More Lecture Notes on Affluenza & Reminders

Given that I did not make as much progress as I'd hoped on Tuesday, 3/11, I am going to post some more lecture notes. Even so, I probably won't be able to finish commenting on Affluenza tomorrow, but we'll get close.

Chapter 18: An Emerging Epidemic

A. Opens with a very appropriate comment from Erich Fromm's The Sane Society (from which the concept of the "pathology of normalcy" comes) about the "vision" of our consumer society -- what I call "pig heaven."

B. In contrast to such a vision, the authors note how Americans willingly sacrificed and accepted rationing to defeat a common enemy during WW II. (curious how Bush never tried to do this with the "war on terror," or Iraq -- no sacrifice for most Americans; just go shopping.)

C. After the War, not to mention after the hardships of the Great Depression, there was tremendous pent-up demand which was initially given a boost by the GI Bill and low-interest government loans for housing (FHA). And a bit later, the interstate highway system was built.

1. All of this was a tremendous boon to suburbanization, the growth of the auto industry, and all sorts of consumer products to fill those increasingly bigger suburban homes.

D. In short, the good life became the goods life (pig heaven, again). "Waste not, want not," Ben Franklin once advised, became "Waste more, want more." (p. 147)

E. "Planned obsolescence" became the order of the day. Products were made to last only a short time, or there were continual upgrades, style changes. GM had already introduced the practice of annual model changes in the car industry, to encourage people to buy a new car every year.

F. Of course, most Americans did not have the money to keep pace with all this, so consumer credit expanded tremendously and more recently, the credit card business. Became a "buy now, pay later" world.

G. The mall was invented and quickly spread mainly in suburban areas where the car was king.

H. The authors summarize many of these developments, and throw in for good measure the rise of TV, which greatly expanded advertising and had the effect of "stretching reference groups" (as Juliet Schor will note in The Overspent American) -- that is, encouraging people to emulate lifestyles of the rich and famous.

I. Critics such as Vance Packard, John Kenneth Galbraith, and the counter-culture movement of the 60s, raised a red flag to this growing materialism, but really to no avail. I appreciate what Presidential candidate Robert Kennedy said in 1968 (see, p. 152) It is hard to imagine any politician saying something like that today. President Carter was the last President to question the spread of affluenza (also, to no avail). p. 152.


Chapter 19: The age of affluenza

A. This chapter is mainly about the title of the first section, "Adfluenza." "That advertising's prime purpose is to promote affluenza is hardly a secret,..." (p. 154) The authors then quote marketing director, Pierre Martineau, about another pretty open secret in the ad business: "Advertising's most important function is to integrate the individual into our present-day American high-speed consumption economy....our economy is geared to the faster and faster tempo of buying, BASED ON WANTS WHICH ARE CREATED BY ADVERTISING IN LARGE DEGREE." (p. 154)

B. The costs of ads these days are phenomenal -- a typical 30-second national TV commercial costs nearly $300,000 to produce, that's $10,000 a second!! Advertising is a $217 billion a year industry. And its everywhere.

1. We live in an era of hypercommercialism. Advertising encourages us to meet nonmaterial needs (love, friendship, etc.) through material means. Buy this product and we'll be loved and accepted. It's all about image.

C. The table on p. 158 exaggerates the upward "consumption spike," but it has been great.

D. The authors close with some critical thoughts from a conservative economist, Wilhelm Ropke (who will figure prominently in Barber's Consumed). See what he says on p. 159, the last page of the chapter.


That brings us up to Chapter 20, where we will pick up tomorrow.

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REMINDERS: Tomorrow the families will brainstorm midterm exam questions. I will give you some time to come to some consensus on 3 questions (and answers) which you will submit tomorrow. We will also have a general review for the midterm exam, next Tuesday, 3/18.