Let's face it, the majority of first world countries live in a consumer culture which may not be sustainable and which many claim makes us unhappy. The reality is more complicated than that, with there being several drivers to consumerism which could be healthy or unhealthy.

Healthy Consumerism

The two best reasons for purchasing any item are that it is needed or truly desired by the purchaser. These are healthy pieces of consumerism because they actually boost a person's general well being.

Need

This is, very simply, things a person needs in order to function in society. That encompasses a bit more than the true "needs vs. wants" dichotomy, in that it would include things like soap or transportation in a city with poor public transit. Sure a person can technically live without both, but they would find their social and employment options to be rather narrow.

Obviously such items are a strong driver of consumerism that likely won't go away unless new technologies obviate the need for them.

Genuine Desire/Enjoyment

These are items that a person simply enjoys. A person who loves kayaking might buy kayaks and life vests, while a person who enjoys video games would buy video cards and RAM every couple years. In either case there's not a strong case that a person needs these items, but in any case people buying items they use for their own enjoyment are driving a large piece of consumerism and I would expect these purchases in particular to be closely associated with a person's overall happiness.

Unhealthy Drivers

This is the flip side of consumerism, people purchasing things they may not even want or care about. These often come down to a perceived need rather than being actually useful, and likely the loss of resources in purchasing them prevents people from investing and using their money on things that would actually improve their happiness. Unfortunately I think the largest portion of our consumerism comes from this category.

Status Signaling

Status signaling is the attempt to make oneself look like a better person by buying products. A lot of people in Sales, for instance, believe that wearing a more expensive watch or more expensive clothing can help you land jobs or get raises. Many men also believe that driving a nicer car and more expensive clothing helps them impress women. This drives an entire industry based on leasing cars to people so they can drive new cars every few years, yet few people would claim this makes any financial sense given the lack of ownership and extra hidden costs often found in lease agreements.

The consumerism driven by status signaling is likely one of the most pernicious drivers of unhappiness in our culture, as it leads people to always feeling a need to outdo their friends and neighbors.

Advertising

Advertising is closely tied to status signaling. Most advertising tries to create the impression that your life will be better, you'll be one of the cool people, your preferred gender will want you... all if you just buy this product. Beer commercials abound with women who couldn't be that thin if they actually drank beer, sports car commercials show models flocking to the car, Coke commercials show people living a musical... and so on.

This drives sales and unhappiness because it creates a false ideal that can never be lived up to while convincing people to fork over cash in search of that ideal. The buying keeps happening but no one's happiness ever increases because it's a false image meant only to drive sales.

Obligation

This one is probably the least bad, and I almost considered a "neutral" category but really it's kind of insidious. The easiest example here is Christmas, where everyone is nearly required to buy presents for everyone in their family. Sales go up so much during the holiday season that many people say the retail industry literally depends on the season. Aside from Christmas you also have companies like De Beers who have convinced the world that a man needs to spend three months salary on a diamond ring in order to get married, and a wedding industry which has pushed the idea that weddings must be huge elaborate affairs... all of which actually hurts the marriage itself by putting a financial strain on the family right out of the starting gate.

Final Thoughts

The thing I note looking through the "Unhealthy" drivers is that they are all related. Status seeking is probably the heart, but advertising capitalizes on it as much as possible. Same thing with Obligation, where De Beer's associated diamonds with weddings through clever advertising. In fact, our modern concept of Santa Clause comes from Coca-Cola's advertising!

Unfortunately our economies depend on a certain level of consumerism, but if we're more conscious of why we're consuming maybe we can achieve a better balance for our environment, our pocketbooks, and our happiness.