The Bugaboo: Consumerism or Freedom?

The other day I was talking to a few men who are all deeply devoted Christians. Somewhere along the line the topic of “consumerism” came up and each of them agreed that, “we really need to do something about this.”

Monte: Who is “we”?

A lively discussion ensued where, at the end, we all agreed that the last thing we need are politicians stepping in and dictating what we should want and how much we should pay for it.

As I understand consumerism it is “the promotion of the consumer’s interest.” Today, however, it is code for “we are against freedom of choice.”

Some people wrap their “concerns” in spiritual language—“consumerism is corrupting the soul of the nation.” Others frame their concern in economic terms—“consumerism is bankrupting our nation.” But scratch beneath the surface deep enough and, in many cases, what these people are against is freedom of choice. Admittedly some of these people are ignorant when it comes to either macro- or micro- economics in a free market economy. The problem is that their ignorance is then used by some windbag of a politician to show these people that the answer to what concerns them is to place governors on the market place: governors controlled by the government, of course.

“Things” cannot satisfy spiritual hunger. As Eric Hoffer wrote, “ You can never get enough of what you don’t need to make you happy.” Seeking to fill the hole in your soul with bigger and better toys is futile. However, simply because I want a faster computer or car is not a sure sign that I am seeking to fill a hole in my soul, is it? I don’t think so.

Moreover, whatever spiritual maladies I may be suffering with in this regard, is it the State’s place to deal with them? Again, I don’t think so. “Physician heal thyself,” comes to mind.

Even those people condemning “consumerism” can’t live without their laptops with WiFi, and cell phones. We want to text family, friends and co-workers, download music and videos, as well as Google information for research—and we want it faster today than it came to us yesterday.

When setting up house, we want as many choices as possible for furniture, paint colors, carpet and rugs, lamps and window coverings—and we want a broad range of pricing on these items. We also want to stock our refrigerators with fresh fish, fresh fruit, fresh vegetables and filtered water. And when it comes to our closets, we want particular (some would say "peculiar") styles and colors of clothes and shoes. Sometimes we want these things delivered to our doorsteps … the day after we order them.

The wonderful thing about a free-market economy is that all these things (and more) are available to us: not because of cut-throat greedy corporate bastards but because entrepreneurs and business executives are losing sleep to see to it that we have what we want before we even know that we want it. And right now up-and-coming entrepreneurs are losing sleep and investing every dime they have to produce these same items for less cost. Three Cheers for Competition!

Tell me that the people railing against consumerism aren’t going out in search of items that they believe will better their living conditions, and then spending their hard earned money to get these items. Not hardly. But, again, all too often, the bugaboo they hate is not “consumerism”—it is freedom of choice.

UPDATE! I love my readers. Such an intelligent and widely read group. One of my buddies just wrote and said my thoughts echoed an essay by Llewllyn Rockwell Jr over on a site dedicated to the writings and thoughts of Ludwig Von Mises, In Defense of Consumerism. While I am a faithful reader of Von Mises and have no memory of reading this essay, when I went and read it, I OBVIOUSLY did so somwhere along the line and failed to note this in my journal. In the spirit of giving honor where honor is due, the thoughts contained in this post should be directly attributed to this essay ... only Rockwell said more than I did ... and did a more thorough job covering the topic!

Copyright, Monte E Wilson, 2009