For Wed. Feb 25: (1)Discussion questions to prepare for viewing film “Consumed” and (2) discussion questions from assigned reading, William Emmons, “Don’t Expect Consumer Spending to be the Engine of Economic Growth it Once Was.”
I. Read William Emmons, “Don’t Expect Consumer Spending to be the Engine of Economic Growth it Once Was.” Dont Expect Consumer_Spending
Post your responses to at least one of the following questions before 2/25.
1. William Emmons suggests that American consumers may not be able to serve as the engine of economic growth that they did in the prosperous post-war era. What reasons does he cite for this? (paragraph 1)
2. Emmons notes in the last paragraph on page 1 that “as consumer spending grew rapidly in the U.S., we imported consumer-oriented goods and services even more rapidly.” What problem does Emmons see with this trend?
3. Take a look at the table on pg. 2 that compares the composition of GDP in the U.S. and Canada over time. Looking at the most recent period from 2001 – 2010, what differences do you notice in the percent share of the components of GDP between the two nations (Consumption, Investment, Net exports, Government expenditures)?
4. Emmons identifies five trends working against consumer spending on pg.3. What are these?
II. Questions for discussion of the film, “Consumed: Is Our Consumer Culture Leading Us to Disaster?”
Post a response to at least one of the following questions before Feb. 25.
1. In the film’s opening remarks, the narrator suggests that our focus on consumerism could lead to environmental disaster. What are your thoughts on this perspective?
2. The film also suggests that in human society, consumerism often means that we “chase status,” often deriving little real satisfaction from this behavior, and that human relationships become secondary. Would you agree/disagree with this argument? Why?
3. Is runaway consumerism a “temporary” stage? Would you agree that “Once people understand their own psychology they will care less about consumption?” Discuss
4. It is argued that consumerism is tied to a “natural human urge,” a way of “structuring human life.” Is consumption a “natural” behavior? Or is it conditioned?
5. The film makes the argument that economic growth, driven by consumer spending, has “become fetishized.” We earn more money, have more choices, then spend more money. What does the commentator mean when stating that consumer spending has become ‘fetishized’?
6. It is argued that we often “display our mental traits through the goods and services we buy and turn them into props,” using them as a way of signaling prestige or a way of attracting others. Your reactions to this view? Would you agree? Disagree? with this perspective? Explain reasoning.
7. It is suggested that in order to promote more environmentally conscious consumption, we need to understand how to psychologically influence changes in behavior. Would you agree? Disagree?
8. In the film’s opening remarks, the narrator suggests that our focus on consumerism could lead to environmental disaster. What are your thoughts on this perspective?
III. Reminder: submit final draft of research topic in the form of a question or argument you wish to make; think about where you may want to conduct field research for your topic. (list of some ideas is posted under ‘Research topic ideas’ menu.
IV. Guest Lecturer: Prof. Pa Her (Psychology)
I. Read William Emmons, “Don’t Expect Consumer Spending to be the Engine of Economic Growth it Once Was.” Dont Expect Consumer_Spending
4. Emmons identifies five trends working against consumer spending on pg.3. What are these?
Five trends working against consumer spending are;
1. lower wealth
2. stagnant income
3. tight credit
4. fragile confidence
5. looming reversal of stimulus
II. Questions for discussion of the film, “Consumed: Is Our Consumer Culture Leading Us to Disaster?”
2. The film also suggests that in human society, consumerism often means that we “chase status,” often deriving little real satisfaction from this behavior, and that human relationships become secondary. Would you agree/disagree with this argument? Why?
In the film it suggest that in human society, consumerism often means that we “chase status,” often deriving little real satisfaction from this behavior, and that human relationships become secondary, I agree with this argument. I agree with this argument because I believe in todays society this is the world that we live in, most of the teenagers and adults today will much rather work and get paid for 30 hours of work and use that money to buy an expensive pair of sneakers to impress the opposite sex. Once this happens then they will chase that status of being “fly” and having “swagger” but they won’t have that intelligence to hold a conversations with other person. Also human relationship have become secondary because of the entertainment industry, most couples today are with people because they want to be like the power couples so they will imitate Beyonce and Jay-z or Kanye and Kim and this is were human relationship is lost because once you start doing that you aren’t yourself anymore you are just trying to be like someone else.
