Consumerism and the Subprime Lending Crisis

Well, it looks like my consumerism article isn't going to be published, so I guess I'll post it here! This is the prequel to the previous posting.

If you are able to read this article, chances are you live in what is called a capitalist society. A society that has barely averted an economic catastrophe that could have easily surpassed the depth and severity of the Great Depression and would’ve have brought social order and civilization to its knees.

Although capitalism has enabled many great things, such as the freedom for individuals to pursue their economic goals, it has also indirectly enabled an entire culture. A culture that has gripped many parts of the world for generations. I am referring to the culture of excessive consumerism, gratification, and idolization of material wealth. A culture of vanity, where people of greater wealth are powerful and worshipped, and lesser wealth are made to feel unsuccessful. A culture that deifies and glorifies the one that is with everyone, the one that is called Money.

Finance, Society, UW

I'm going to try something different here. I have submitted an opinion piece to Excalibur (York U's community paper). If all goes well, it gets published, and this blog post will serve as a supplemental to that article. If it does not, then at a later date, I will post the original on this blog.

To give you some background, my (hopefully soon to be published) article talks about the role of culture, financial system, and the current economic crisis. I asserted that the excessive, note how I bolded and italized the word excessive, consumer culture is partly responsible for the current economic crisis, or can be seen as at least a contributing factor (as in, if consumer culture didn't exist, then we wouldn't have the current economic situation).