Honestly what’s described in the article is mostly a US thing. Most other countries don’t have the mixture of propaganda/advertisement machine that is social media that pushes them to buy more useless stuff every day just to “drive consumer spending” and “stimulate the economy”. Also most other countries have a different relationship to debt. In the US, “debt” is just something you do. You eat, you shower, you go into debt. In (most) other countries, “debt” is a bad thing that you try to avoid at all costs. I can remember growing up with the attitude “whatever you do, don’t go into debt, or you’ll become a slave”.
This is not true. I remember traveling to Indonesia in 2013 and having a conversation with a local about how all of his neighbors were going into debt to buy luxurious vehicles they did not need. As soon as one of them bought one the rest of the neighborhood had to have one to compete. I found this completely fascinating and I’m sure the trend hasn’t changed. It’s probably grown. Consumerism is a global phenomenon.
Don’t forget america’s biggest export is it’s culture. The world is not some untouched place anymore. Human nature defys cultures as well. greed and conspisious consumption have been around forever. The idolization of these concepts is probably at a life time high for me. It’s always been there in the background, just not as main stream and in your face.
Honestly what’s described in the article is mostly a US thing. Most other countries don’t have the mixture of propaganda/advertisement machine that is social media that pushes them to buy more useless stuff every day just to “drive consumer spending” and “stimulate the economy”. Also most other countries have a different relationship to debt. In the US, “debt” is just something you do. You eat, you shower, you go into debt. In (most) other countries, “debt” is a bad thing that you try to avoid at all costs. I can remember growing up with the attitude “whatever you do, don’t go into debt, or you’ll become a slave”.
This is not true. I remember traveling to Indonesia in 2013 and having a conversation with a local about how all of his neighbors were going into debt to buy luxurious vehicles they did not need. As soon as one of them bought one the rest of the neighborhood had to have one to compete. I found this completely fascinating and I’m sure the trend hasn’t changed. It’s probably grown. Consumerism is a global phenomenon.
ok i guess it depends on location and cultural background, then
Don’t forget america’s biggest export is it’s culture. The world is not some untouched place anymore. Human nature defys cultures as well. greed and conspisious consumption have been around forever. The idolization of these concepts is probably at a life time high for me. It’s always been there in the background, just not as main stream and in your face.