1. Some of the reasons cited by William Emmons as to why consumers may not be able to serve as the engine of economic growth was that consumer expenditures grew on average at a 3.5 % continuously compounded annual rate , while the rest of the economy (I,G AND NX) grew at a 2.79% annual rate. PCE accounted for 70.8 % of average real GDP growth during those 25 years, while all other components (I,G and NX) contributed 29.2%.
2. As consumer spending grew rapidly in the US, we imported consumer oriented goods and services even more rapidly, according to Emmons, US. imports contributed importantly to growth in many exporting countries around the world and because we incurred large trade deficits, we require a corresponding inflow of foreign capital to finance them.
3. When comparing US with Canada for the period 2001-10, consumer expenditure for US was much higher than Canada 70.0/56.4), while US investment, net exports and government expenditure were far less for than Canada.
4. The five trends working against consumer spending according to Emmons were lower wealth, stagnant incomes, tight credit, fragile confidence and looming reversal of stimulus.
1. In the films opening remarks, the narrator suggests that our focus on consumerism could lead to an environmental disater, as highlighted in the film, the results in wastage of products, appliances, materials etc which contributed to an increased amount of garbage to be processed and disposed.
2. I strongly agree with the suggestion that we “chase status”.
consumer wants to be identified with the branded items that suggest association with specific individuals/icons, way of life and segment of society.
3. In my opinion, consumerism is a ” temporary stage” that serves to satisfy one’s ego or inclusion for acceptance with others however once they understand what brings true value or meaning to life, their attitude will be changed and priority will be place on different values that brings true satisfaction.
4. I believe that consumerism is conditioned and is based on what is promoted in advertising etc. and often changes as newer trends are modelled.
1. As William Emmons clearly states in the first paragraph, our reliance on American consumer spending for as many years as it has cannot drive economic growth. We must become an economy that exports both domestically and globally. In his words, “New sources of demand, both domestic, and foreign, are needed if we are to maintain healthy rates of growth”.
4. 4. They are lower wealth of households(assets), stagnant incomes, tight credit, fragile confidence, and looming reversal of stimulus.
My thoughts on the matter is…when did we not have an environmental disaster. Many times throughout history, consumerism has brought great destruction to the world and its inhabitants. Near Extinction of the American buffalo in the 19th century for its hides. Or when an individual is purchasing a large SUV or sports car just to impress their significant other and have no functional need for such a vehicle. Of course to each his own, but if as a society this is the norm, we just accelerate our own destruction with increase pollution, crowded cities, and destruction of fertile lands for farming.
Fetishized is great term to describe what the many do when they earn more money and want to spend. It basically means they are have an unusual desire for an item or object. For example, organizations as we all know are based on consumer spending, therefore they create a new smartphone of the same type about every two years. Many articles, showcases, conferences are focus on this new smartphone, usually many others are at these venues, throughout the year and when that product is out to be purchase, people wait on lines for days to purchase a device that is usually no better than the current version of this smartphone. Thus consumer spending has become a fetish, they desire that new product so much…that they waste days to acquire it.
Emmons article’s discussion:
To answer the first question and since the American consumption’s trend is mostly besed more and more on imports of goods from abroad, the US imports continue to contribute on the economic growth of the exporting countries but not on the American’s economic growth as it was in the before when our consumption was fed by American goods particularly.
Question#2:
A comparison of the GDP’s composition between the US and Canada in the period extending from 2001 to 2010 shows that the American consumer expenditure counted for 70% of the nation’s GDP while Canada’s counted only for 56.4% in its GDP. The investment and gouvernment expenditures were higher in Canada and counted rspectively for 21.4% and 19.8% in its GDP were in the US GDP they only counted respectively for 18.6% and 15.9%. On the other hand and while the net export participated with 2.4% in Canada’s GDP, the US recorded a trade deficit of 4.5% in the same period.
