Consumerism: Good or Bad?
I was in Singapore recently and also during the week before Lunar New Year. On both occasions, I observed that there were a lot of shoppers and diners at the crowded shopping malls, and this is prevalent in both Singapore and Malaysia.
From the above observations, a lot of consumerism is going on and large amounts of monies are expended in pursuit of something new and also to fulfill the need not to be hungry. In restaurants, there were also moments of renewal of kinship and friendship with bountiful goodwill and good cheer.
Is that all consumerism means? Moments of joy to have acquired something new and to have had a good time and good food consumed?
Most people look at consumerism as being negative. In my personal experience, my husband feels that consumerism is about being dissatisfied and greedy to own “things”. It is my humble opinion that many may think similarly.
The people who like to buy new “things” are called shopaholics and those who love to eat “out” are either considered lazy to cook or greedy foodies.
These are the negative points towards consumerism.
However, on the flip side, are there any positive views to consumerism? Giving this topic due consideration to the macro view, once again it is only my opinion that there are positive aspects to consumerism.
Taking the example of food consumerism, the positive gains are firstly by the employment opportunities to the chefs, kitchen staff, floor staff such as waiters, captains who attend to customers and even the cashiers who collect the monies.
On further scrutiny of the chain, there are benefits for the farmers who supply the raw ingredients and even further down the chain, even for the logistic handlers who send the produce from farms to the restaurants.
The owners of the premises also benefit as rentals are collected from the operators of the restaurants or food chains.
This is a cycle that goes on and on and at the end of it all, there appear to be benefits all around.
How then do we judge the buying of less essential items like clothes, shoes, handbags, cosmetics, etc etc.? It sounds more frivolous in nature, to say the least.
Hold on, that is not so. The cycle of benefits can be accounted for from the shop space right to the factories that manufacture the goods. As a matter of fact, the cycle is similar in nature to that of the food chain.
What I have observed seems to be in favour of consumerism, and I think it is the nature on which the world has been designed for interdependency and connectedness. Being interdependent and connected through consumerism can be a common factor for a borderless world of goodwill and friendship.
Having said that, although consumerism may have a rightful place in this world order, I also believe that it is excessiveness and wastage that are the problems.
Excessive consumerism can lead to various abuses and as such, there can be suffering associated with consumerism. Examples that I can think of are the abuse of animals in order to have enough meat to be consumed. Natural resources can also be depleted to cater for the desires of mankind. The list goes on.
There is no perfect situation and the views of consumerism as being good or bad both hold good points for debate.
Let us look for the balanced way whereby we can live within this prescribed world order of consumerism of buying and selling to have a sustainable order between our needs and nature and all sentient beings.
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As per today’s world we can’t debate on Good or Bad in Consumerism. As we all know the COVID-19 pandemic has fundamentally changed the world. People had to adapt the new norm, people are living differently, buying differently and in many ways, thinking differently.
Many consumers are facing personal situations, with changes in income and leisure time, which are influencing attitudes and behaviors. Consumers are shopping with full awareness on the environment, health and cost, favoring locally-sourced products. In a way to boost the economy financial wise.
Consumerism plays an extreme role in today’s economy and society. It is one of the key aspects of the economy growth. In my take both can be good and bad, depending on how and where things are coming from. https://bit.ly/38eZI2B
We should buy only what we need to prevent waste of money spent on unneeded things which becomes rubbish n wastes
Thank you, Datuk May, for this article on consumerism.Yes, because of consumerism , the supply and the marketing chains have created many jobs for people.
However, I think that there are very serious negative effects of consumerism.
The problem with consumerism is that it moves and dictates “demand” and makes people see “necessity” in possessing items which are actually merely things that satisfy and gratify “wants” . These “wants” are in turn created by consumerism. Example: I need a leather handbag. I need a fur coat(these are not necessities ;and animals are put through great suffering and brutal death just to satisfy these cravings).
The danger with consumerism is that false “values” and wrong “priorities” are engendered . In the long term , it helps create a society that places emphasis on materialism and acquisitions as the way to happiness. Only these being false, they lead people down the garden path, reinforce greed and attachment, frustration, disappointment , anger, depression and all the negative mental afflictions that cause the downward spiral to total misery and pain.
However, this is where as individuals, we need to be on a path of spirituality that will shape correct values and priorities to guide us through the minefield of materialism.
In my opinion consumerism is bad, because it will make us spend on things that is unnecessary. It is not something bad, but with control of time and money spend.
Like it or not, we are all consumers. That’s how things are. Everything we have or own were bought. We may not be patronising fancy restaurants for our daily sustenance, but we have had to buy groceries and daily essentials in order to cook at home, actually, in order to live!
If we are only buying what we need in order to live and exist in this world, that would be wonderful. But the glitzy advertisements and displays are designed to captivate and entice consumers to own things, many of them we don’t really need and can do without. It can be gratifying to acquire new things, to own, to possess, to hoard. These are little pleasures in life. But when taken to excess, it isn’t healthy and is more like a balm to the ego. When our only access to happiness is through retail therapy, then we need to keep acquiring to get our next fix.
But in the end all that gets taken away when life ebbs away.
