The Consumer Society  Jump to:
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The Culture of Consumption
Advertising everywhere: By 1900, advertising signs on stores, billboards and public transport urged people to identify themselves through what they consumed. View larger
Indifference curves are easily understood when they describe two items that can be substituted for each other; in the examples, corn and beans are both vegetables in the general category of food, theater and bridge both offer recreation. Expenditure data show that consumers do shift choices within such general categories. The shape of the curve traces the extent to which the consumer finds the two products substitutable; since this is a separate decision for each individual, indifference curves may vary in shape from person to person. They depend on the consumer's individual tastes and preferences. By 1900 all major industrial countries had become aware of the importance of the consumption of goods by their citizens as well as production. As a result a "culture" of consumption emerged, which played an important role in the shaping of a country's social, economic and cultural identity.
One feature of this new culture was a heightened awareness of social status and a strong desire at all levels of society to show off newly acquired wealth. New social aspirations were expressed most visibly in the "world of "goods", and the concept of style became increasingly significant as a measure of social status.
This culture of consumption grew as a direct result of the process of industrialization within capitalist economies. it became increasingly necessary for manufaeturers to produce and sell more and more goods to more and more people in order to guarantee their company' s profits. The success of this formula also depended on the growth of the mass market.
As the generallevel of affluence rose, there were increasing numbers of new consumers who sought new goods to reflect their enhanced social status. Most of them emulated their "social superiors" by imitating their purchases and as far as possible reproducing their lifestyles. The approach varied: in Britain the middle classes aspired to the lifestyle of the country gentry, whereas in the United States the new industrialists and businessmen sought to overturn the value s of the traditional aristocraey.
A complete solution to the consumer choice problem disposes of all income and maximizes satisfaction. That is, any other choice of goods and services and assets would provide less utility or a lower position on the preference map of indifference curves. Everywhere, the new consumers displayed their new-found wealth and demonstrated the nature of their social ambitions through the many goods they bought. One of the ways in which manufacturers tried to encourage consumption was by identifying a particular market and deliberately making their goods look attractive to their potential customers.
Even in the 18th century, when Britain was showing the first signs of becoming a consumer society, some entreprenems had achieved this by employing fine artists to design products for them. Goods that offered obviously "artistic" qualities conformed to the fashionable styles of the dayand were particularly appealing to the newly affluent, status-conscious consumers for whom they were intended.
Buying Credit System
One of the reasons why Britain was so interested in free trade and the growth of world commerce was that she had become a creditor nation. When Alexander Hamilton sought a loan abroad for the United States, he turned to the Netherlands, the only nation at that time from which loans could be obtained. By 1815, the financial capital of the world was London, not Amsterdam. Since the days of the Commonwealth, the British had been steadily accumulating capital from trade. Increased agricultural production, trafficking in loans with the home government, and marine insurance added to British capital. Because capital chooses to operate from a safe place, such enterprising and international financiers as Alexander Baring and Nathan Rothschild had been attracted to London during the wars. These immigrants were of considerable value in mobilizing Britain's increasing capital resources. The Barings floated loans to pay French reparations and occupation costs at the close of the wars, and the Rothschilds financed the acquisition of the Suez Canal for Britain.
To purchase increasing amounts of equipment and larger and varied amounts of supplies of raw materials and to pay for the services of foreign experts and technicians, newly settled and developing areas needed foreign loans and ownership investments by foreign capitalists. During the century 1815 to 1914, millions of British pounds were loaned abroad to promote land settlement; to develop mining; and to build railroads, factories, public utilities, roads, canals, and docks. Sooner or later, these credit transactions were translated into movements of goods between countries, and, as the principal source of supply for manufactured goods and the world's carrier, Britain benefited. By the Iate 19th century manufacturers were addressing a sizable fashion-conscious mass market that included members of the working classes. The guarantee of taste ar status was still connected with the visible presence of "art" in a product. This was a period of rampant estheticization in which alınost any and every consumer product - in particular those that fell into the category of the traditional decorative or appIied arts - could be seen to have an "artistic" content.
This led to an extensive use of surface ornamentation that seemed to guarantee allegiance to the world of style for a market that was unfamiliar with fine art. The great vogue for "art furniture" and "art pottery" in the 1880s and 1890s produced not only a spate of expensive, exclusive items designed for a middle-class market by such craftsmen as William de Morgan and E.W. Godwin, but also countless ranges of cheaper, mass-produced "art goods".
The dissemination of goods to a mass market depended on mare than the efforts of manufacturers and designers to inject style into products.
lt also required a whole network of activities and institutions. These included changes in production methods so that more goods could be manufadıned; the development of new kinds of retailing outlets; and the expansion of advertising and activities to promote sales.
The introduction of a credit system of buying which was initiated by the Singer Sewing Machine Company in the United States in the 1860s, and adopted some decades later by the manufacturers of furniture and electrical appliances in Europe and the United States, also went a long way toward making more goods available to more people.
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