Question#4:
The five trends that are working against consumer spending are: 1. Lower wealth, 2. Stagnant income, 3. Tight credit, 4. Fragile confidence, and 5. Looming reversal of stimulus.
I will try to answer few questions about the film in one single comment:
Consumerism in its original sense is natural but it became a conditined behavior and sadely because of marketing which uses many tools including psychology to convince us to consume more and more and at early age. our consumption is becoming brand oriented and most people are using this consumarism trend maybe because there is a security vulnerability whithin them or they try to consume above average products to compensate for bellow average trades. For example, if someone is not funny or does not possess the romantic skills, he/she can compensate with some goods such as brand clothes, expensive car etc… in order to attract the other sex or reach a certain goal. This is an illusion because this tactic may work just for a short time but once the personal qualities will be revealed most likely the person will loose all what he/she was seeking. To make it short, you may have everythings you want but can this change what you are? definitely not.
I will try to answer few questions about the film in one single comment:
Consumerism in its original sense is natural but it became a conditined behavior and sadely because of marketing which uses many tools including psychology to convince us to consume more and more and at early age. our consumption is becoming brand oriented and most people are using this consumarism trend maybe because there is a security vulnerability whithin them or they try to consume above average products to compensate for bellow average trades. For example, if someone is not funny or does not possess the romantic skills, he/she can compensate with some goods such as brand clothes, expensive car etc… in order to attract the other sex or reach a certain goal. This is an illusion because this tactic may work just for a short time but once the personal qualities will be revealed most likely the person will loose all what he/she was seeking. To make it short, you may have everythings you want but can this change what you are? definitely not.
William Emmons, “Don’t Expect Consumer Spending to be the Engine of Economic Growth it Once Was.”
3.) Take a look at the table on pg. 2 that compares the composition of GDP in the U.S. and Canada over time. Looking at the most recent period from 2001 – 2010, what differences do you notice in the percent share of the components of GDP between the two nations (Consumption, Investment, Net exports, Government expenditures)?
– Comparing the composition of GDP in the U.S. and Canada over period from 2001-2010, Consumer expenditures are higher in U.S. than in Canada. On the other hand, the Investment. Net Exports and Government expenditures are lower in U.S. than in Canada.
4.) Emmons identifies five trends working against consumer spending on pg.3. What are these?
– The five trends working against consumer spending are as following:
Lower Wealth-The house mortgage has been increased but the income remained constant.
Stagnant income-Job growth hardly matches the population growth. In five years they just increased 12 cents in weekly earnings through oct. 2011.
Tight Credit-need high credit to borrow for house purchase or mortgage refinancing.
Fragile Confidence and Looming reversal of stimulus
The film, “Consumed: Is Our Consumer Culture Leading Us to Disaster?”
4. ) It is argued that consumerism is tied to a “natural human urge,” a way of “structuring human life.” Is consumption a “natural” behavior? Or is it conditioned?
– I believe Consumerism is a natural human urge in some ways. It has become worse as we can see in present situation, humans consume more than they need. Therefore, It is a way of structuring human life and it is conditioned over time.
8.) In the film’s opening remarks, the narrator suggests that our focus on consumerism could lead to environmental disaster. What are your thoughts on this perspective?
-I agree on the remark that consumerism could lead to environmental disaster. Humans are consuming more than their needs and has created huge amount of wastage over time that effects the environment. As suggested in the film, consumerism creates many issues with pollution, green house effect and in face some extinction of species over time cause of lack of forest and so on.
About the article:
1. William Emmons suggests that American consumers may not be able to serve as the engine of economic growth that they did in the prosperous post-war era. What reasons does he cite for this? (paragraph 1)
For a continuous and strong growth in the economy there has to be more investment, more government spending or more exports; and at the current moment none of these needed for rapid growth can be done right away and easily or if they do, it may hurt back the economy, according to Emmons.
About the film
1. In the film’s opening remarks, the narrator suggests that our focus on consumerism could lead to environmental disaster. What are your thoughts on this perspective?
