Alexandra Clough
Jeff Ostrowski
Linda Rawls
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Consumerism: It’s older than you think
I’ve long held the vague notion that mass materialism and crass consumerism started sometime after 1945 and were the invention of self-absorbed Baby Boomers. After reading historian Linda Levy Peck’s Consuming Splendor: Society and Culture in Seventeenth-Century England, I’ve changed my mind.
She argues that modern consumerism, often thought of as an American contribution to world culture, began in England 500 years ago. Her descriptions of Londoners’ spending habits in the 1600s could apply to Palm Beach County in 2007. To wit:
Teardowns: “The English nobility rebuilt not because the city palaces were in poor repair but because they were old-fashioned.” Sounds familiar to anyone who has seen a perfectly good Palm Beach manse torn down to make way for an even-better manse.
Malls: “Shopping and sociability created wants that the purchasers did not know they had … Retail shopping had become part of leisure entertainment for well-to-do men and women.” She’s describing London’s first shopping centers, but the description applies just as aptly to Gardens Mall or CityPlace.
Family budgets: “Even though their wages fell, working families, including men, women, and children, appear to have increased their production in order to continue and expand consumption.” Why increase production when you can just increase the home-equity loan or credit card balance?
Manhood: Wags worried that shopping for silks, art and antiques would make men “effeminate.” What would the scolds say about Queer Eye for the Straight Guy?
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: Jeff Ostrowski
Comments
By Realist
February 23, 2007 10:28 AM | Link to this
Interesting point but not very relevant to the topic. How about something about the subprime meltdown? And the likely credit crunch to follow? How about an article on how easy money created real estate price inflation?