Is consumerism the result of low self-esteem?

[Farm_or]

Motivated by fear, I have spent a lifetime trying to understand people. My selfish motivation has been to avoid the pitfalls that others fall into. One major pitfall is consumerism.

Consumerism is all too common in American society. It is viewed in positive terms and credited with driving the economy. But the majority of the victims are sick and suffer a lifetime for it.

My conclusion is that consumerism is a mental ailment brought about from low self esteem. People are brainwashed to believe that they can constantly purchase their self esteem. They are in a life time of searching for an answer that they will never find: the magic pill of self esteem.

To avoid the epidemic of consumerism, it takes a consistent effort to identify with something greater than materialism. Maybe attachments other than items? Like intellectual achievements, health goals, spiritual growth, a bucket list of life experiences, or challenging endeavors? The deck is stacked against us with literal armies of marketers hard at work with the brainwashing.

I must confess that I still have some guilty pleasures. I was so excited when my daughter got her driver's permit and I had reason to shop for shiny cars. Something akin to a drug addict taking a little hit to avoid a binge?

I am interested in hearing about your guilty pleasures and coping mechanisms.

[daylen]

I do not think self-esteem is a root cause or even much of a contributing factor to consumptionism. Most unnecessary consumption is probably just culture/habit.

[Sclass]

Well that is a pretty broad statement. I imagine there are a number of causes that don’t fit. Like how about hedonism? Just buying stuff to pleasure yourself in private like a form of drug abuse? Nobody knows about a consumers high dollar collection of something kept in a closet?

I do have a lot of empirical evidence supporting your claim.

There seems to be a large group of my friends and family who are both insecure and hyper consumers. They have all the classic self esteem diseases like jealousy and nosiness. Consumed with keeping score in a variety of dimensions...usually obtained with mammon. They are clearly trying to fill in some gaping hole in their soul.

The telltale sign is they get mad at me for not playing the same game. It’s no fun when I don’t care about what they bought.

There’s this water test I like to give them. “Would you still want that if you were forbidden to show it to anyone?”

So yeah, I think there is something there.

We all have some degree of this built into us. Some people just have it really bad.

[Jason]

As someone who has spent a great deal of time researching this topic, most recently through an in-depth analysis of the swimwear spending habits of women classified as "plus size", I have come to the conclusion that consumerism is not an issue of compensating for low self-esteem but one of a myriad of distractions that certain people chose in an Ecclesiastical futility to fill the ineffable void endemic to the human condition from which they are mercifully released at the moment of their death.

[Clarice]

@Farm_or:
I don't know what causes consumerism, but I can definitely observe it in myself and others. We all have our own strengths and weaknesses.
Here's what easy for me:
1. eat rice and beans;
2. drive the cheapest car out of all my peers (2010 Honda Civic);
3. use library or buy used books;
4. buy on CL whenever is practical;
5. pull out of my purse the cheapest cell phone among my peers;
6. live in the smallest house among my peers.
The hard part is to impose the rules of frugality on DD and tell her, "Here it is, honey. You are going to a public school and take dance classes in the community center." That is where consumerism gets me. Here are some of the recent expenses:
$4,000 - math camp for gifted children run by Duke University;
$14,000 - Catholic school tuition ( for us, non-Catholics);
$3,000 - ballet school tuition, first semester.

[IlliniDave]

I think it certainly is a contributor for some people. I don't think the term "retail therapy" emerged in a void. But I don't know how widespread that is in the whole of US/western consumerism. At minimum I would say it is non-negligible.

My guilty pleasures are many, except I don't feel guilty about them for the most part. I probably spend too much on food ~$300/month). I run my a/c in the summertime. I drive myself to work. I own a house and a 3-season cabin. I own two cars. I wear clean clothes to work everyday and shower virtually every day (with hot water sometimes). I don't know how much of that is consumerism per say. If I set aside the cabin and the new vehicle, I spend/give away a little over $30K/year. Over on bogleheads they would call me sad, miserly and mentally ill, depriving myself for no good reason. Here I'm sort of the group drunken sailor with a pocket full of money. In my own mind, I'm just striking a balance.

[7Wannabe5]

My take on this has changed a bit recently, due to working busy season at the highest volume home/garden improvement center in my region. I think it is easy to see a teenage girl coming home from the mall with bags full of shiny baubles and make-up as "consumerism", but we don't necessarily apply the same lens to her middle-aged, middle-class father coming home with a truck-load of DIY roofing supplies. However, the volume flow of such supplies I witnessed was so great, it was like you could practically imagine the earth cracking open and projectile-vomiting them up.

