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spade WV Theme...                   #26A / 26B               ...individual<--->nature

THE CONSUMERIST / THE MORE IS BETTER MENTALITY

I value having the freedom to spend money and buy things. If I like what a product can do for me, like its image and the message associated with it--and I encounter these images / messages everywhere -- I will buy it. If I am envious of something someone else has, I will work to get one for myself. When I tire of a possession, I discard it for something new. Often, I express who I am through what I buy. Often I find my needs can be met if I shop around, and I like to shop. (Note: Many consumers prefer things or experiences that are bigger, louder, longer, stronger, faster, with more power or more features. Often such a “more is better” mentality is part of a “knows no limits” mindset.)

Related Words, Beliefs, Background -- 33 entries            Discussion from The Worldview Literacy Book

WV Theme #26A: The Consumerist--Alternate Concise Characterization with Wikipedia Entries

enjoys shopping values having things, Economic Materialism
no problem w/ marketing, advertising==>supports Commercialism engages in Consumer Activism

summary Wikipedia article: Consumerism

 

WV Theme #26B: The More Is Better Mentality --Alternate Characterization with Wikipedia Entries

defends and/or engages in Conspicuous Consumption   defends right to and/or lives in large house (McMansion) 
drives SUV or large truck, defends right to do so vs. critics not concerned about Obesity

   

More to Explore -- Worldview Theme #26A: The Consumerist

Consumer Bill of Rights (from online encyclopedia)
Consumerist (online encyclopedia article about the consumer affairs blog) 
link to Consumerist blog
Marketing and Consumerism  (Canadian educational website)
Consumer's Union / Consumer Reports Magazine 
The Story of Stuff, with Annie Leonard (20 minute look at "the underside of our production and consumption patterns")
Brainwashed: Tricks Companies Use to Manipulate Our Minds and Persuade Us to Buy by Martin Lindstrom (more on this 2011 book)
"The Tyranny of Choice: You Choose" article from The Economist Dec 18 2010
"The Genius of QVC," by Megan McArdle (June 2010 The Atlantic article about the shopping network)
Buyology: Truths and Lies About Why We Buy, by Martin Lindstrom (read excerpts from 2008 book)
Consumerism and the New Capitalism  (essay by R. Cronk) 
The Center for Consumer Freedom
The Center for Consumer Freedom -- their deception exposed
The Consuming Instinct by Gad Saad (2011 book by marketing professor and Psychology Today blogger)
Why We Buy--The Science of Shopping, by Paco Underhill (read excerpts from this 2008 book at Google Books)
Harvard Design School Guide to Shopping, by Rem Koolhaas (book review of this 800 page volume)
Life is Not Complete Without Shopping: Consumption Culture in Singapore, by Chua Beng Huat (book review)
Temples of Consumption: Shopping Malls As Secular Cathedrals
Economics Notes: Your Role as a Consumer
Shopping is Patriotic, Leaders Say
For American Consumers, How Much is Enough? by Jeffrey Shaffer (May, 2007 CSM article)
The Moral Nature of Free Enterprise
Blippy.com (website providing "a fun and easy way to see and discuss the things people are buying")
"Wake Up and Sell the Coffee," by Barbara Kiviat (article on selling high priced coffee to affluent consumers)
"Guilt Won't Stop Impulsive Shoppers, Researchers Say" (2007 CBC article)
"Sex and Advertising: Retail Therapy" (historical perspective from Dec 17 2011 The Economist)
"Data Mining: How Companies Know Everything About You"  by Joel Stein (cover story Time Mar 21 2011)
"The Proposed Consumer Financial Protection Watchdog" by Justin Fox (article in Time July 27, 2009)
Home Shopping: The Cult of the Snuggie, by M.J. Stephey (article in Time February 2, 2009)
Shop Till You Drop, by Larry Kudlow
Middle East Shopping Malls: The Battle of the Brands
Overcoming Consumerism  (anti-consumerism website) 
Not Buying It: My Year Without Shopping, by Judith Levine (book review by Marjorie Kehe in CSM, 3/2006)
Buy, Buy Baby: How Consumer Culture Manipulates Parents and Harms Young Minds, by Susan G. Thomas
Behind Consumption and Consumerism --Global Issues  (global health & environmental perspectives) 
Creating the Consumer, by Anup Shah (from global issues website)
All Consuming Passion: Waking Up from the American Dream
Affluenza (from online encyclopedia, refers to term used by those critical of consumerism)
Affluenza (teacher's guide PBS series on ills of consumerism)
Salvation Through Consumption?
The Sacred Santa: Religious Dimensions of Consumer Culture by Dell deChant
quotes related to shopping

More to Explore -- Worldview Theme #26B: The More Is Better Mentality

Super Size Me (from online encyclopedia about the documentary film and related cultural trend)
Spoiled Child (from online encyclopedia)
Living Ever Larger--How Wretched Excess Became a Way of Life in Southern California, by Patrick Kiger
Too Much (website providing "commentary on excess and inequality")
"Technology Advances, Humans Supersize" by P. Cohen (health & human evolution,  2011 NY Times article)
"Tiger Woods Ex-Wife Bulldozes $12 million Home" by Shane Bacon (Jan 5 2011 Yahoo Sports article)
"Forget Frugality, Focus on Earning More" by Ramit Sethi (Apr 28 2011 NY Times article)
"Our Super-Sized Kids--How America's Children Packed on the Pounds, by Jeffrey Kluger (Time 6/23/08)
Book Review of Better Not Bigger, book by Eben Fodor
I Love My SUV, by Ray Keating
I Love My SUV Despite Its MPG, by Colin Hurlock, editor at MSNBC
Chasing the SUV Vote
Bigger is Better (song lyrics)
The Big Screen (a Stanford student's prank / commentary)
People of Plenty: Economic Abundance and the American Character, by David M. Potter (read at Google Books)
A Man in Full, by Tom Wolfe (American consumer excess is major theme in this 1998 novel; from online encyclopedia)
American Mania -- When More is Not Enough  (book by director of UCLA Neuropsychiatric Inst.)
Feature Fatigue -- When Product Capabilities Become Too Much of a Good Thing (J. of Marketing Research article)
Quirky Foes and Owners of Invading Monster Mansions (NY Times book review of Rattled and Lapham Rising)
quotes about excess and related topics

back to The Reality Marketplace to shop for more WV Themes                                        

forward to next spade theme,  WV Theme #27

"As you shop in "The Reality Marketplace" avoid spending your "reality cash" too early,  before you have seen everything. " 
from Coming of Age in the Global Village,  by Stephen P. Cook,  with Donella H. Meadows.

 
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