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Consumerism

Consumerism is a value system that places non-economic importance, such as social status or a sense of personal fulfillment, on consumer items 1. Like environmentalism, consumerism has developed from a post-industrial, post-materialistic intellectual milieu 2. Although consumerism can be antithetical to the environmental ethic of conserving resources, environmental ideas have themselves been commodified 3.

Consumerism and Economic Growth

A common critique of the modern economy is that it requires an increasing level of consumption to meet increasing supply (see e.g. 4). Almost 70% of the US economy is directed toward consumer spending.

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About 70% of US GDP went to consumer goods and services in 2019. Source: 5.

The role of supply in long-term economic growth is well studied but not well understood; researchers posit that growth is driven by factors such as investment, technology, institutions, and culture 6, as well as availability of energy 7. The role of demand by contrast is not well studied. Consumption appears to be a result, but not a cause, of long-term economic growth 8.

Green Consumption

Green consumption refers to consumer choices that are motivated in part by environmental or social concerns, such as organic produce and Fair Trade coffee. In the 2000s, green consumption gained ground but is still generally a small part of their overall respective markets.

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Source: 9.

Marketing techniques such as green labels are generally effective among a segment of the population 10, 11, 12, 13, but they cannot substitute for other environmental measures 14, 15.

Advertising

Advertising may play a role in fostering consumerism and its corresponding environmental impacts 16. However, evidence from advertising of cigarettes 17, 18, alcohol 19, 20, and of products in general 21, 22 suggest that, while advertising is effective in promoting demand for particular brands, it does not generally promote demand for larger product categories.

Planned Obsolescence

Planned obsolescence, a concept developed in Vance Packard's The Waste Makers 23, is the offering of products with uneconomically short lifespans. Many product lifetimes have indeed been getting shorter 24.

ProductTime spanFall in lifespan
LCD monitorsUnspecified17%
TVsUnspecified17%
PCs and Laptops2000-201010%
Mobile Phones2000-201010%
Large household appliances, Netherlands2000-20107%
Large household appliances, Germany2004-20127.8%

Planned obsolescence can take several forms 25.

FormExplanation
Technological ObsolescenceRegulatory of technological changes make older products unusable or undesirable.
Sylistic ObsolescenceOtherwise functional products are perceived to be out of fashion.
The superfluous within the necessaryProducts have excess features that are mostly unused, or they require additional products be purchased to achieve full functionality.

Planned obsolescence happens most frequently when a monopoly or an oligopoly controls a market 26, but it can happen in competitive markets as well 27. Despite the name, companies seldom intentionally design products to fail or be replace prematurely, but rather short lifespans occur through market pressures 28.

Planned obsolescence is an environmental concern because shorter product lifespans require more frequent replacements and increase associated environmental impacts 29, 30.

Problem:
Planned Obsolescence
Solution:
Regulations on Product Life

References

  1. Scott, A. "Keeping Up with the Greens: How Consumerism Hijacked Environmentalism and the Ideological Dilemma it Left Behind". Available at SSRN 1583678. April 2010. ↩

  2. Mullins, P., Jeong, D. Y., Western, J. S., Lowe, I., Simpson, R. "Consumerism and Sustainable Development: An Australian-South Korean Comparative Study". Korean Social Science Journal 31(1), pp. 1-38. 2004. ↩

  3. MacGregor, R. "Green Consumerism, Climate Change and Environmentalism: Consuming Our Way to Renewability". Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 53. 2010. ↩

  4. Magnuson, J. "Growth and Consumerism: Nature or Nurture?". From Chapter 9 of Mindful Economics: How the U.S. Economy Works, Why It Matters, and How It Could Be Different, by Joel Magnuson. published by Seven Stories Press, New York. From Climate & Capitalism. February 2010. ↩

  5. Amadeo, K. "Components of GDP Explained". The Balance. June 2020. ↩

  6. Szostak, R. The Causes of Economic Growth. Springer. 2009. ↩

  7. Warr, B., Ayres, R. U. "Useful work and information as drivers of economic growth". Ecological Economics 73, pp. 93-102. January 2012. ↩

