Sophie Kinsella, author of the novels Confessions of a Shopaholic, captured the very essence of consumerism when she wrote that “shopping is actually a lot like cultivating a field. You can't keep buying the same thing, you have to have some variety. Otherwise you'll get bored and stop having fun." Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get Original Essay Consumerism is defined as society's concern with acquiring consumer goods, simply put consumerism is simply the love of acquiring material goods. It is the desire to acquire. Like everything, the ideology of consumerism has its pros and it also has its fair share of cons. The interesting thing to note, however, is that in consumerism the pros cannot work without the cons, nor can the cons work without the pros. The society we live in today would not be what it has become without consumerism. Consumerism created mass markets, fueled industrialization, and encouraged competition among companies which stimulated innovative new ideas that led to the creation of new products. However, most of these newly created products do not have a lasting effect on the societies into which they are introduced and tend to fade away over the years: this can be considered a negative aspect of consumerism as it results in an oversaturated market. Also, people want more, it's human nature to want more than what you have. Consumerism encourages all this, it stimulates the desire to have more, more shoes and clothes, more money, a better car, a bigger house… So people will never be satisfied, we all have what Jim Collins, a famous author of economics, describes it as “the unquestioned search for something more”. Good is never good enough and this gives rise to the need to do more to have more. An increase in a country's productivity can be considered a positive aspect of consumerism as it ensures that more people work, making consumers richer and businesses more profitable and, consequently, allowing for greater government tax revenues. On the other hand, increasing productivity has a negative impact on the environment. William Rees, an urban planner at the University of British Columbia, estimated that four to six hectares of land are needed to support the level of consumption of the average person from a high-consumption country. Consumption, of course, is necessary for capitalism to work. The more we produce and the more we buy stimulates the progress and prosperity of our society, despite this the production, transformation and consumption of raw materials require the collection and use of natural resources; it requires the creation of factories and industrial buildings whose operation creates toxic byproducts while the use of the goods themselves, such as cars, creates pollution and waste. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now.Get a custom essayThis triggers a never-ending vicious cycle. People want more than they have, demand will always exist, this means that companies must satisfy consumer demands and they cannot do this without extracting natural resources to create the product consumers want. This not only leaves us with what we assume are short-term effects of pollution, but also guarantees that future generations will be left with an impoverished earth, completely stripped of its natural resources. There are three sacred bonds on this earth. A mother and a son, a priest and a confessor and... a man and his credit card. The need to acquire.