By: Sasha Levy

Fort Collins, Colo. — The U.S. is considered to have the world’s “largest economy” primarily because of its capitalistic system and culture of entrepreneurship. Another is because of the vast amount of over-consumption present, although consumption is necessary to survive the drastic amounts of over-consumerism can be attributed to the U.S.’s capitalistic system and the need to sustain their large economy. 

The United States is a country that upholds a different government system than most other countries in the world. With its combination of the capitalistic system and consumer society, it produces “more per person than most other advanced economies” which leads to the consumption of more products that majority of the time are unnecessary. 

A key example of consumerism sustained by the American system at its finest is the holiday Black Friday, a day when huge discounts are placed on massive amounts of items and are usually when people start shopping for themselves and the holidays. 

This holiday furthers the beliefs in a consumer society, valuing the “acquiring and possession of material objects which leads to the belief that possessions can make us happy,” stated an Article on Consumerism by Lage, C., Lins, S., & Aquino, S.

The Story of Stuff by Annie Leonard discusses the absurdity of Black Friday. Families leaving their “Thanksgiving dinners early to sleep in the store parking lots hours before scheduled store openings,” only to then trample the workers and anyone else who may get in their way just to get the items that are on sale, which they could honestly live without.

America’s promotion of a consumer society allows them to maintain their large participation in the global economy but also leads to massive consequences on the environment as well as the bodies of everyone in the U.S.

In 2022, Americans spent a total of around $14 Billion per quarter (roughly $56 Billion a year) on consumer goods alone. The amount that Americans spent on consumer goods is more than half the amount of money the government budgeted for the Department of Education, budgeting $90 Billion for the department, increasing by 10.3% from the year prior. I

It is believed that consumer spending accounts for roughly 30% of the U.S. economy, meaning that those in power in the government will never want to end consumerism as the US isn’t fully reliant on it but the belief that “the bigger the better” is entirely engrained into our consumer society. 

Although consumerism and over-consumerism are extremely beneficial for our economy, it leaves a prominent issue that people have tried to ignore for years. 

The sheer amount of waste that is produced from consumerism is massive, as they are directly correlated, the more goods that are produced the more waste will be produced, continuing to build up as we have no sustainable ways to deal with said waste. 

In 2022 alone, 292 million tons of waste was generated, with 146 million tons of waste discarded and added to the numerous landfills in the US, with each landfill having an estimated 150K tons of waste already in them.

Being in a consumer society is harmful to the environment but also to our own bodies. The constant advertising of cheap, fast and easy foods leads to an increase in weight. 

The obesity rate in the US continues to increase year by year, according to the CDC’s research “the US obesity prevalence was 41.9% in 2020” and “the prevalence of severe obesity increased from 4.7% to 9.2%.” 

Advertising plays a large role in consumerism, with advertising being a flashy way to influence someone’s decisions, such as subconsciously thinking about buying a product and how it would potentially help. 

This same thing applies to fast food chains such as Mcdonald’s, Wendy’s and Burger King. By using flashy advertisements to show their 

absurdly cheap foods, like the Wendy’s 4 for $4 which has a burger, fries, chicken nuggets and a drink for an insanely cheap price, which entices someone to go eat there, especially if they’re a low-income family that might not be able to afford groceries to make a proper meal at home.

Another bad thing about fast-food and advertising is the amount of energy and resources used to sustain all the livestock. In Project Drawdown, Hawken stated that “raising livestock accounts for nearly 15% of global greenhouse gases emitted each year” with more “comprehensive assessments of direct and indirect emissions say more than 50%.”

To conclude, the U.S. has continued to stay on top of the global economy, being the top player in it. Although not completely reliant on it, the US’s economy is as high as it is because of the capitalistic and consumer-focused society we live in.

One that pushes for material gains to show one’s status and value. Because of how consumerism is ingrained into our life system to the point that most people block it out like white noise, over-consumerism won’t be slowing down in the United States anytime soon. Especially because it continues to make the U.S. money and keep it high on the global economy leaderboard.