Where has all the money in the world gone?

Re:Where has all the money in the world gone? by CamperBob2 on Sunday June 24, 2012 @05:27AM (#4152986)

While I think you're way out in the ozone with the idea that consumerism evolved as a reaction to Communism, the rest of your post is really well-stated. Our political system is geared toward promoting the idea of near-zero unemployment, where the goal we really should be working towards is near 100% unemployment.

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Re:Where has all the money in the world gone? by brandall10 on Sunday June 24, 2012 @11:43AM (#4153518)

"While I think you're way out in the ozone with the idea that consumerism evolved as a reaction to Communism".

A few months back I would have said the same thing. Then I watched this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Century_of_the_Self

It actually appeared to start post WWI, just the Cold War accelerated the effect.

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Re:Where has all the money in the world gone? by CamperBob2 on Sunday June 24, 2012 @05:32PM (#4154299)

You don't think that what we call "consumerism" is just a Darwinian imperative? The idea that the guy with the most bling gets the most chicks is older than the ascent of Man, never mind Communism.

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Re:Where has all the money in the world gone? by brandall10 on Sunday June 24, 2012 @08:29PM (#4154634)

To consume as in gaining resources that actually increase survival and replication value? Sure.

The kind of mass consumption spawned from the US that has people sitting in front of their TVs 6 hours a day on average, obsessed with celebrity, eating fast food, getting fat, buying and hoarding tons of junk they hardly even use, being seriously in debt, working jobs they hate to keep the cycle going... stuff that is actually deleterious to physical and emotional health? No. And that documentary brings context to how this mess came about.

Just give it the first 15 minutes and find out how one man behind one public event changed the perception of women smoking forever:

"Bernays staged the 1929 Easter parade in New York City, showing models holding lit Lucky Strike cigarettes, or "Torches of Freedom". After the historical public event, women started lighting up more than ever before. It was through Bernays that women's smoking habits started to become socially acceptable."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bernays

This same man, the double nephew of Sigmund Freud, also coined the term PR and got his start as a propagandist for the Wilson administration during WWI.

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