[Clarice]

@7wb5:
I agree with your recent take. If you consume it's consumerism. If you owe money it's debt. There is no good consumerism as there is no good debt.

[OTCW]

I think consumerism is the result of advertising. Esteem is one of the many targets that advertising aims for or uses. Others include youth, sex, comfort, nostalgia, jealousy, scarcity, need/want, fear, conformity, etc.

[BRUTE]

brute believes that consumerism and low self-esteem are both consequences of a lack of meaning. in brute's experience, humans need meaning, and most don't have any.

[suomalainen]

does brute have any?

[BRUTE]

brute has had lengthy discussions on here about meaning. at times, brute has had no meaning and it was terrible. since then, brute has found some meaning, and lost most of it again.

brute is still convinced meaning is the same as being distracted from the reality that there is no meaning - all humans with lots of meaning in their life have basically gotten into such deep "distraction debt" that they'll likely never get out (children, religion, marriage), or at least not any time soon (dog ownership).

meaning being distraction and made up doesn't mean it's not meaningful. (what a handful).

brute thinks about this a lot.

[vexed87]

I think brute nailed it.

[J_]

Oh what a pity Brute (and Jason). Thinking about the meaning of life does not solve anything, leads only to sad conclusions as you have.
Nature (and we are parts of it) has no meaning. It is, and to me that's enough.
Use your reflexive brain and live life as good as you can. And enjoy it. Simple but not so simple.

The OP has used his reflexive thoughts about consumerism. And concludes that it not lead to a happiness. That is good for him, and I agree. Not being Ignorant is one of the good things of life, within reach for everyone. If you want it.

[vexed87]

Isn't consumerism also a direct consequence of overproduction of goods and services which started after the great depression? Why bother producing something yourself if someone has already gone to effort and has cheap surplus to flog? Of course, I don't buy inferior industrially produced bread when I can bake my own superior product in no time at all. However, I haven't yet mastered the art of fine tailoring or shoecraft. I'm not yet desperate enough to learn given my time on this mortal coil is limited, I must therefore consume those goods. But I flat out refuse to live even according to my own simple living standards, I'm not yet ready to wear nothing but a simple cloth tunic, but I've not yet go so far to invest in a purple Toga.

[suomalainen]

brute is still convinced meaning is the same as being distracted from the reality that there is no meaning - all humans with lots of meaning in their life have basically gotten into such deep "distraction debt" that they'll likely never get out (children, religion, marriage), or at least not any time soon (dog ownership).

Agree.

As to OP's question, such direct causality is too simplistic IMO. People can buy stuff as a simulacrum for some psychological need be it esteem or love or belonging or whatever. But people can also buy stuff to distract themselves from negative psychological situations, i.e., retail therapy. People can buy stuff to distract themselves from an entertainment or meaning perspective. People can buy stuff because it's easy - they lack time or skills to develop their own bespoke solution to a perceived problem, so they use readily available money to buy a prepackaged solution. And people can buy stuff because they need that stuff to live.

@clarice I dunno. Depending on your definition of "good", I would think "good consumerism" could include basic necessities like food, water, shelter and clothing unless you're an antinatalist and even then antinatalists seem to not be committing suicide in droves.

[jennypenny]

I'm not sure about 'good' consumerism, but I definitely use selective consumerism to support people/stores/products etc that I want to see succeed (shopping local farms and supporting local artists being the primary examples). In some ways, it's more patronage than consumerism.

@Farm_or -- Read the Empire of Things thread and book.

[Clarice]

@suomalainen:
I agree with your sentiment. The answer depends on your definition of consumerism. Mine does not include providing basic food, water, shelter, and socially acceptable clothing for myself and others.

@jennypenny:

I'm not sure about 'good' consumerism, but I definitely use selective consumerism to support people/stores/products etc that I want to see succeed (shopping local farms and supporting local artists being the primary examples). In some ways, it's more patronage than consumerism.

"Patronage"? Good for you (my voice is admiring, slightly envious, and not at all sarcastic)! Personally, at this point of my life I am a wage slave; yet find myself supporting such fine institutions as Russian Ballet, Catholic Education, and Duke University. There is a contradiction here. At this point, I am not resolving this contradiction; I am living with it.

[Nomad]

To the OP. I don't think for me it is self esteem as such I just always wanted good equipment especially for music becuase it sounds
so much better.

a) My main guilty pleasures where lovely music or IT equipment - and lots of it.
b) Additionally, they expenses related to socialising with friends - restaurants, bars, gigs, taxis.

I have a lid on a) but b) is still an issue - all other expenses I have under control. e.g. I run a cheap car, cheap house, etc.

[Lemur]

Consumerism is partly habit too.