Since the 1950s, there has been a running debate within academic circles regarding the ethics and morality of consumer culture. While that debate has been primarily held by sociologists, one can see how there are clear psychological implications involved in the conversation. Most of us spend considerable time engaged in the world of consumption, after all, with our thoughts and behaviors centered around how we choose to spend our money in the marketplace.
From the late 19th century on, one side of this debate has argued that consuming has been a distinguishing characteristic of Western society, and not in a positive sense. Marketers have pressured us to buy things allegedly to improve our standard of living and dangle the carrot of upward mobility, critics of consumerism have argued, the net effect being that our respective personal identities have been principally defined through the shallow attributes of acquisition and materialism.
This critical interpretation of consumer culture has gone further by its advocates positing that limitless, market-driven consumption goes........