Consumers vs Producers, who's to blame?

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Some people believe consumerism is not "our fault", it's the suppliers responsibility not to create unnecessary products. However,  would these businesses - who manufacture and sell the unnecessary products - function without the demand from consumers? 

Karl Marx argues that we are driven by materialism. My first reaction to this statement was to disagree with it, being confident in the fact that I am not a materialistic person. Then as time went by I started to reflect on my purchasing behaviour and the utility of the material items I wanted. I realised that trends and marketing techniques were powerful and do influence my behaviour. 

Consumers: 

The customers main drawback in this argument is the average consumption of an individual. The UK population consumes higher than the world average : 15.3 tonnes of materials per year per person. So, we consume a lot. These are the factors that affect this:

- Shopping as a leisure pursuit to help relieve stress and increase happiness. 

- Convenience and low price over quality and durability, leading to more frequent consumption.

- Fast fashion (Fast Fashion is not ideal).

- Never being fully satisfied with purchases, always wanting more.

That being said, I'm not here to tell you that you shouldn't buy that nice jacket you've been wanting because you're feeding into consumerism. I think it's more about questioning and reflecting on the items that we're buying and asking ourselves 'do I really need this?'.  

Producers:

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- Companies marketing strategies can heavily influence consumers to buy products (a lot to do with phychology).

- Planned obsolescence to make more money. 

- The shear amount of waste large companies produce.

One theory suggests production is organised to maximise profits for corporate companies rather than to create what the community genuinely wants or needs, this is called producerism. 


I believe that companies will chase after customers, so if you put more emphasis on sustainability then companies will change. Responsible consumerism, where people are more conscious about the social and environmental impact of their purchases, is on the rise. Companies will now have to follow this trend, but fingers crossed they don't choose greenwashing instead of actually making impactful changes 😀


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