Consumerism pushes us to consume more and more. We often replace working products by others, just because there is little difference between the new ones and what we already possess. For instance, in many cases we see people buying new TVs or other types of electronic devices while they have those types of same devices that are still working. This kind of behavior leads us to environmental disaster. In sustainability point of view, electronic devices and other goods we use every day, harm the environment from the procurement of their raw materials to end of their life. In many cases the ground is disturbed for the extraction of the raw materials and their transformation to goods requires a great amount of energy, producing hence carbon dioxide (carbon footprint).
William Emmons Article:
2. Emmons notes in the last paragraph on page 1 that “as consumer spending grew rapidly in the U.S., we imported consumer-oriented goods and services even more rapidly.” What problem does Emmons see with this trend?
—Emmons states that U.S. consumers helped grow not only the US economy but the world’s economy because we spent a lot of money and saved little. Though it helped grow the world’s economy, he stated that these imbalances may have contributed to the US housing bubble and the global financial crisis.
3. Take a look at the table on pg. 2 that compares the composition of GDP in the U.S. and Canada over time. Looking at the most recent period from 2001 – 2010, what differences do you notice in the percent share of the components of GDP between the two nations (Consumption, Investment, Net exports, Government expenditures)?
—When looking at the difference between U.S. and Canada I can see that the US consumer expenditure is higher than Canada during all five decades. On the other hand, U.S. is lower in investments, net exports, and government expenditures (4/5 decades).
Consumed: Is Our Consumer Culture Leading Us to Disaster? Video:
1. In the film’s opening remarks, the narrator suggests that our focus on consumerism could lead to environmental disaster. What are your thoughts on this perspective?
—I completely agree that our focus on consumerism could lead to environmental disaster. One reason why I believe this is because, technology is growing at an exponential rate and, as consumers, and we want the best stuff. For example, a new iPhone comes out every year and while our smartphones work perfectly fine, people still upgrade because they want the newer product. So, how do we dispose of all these unwanted devices? There is no way to get rid of all these devices safely, so it WILL lead to pollution, which will then lead to environmental disaster.
2. The film also suggests that in human society, consumerism often means that we “chase status,” often deriving little real satisfaction from this behavior, and that human relationships become secondary. Would you agree/disagree with this argument? Why?
—I believe people “chase status”. In my opinion, our generation has become very superficial and materialistic. For example, people want that Rolex watch that costs $100,000 when we can get a watch that cost $5 that does exactly the same thing. Why? – Because people are chasing status, they want to show people they have “status”.
I. William Emmons, “Don’t Expect Consumer Spending to be the Engine of Economic Growth it Once Was.” Dont Expect Consumer_Spending
1. Emmons reasoning which suggests that American consumers may not be able to serve at the engine of economic growth as in recent decades because consumer spending constitutes the largest part of the American economy, relying on consumer spending is not enough to boost economic growth. In order for the economy to grow we need to focus both on domestic and international exports.
4. The five trends working against consumer spending are, lower wealth, stagnant income, tight credit, fragile confidence, and looming reversal of stimulus
II. Film discussion “Consumed: Is Our Consumer Culture Leading Us to Disaster?”
Our human nature focused on consumption of materialism. Humans are never satisfied with what they have, always wanting more, with the ideology that bigger is better. Bigger car, bigger house, new sneakers, even if our cell phone is 6-8 months old, if an updated version comes out on the market people camp out for days just to be first in line to get it. We are wasteful consumers, who think of no one but ourselves, thus polluting our world and destroying our planet.There is nothing “natural’ about wasteful consumption this behavior has been conditioned over time. Humans are wasteful animals who are sucked in by the fame and fortune of multibillion dollar corporations who encourage such wasteful spending. We are puppets who are alluded into believing that what we have is never enough, and Billion dollar corporation are the puppeteers pulling all the strings. It was stated in the film that, ‘the only thing that makes up different from animals is our consciousness of taught’, it makes me wander, it is our consciousness that makes us into the wasteful consumers that we have become, what makes us any better than animals. In my opinion they are smarter than us in many ways.
