Consumerism

Consumerism can be defined as a situation where society promote the consumption of good, even if those are not needed. Then, the consumption increase, and make of the people following that lifestyle the consumer society. Nowadays, consumerism has changed ur behavior but it also has a great impact on the world.

So, we will wonder what kind of impact the consumerism has on our lives ?

To answer this question, we will talk in the first place of the impact on people living in developed countries, then on people living in developing countries, and finally, the impact on the planet.

To begin with, in developed countries like for example America or Europe, consumerism has been part of people’s lifestyle since many years. Indeed, for countries who possess the ressources, the will to increase the way of living of its inhabitants has become a priority and a need. After being used to such a mode of life, people become superficial and give too much attention to what they own and buy. For some of them, possessing things can even become an addiction as we can see in the novel written by Sophie Kinsella in two thousand: The secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic. In this book, we can see the character of Becky, who represents the impact of the consumerism on people. We can also see that she is always under pressure when she receive her monthly bill, because she never knows how much it will be.

Consumerism can be the cause of many problems, but they’re not only in books, but in real life as well; and the greed of people who thinks possessing things, even if those are not needed, is extremely important can lead to tragic accident. Let’s take for example the deplorable death of a Walmart’s worker during the Black Friday. Due to the excessive number of people and their level of excitement because of sales, this shop assistant was trampled to death. (2min)

But the greediness that cause consumerism is nothing compared to the impact it has on the people who live in develoPING country. Because of the growing

demands of the consumer class, the countries they live in can’t reply to all of their requests. That’s why they delegate most of their work to developing countries, where the salary is lower than in their own country. The workers are exploited and work in dreadful conditions. Because of the poverty of those countries, even children have to work in this places. Also, their lives depends on these jobs, they cannot complain or quit. Those terrible working conditions can also leads to horrific accidents. For example, 6 years ago, a height-story garment factory working for American brands collapsed in Bangladesh, killing one thousand one hundred and twenty seven workers and injuring two thousand fifty hundred others. But, before the accident, many of the officials have been aware of the cracks in the walls and the dangerousness of the building, however, they still forced the workers to go inside. This accident, as well as the many others that have occurred in this country putted in the global spotlight the unsafe working conditions of many factories.

In addition to the terrible incidence consumerism have on the people, it also has a extremely worrisome impact on the planet. Indeed, the growing demand of the society for goods leads to more pollutant emissions, deforestation and quicken climate change. Let’s take for example the fashion industry.

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