Thank you, Datuk May for the topic and the views shared.
Usually we make the judgement by good or bad, white or black and try to be right. However, it never be easy to be right in our secular logic since in different shoots, we always could get different views. Then how we choose which one is right or which one is wrong? To be right is most challenging task in the life for we do not have the wisdom yet to understand things behind the Karma. As the starting step to avoide black or white, what we could do is to look the things from different aspects and enrich our views accordingly. This is what the topic has inpirsed me not to go to the things to both extreme. Thank you again for sharing.
Consumerism is all based on the demand and supply chain. To me there is good and bad in everything, depending on which angle we would want to view the situation. In economic sense consumerism is good to push the sales, production and subsequently providing more job opportunities, varieties and competition in the market.
I think finding a balance in everything is important and to always ask ourselves if it is really necessary to purchase. As Datuk May pointed out correctly excessive consumerism leads to wastage and also suffering in a way. I think when we human have greed, attachment and keep longing/wanting for things, then consumerism will lead to negative impact. For example, there are many people who like to wear animal fur clothing. Because of this many animals were killed, and this create a chain of suffering. It is until and unless the demand stops, there will be no supply. Therefore we being part of the chain have to be cautious of our actions.
Thank you Datuk May for sharing your thoughts in this article.
“”Good or bad”” again is that debate we often like to spend loads of time pondering over, when in actual fact good for me maybe bad for others and vice versa; meaning this duality is the true deception !! Nevertheless, our minds love to deceive us and learning to overcome it will be the only way for us to see all things as “neutral” or “empty”.
As a start it’s best to remove all attachments. This is not about not owning anything but just not allowing the thing to own us ! There may be loads of beautiful commercials and adverts which will automatically trigger “I need/want this” syndrome in our minds. When this syndrome gets out of control it will turn into sufferings for us when we can’t get the things we want. So I guess Consumerism(another man-made label) is not the culprit; our greed and attachments are !!
Thank you Datuk May for this well thought out sharing. You have lots of experiences and it’s lovely of you to take the time and effort to share them with us through your writings !!
Thank you for this insightful post Datuk May. The article is well thought out on the pros and cons of consumerism. For me it is creating the awareness not to judge so quickly and think about how consumerism helps with job growth and security.
Thank you Datuk May, for the succinct article.
It hit the nerves all around. There is always 2 sides to the coin, it is how we see and make positive gains from it that matters.
Excessive killing and tilling will definitely rot the Earth and Nature, there has to be a balance. We all live in a close-knitted, inter-dependent, connected world.
Until we achieve enlightenment, we are stuck in this samsaric cycle.
Thank you.
Every things there is pros and cons ,all depands on how we see and think of it.Consumerism to say is good to some and can also be bad to some.To me neutral,buying things as we needed it but not buying and not needing it.Buying to satisfy oneself,one feeling happy but all these won’t last long.If we have a strong mind and will power ,we will not bother to buy things of no use and not lasting.
Under present conditions, people are preoccupied with consumer goods.Don’t get too lost in consumerism or materialism.We came to this world with nothing so as we leave with nothing.
Thank you Datuk May for sharing this interesting topic,reminding us of buying and selling to have a sustainable order between our needs and nature and all sentient beings.
Wow, what an eye opener. Such a balanced view of a situation where most of us will see only one side and lack depth in the supply chain. It’s a whole chain and many people benefit along the chain. As Datuk May said, it is the excursiveness that is the real culprit not consumerism per se.
Always loved your balanced view of any and all situations that comes your way.
Consumerism is an interesting topic because it is deeply rooted in the sense of satisfaction derived from “owning” or “consuming” things. The feeling of satisfactory often come under contention by people who felt that it is the source of economy disparity and eventually social ills. It is debatable in this context because different people seek satisfaction differently.
To me personally, consumerism is a deviation for us to look away from within ourselves to examine our attachment, greed, vanity, and reliance on an external object to feel good. In Buddhism, we believe it is our attachment that is the source of suffering, the objects on the external are merely temptation that lures us into the trap, they are neither good or bad. Once we have a firm grip of that attachment, we will not be bothered by the window displays anymore.
Thank you, Datuk May, for this sharing.
Dear Datuk May,
Thank you for the balanced view on consumerism. My take from all these angles that promotes or suppress consumerism will eventually boil down to all the behaviors of players in the free market system.
Malaysia is a classic example of this free enterprise system where corporations (big or small) that are involved in the consumer products realm will do their utmost creative and ability to generate the demand for their product or service in their quest to earn the profits desired.
Good or bad in consumerism – my take is that it contains both good and bad – depending where one is coming from.
Warm regards
Lum Kok Luen
The danger of consumerism is people think by having more material items they will be happy. This is not to say it is wrong to shop or buy nice things, but material things can keep us happy for a certain amount of time. How much can we keep chasing for the next new thing, as we all know by now novelty only lasts for a finite amount of time.
Another point that is brought up is that this world and its people is interconnected with one another, the happiness of one affects the happiness of others, and the unhappiness of one also affects the unhappiness of the whole. Some management consulting firms have advocated, if there is commerce and money to be made there will not be any conflicts, I can’t agree more.