1. William Emmons suggests that American consumers may not be able to serve as the engine of economic growth that they did in the prosperous post-war era. What reasons does he cite for this? (paragraph 1)
On page 3, William Emmons identifies five trends working against consumer spending: lower wealth, stagnant incomes, tight credit, fragile confidence, looming reversal of stimulus. Also he points that: “combined, these contractionary forces make the outlook for broad-based consumer spending growth challenging”. Therefore, American consumers may not be able to serve as the engine of economic growth that they did in the prosperous post-war era.
8. In the film’s opening remarks, the narrator suggests that our focus on consumerism could lead to environmental disaster. What are your thoughts on this perspective?
I agree with that. Population grows, cities grow. As a result, we consume more food, more water, more energy, and we need more goods. Furthermore, we contaminate water, air and soil, we cut trees and burn fossil fuel. It causes climate changes: global warming, see level rise, increase of weather disasters and so on. Therefore, if we still are focused on consumerism, the theory that an increasing consumption of goods is economically desirable, it will lead to environmental disaster. In my opinion, we must focus not only on economic aspects, but also on ecological and socials aspects. It is the way to avoid environmental disaster.
1. William Emmons suggests that American consumers may not be able to serve as the engine of economic growth that they did in the prosperous post-war era. What reasons does he cite for this? (paragraph 1)
Americans can not serve as the engine of economic growth. In order to maintain a healthy growth rate their needs to be a source of demand, either foreign or domestic. This wont be easy because a large part of our countries economy is based on consumer spending. In order for this to occur as a whole our country will need much more government spending or much more exporting.
4. Emmons identifies five trends working against consumer spending on pg.3. What are these?
-Stagnant Incomes
-Tight Credit
-Lower wealth
-Looming Reversal
-Fragile Confidence
The five trends that Emmons identifies as working against consumer spending are as follows:
1. Lower Wealth
2. Stagnant incomes
3. Tight credit
4. Fragile confidence
5. Looming reversal of stimulus
1. In the film’s opening remarks, the narrator suggests that our focus on consumerism could lead to environmental disaster. What are your thoughts on this perspective?
The narrator suggests that our focus on consumerism could lead to environmental disaster because people are buying more than necessary and always wanting more than you can afford creates wastage and in order to fulfill those needs industries are pushed to produce more products which leads to pollution and disposal of toxic chemicals.
2. Emmons notes in the last paragraph on page 1 that “as consumer spending grew rapidly in the U.S., we imported consumer-oriented goods and services even more rapidly.” What problem does Emmons see with this trend?
Emmons believes that the rapid increase in consumer spending has led to investment being crowded out in the total US GDP. He explains that a lack of investment will lead to a slow down in the economy and will hurt long-term growth.
1. In the film’s opening remarks, the narrator suggests that our focus on consumerism could lead to environmental disaster. What are your thoughts on this perspective?
I agree with this as the more we consume, the more resources we need. This leads to many environmental problems such as pollution and deforestation. Another problem is the that was mentioned in the film was buying larger property which leads to more destruction of the natural environment in order to build larger houses for fewer people.
Part I.
4. Emmons identifies five trends working against consumer spending on pg.3. What are these?
The five trends working against consumer spending are shown to be:
lower wealth, stagnant income, tight credit, fragile confidence, looming reversal of stimulus
Part II
2. The film also suggests that in human society, consumerism often means that we “chase status,” often deriving little real satisfaction from this behavior, and that human relationships become secondary. Would you agree/disagree with this argument? Why?
The argument that the film “Consumed: Is Our Consumer Culture Leading Us to Disaster” suggests that we “chase status” often deriving little real satisfaction from this behavior, and that human relationships become secondary. I agree with this idea, because the behavior and sociology of people today are contingent upon being wealthy. Larger cities in the world influence people to spend on luxurious items so that they may be able to look higher in status or gain fame. In today’s society people are driven to consume products and services even if they don’t have the money. They use credit, loans, or even buy knockoffs to show status or be like others who seem to be wealthier. Another factor this type of consumerism brings is using it to attract the opposite sex. People are getting stuck on appearance that they forget natural human instinct and relationship to communicate. They lack the intelligence and personality that by alternatively buying the most expensive goods and services they hope they might assist them in meeting a mate. Romanticism and the arts have been somewhat lost in the new generation of consumerism.