  8. Fine, B., Leopold, E. "Consumerism and the Industrial Revolution". Social History 15(2), pp. 151-179. May 1990. ↩

  9. Gingerich, E. ""Eco-Friendly" Marketing: Beyond the Label". Journal of Applied Business and Economics 17(3). September 2015. ↩

  10. Alves, E., Edwards, M. "The Case for Green Food Labels". Global Food & Agriculture 9(1): 18. Fall 2008. ↩

  11. Eriksson, C. "Can green consumerism replace environmental regulation?—a differentiated-products example". Resource and Energy Economics 26(3), pp. 281-293. September 2004. ↩

  12. Potter C., Bastounis, A., Hartmann-Boyce, J., Stewart, C., Frie, K., Tudor, K., Bianchi, F., Cartwright, E., Cook, B., Rayner, M., Jebb, S. A. "The Effects of Environmental Sustainability Labels on Selection, Purchase, and Consumption of Food and Drink Products: A Systematic Review". Environment and Behavior, pp. 1-35. February 2021. ↩

  13. Yokessa, M., Marette, S. "A Review of Eco-labels and their Economic Impact". International Review of Environmental and Resource Economics 13(1-2), pp.119-163. April 2019. ↩

  14. Akenji, L. "Consumer scapegoatism and limits to green consumerism". Journal of Cleaner Production 63, pp. 13-23. January 2014. ↩

  15. Moisander, J. "Motivational complexity of green consumerism". International Journal of Consumer Studies 31(4), pp. 404-409. July 2007. ↩

  16. Galbraith, J. K. The New Industrial State. Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0691131412. 1967. ↩

  17. Abernethy, A. M., Teel, J. E. "Advertising Regulation's Effect upon Demand for Cigarettes". Journal of Advertising 15, pp. 51-55. July 1986. ↩

  18. Jackson, J. D., Ekelund, R. B. "The Influence of Advertising on Tobacco Consumption: some problems with Chetwynd et al.'s analysis". British Journal of Addiction 84(11), pp. 1247-1250. November 1989. ↩

  19. Dorsett, J., Dickerson, S. "Advertising and alcohol consumption in the UK". International Journal of Advertising 23(2), pp. 149-171. January 2004. ↩

  20. Smart, R. G. "Does alcohol advertising affect overall consumption? A review of empirical studies". Journal of Studies on Alcohol 49(4), pp. 314-323. 1988. ↩

  21. Grabowski, H. G. "The Effects of Advertising on the Interindustry Distribution of Demand". From *Explorations in Economic Research 3(1), National Bureau of Economic Research. 1976. ↩

  22. Kelly-Gagnon, M., Chassin, Y. "The Influence of Advertising on Consumption". Montreal Economic Institute. June 2011. ↩

  23. Packard, V. The Waste Makers. Ig Publishing; Reprint edition, ISBN 978-1935439370. 1960, Reprint Edition 2011. ↩

  24. Wieser, H. "Beyond Planned Obsolescence: Product Lifespans and the Challenges to a Circular Economy". GAIA-Ecological Perspectives for Science and Society 25(3), pp. 156-160. January 2016. ↩

  25. Maycroft, N. "Consumption, planned obsolescence and waste". Working Paper. November 2009. ↩

  26. Bulow, J. "An Economic Theory of Planned Obsolescence". The Quarterly Journal of Economics 101(4), pp. 729-749. November 1986. ↩

  27. Grout, P. A., Park, I. "Competitive planned obsolescence". The RAND Journal of Economics 36(3), pp. 596-612, Wiley. August 2005. ↩

  28. Longmuss, J., Poppe, E. "Planned obsolescence: who are those planners?". Research in Design Series, Volume 9: PLATE: Product Lifetimes And The Environment, IOS Press. 2017. ↩

  29. Guiltinan, J. "Creative Destruction and Destructive Creations: Environmental Ethics and Planned Obsolescence". Journal of Business Ethics 89, pp. 19-28. 2009. ↩

  30. Satyro, W. C., Sacomano, J. B., Contador, J. C., Telles, R. "Planned obsolescence or planned resource depletion? A sustainable approach". Journal of Cleaner Production 195, pp. 744-752. September 2018. ↩