Consumerism is What the World Needs

X and Y get together to decide what Z should consume and what he should not. Who is Z? Z is a producer and a consumer who does his share of productive labor and earns to meet his daily needs. X and Y represent today's anti-consumerist movement. They seek to gain power over Z by preventing him from enjoying the fruits of his labor. X and Y will try to denigrate Z's spending habits by labeling it as "an orgy of consumerism". They will spew leftist propaganda to make Z feel guilty for the smallest luxury that makes his life worth living. In guise of their anti-consumerism X and Y seek to promote a socialist dictatorship where all the luxuries are banned and people are forced to live like automatons in control of one monstrous dictator. How should Z react to the evil propaganda from X and Y? He should tell them to "go to hell".
Let us compare life expectancy in a consumerist paradise like Japan to that in a socialist and tribal society like Congo, which is untouched by so called "orgy of consumerism". According to a WHO report women in Congo typically die at the age of 46, but that is only if they are allowed to live that long by roving bands of militia. Average life expectancy for men is 44, but forced as child soldiers to fight in an endless series of tribal wars many die before reaching that age. Women in Japan live to 90, and men to 85. This is due to better diet, less dangerous jobs, improved sanitation and hygiene, improved access to health care, and a better law and order financed by a vibrant free market economy. Since 1930 infant mortality rate in Japan has fallen by 90% percent, whereas in Congo a vast majority of infants succumb to disease within first ten years of their life.
So given a chance where would any human being want to live - in Japan naturally. We want to live in a society that can provide us good law and order, a free and fair working environment and better sanitation like Japan does. Then we want bigger and better cars that are more fuel-efficient. We want proper air conditioning for our homes and offices. We want efficient computers and high speed Internet connectivity to take care of our entertainment, research and communication needs. We want our shops to be packed with an endless array of juice, wine, butter, bread, jam, cereals, shaving cream, razors, electric toothbrush, undergarments and T-shirts. We want to have all the latest gizmos. We want to live in flats that are well heated, fire proof and pest resistant.
We want whole range of services like tech support, plumbers, carpenters, electrician, etc, to be only a phone call or email away from us. When we are researching for information we look for instant gratification. We post the keyword in Google, click search and we expect the right information to get instantly flashed on our computer screen. We want pristine drinking water available to us as a matter of birthright. We want round the clock electricity without any interruption. We want our locality to be dotted with fancy restaurants serving food that is hygienic as well as healthy. We want to have the best medical treatment available to us and to our family in case of any medical emergency. We want our airplanes and trains to be always on time. We want luxury hotels that offer all the facilities that we may aspire for.
What we need to remember is that a vibrant consumerist culture is a sine qua non for the fulfillment of all these and many more needs. If we reject consumerism the alternative is the stinking malaria infested backwater village in the middle of the Congo forest, where disease, hunger and violence would stalk every moment of our lives. It is easy for us to revile consumerism, blame it for every imagined problem on earth from environmental pollution, to bulging waistlines, to our lack of happiness. But do we really think that humans living in the Stone Age led cleaner lives or were more healthy and happy. Dare we think that the humans festering in primitivism of Congo are better off? No one in his right mind would think that way.
Consumerism as a concomitant of capitalism is responsible for driving up the standard of living in the free countries around the world. The rich in the free countries consume on a large scale and by driving up demand they motivate other capitalists to enter the market with similar products priced at much lower levels. When mobile phones were first launched in the world they were considered an elite product, only the super rich could afford to own one. But today the situation is much different, with mobile phones vastly outnumbering landline phones in many countries. Without consumerism of the rich, the capitalists could not have been aroused to seek cheaper suppliers and the prices of mobile phones would not have tumbled to the extent where even the most poor daily wage workers can afford to own a mobile phone.
Consumerism means that every individual in this world is free to consume whatever is available in the market as long as he is ready to pay for it. In a free economy every individual is a consumer and he is also a producer and a trader. We produce so that we may trade the fruits of our labor to pay for and consume what someone else has produced. In a capitalist society we are free to interact with other people. But the anti-consumerists seek to take this "freedom of interaction" away from us. They want to impose on everyone their own ideas of what should be produced and what can be consumed. It is not any lofty sense of social good that motivates these anti-consumerists, what motivates them is a craving to be a dictator. The frumpy women and sniveling men who shout shrill cries condemning consumerism do so not for the sake of saving society, or for bringing more happiness to you or me, they do so because deep inside they are petty dictators with intense hatred for all human values.