Buy now: how to survive in the culture of consumerism
"Money is the life report card." Our position depends, more than anything else, on the thousands that have cost us the floor where we live, the brand of our car and the time it takes to get rid of the previous one, the place where we spend the holidays or if We have enough economic resources to send our children to study in the United States or any European country. We live installed in a consumer society.
We could say that consumerism has its roots and its origin in the acquisition of more products than we need, either by ostentation, either because of social pressure, or because the media incite us to use and throw with their intrinsically perverse formulas of "purchase". now and pay later. "
The fearsome culture of consumerism
Consumerism is consolidated under a model that bases its strategy on a constant increase in production, ignoring not only the deep inequalities existing between the different areas of the planet, but between places and geographic areas very close to each other.
The consumerism operates with a perfectly defined criterion and against which many human beings succumb impotent, which can lead to compulsive purchases, a psychological phenomenon that manifests itself when purchases become an addiction. The strategy is to first create a need to, secondly, offer a product that is able to solve or satisfy it and then re-create a new need and prolong the process to infinity.
The money has finally become the new idol. With the light that characterized him, Antonio Machado warned us that "Every fool confuses value and price". It is a mad race, similar to the man who tried to reach his shadow.
Marketing strategies in the culture of consumerism
Within this culture of consumerism, new marketing strategies in the form of rebates and dressed under the labels of Black Friday, golden weeks, outlet, total liquidation ... feed this thirst for consumption at bargain prices that encourage you to buy more and best.
And if that were not enough, you do not need to go to the store to make the purchase, you choose the product from your device, smartphone, tablet, computer ... you pay easily entering your credit card numbers and they take it with you to home. These are the advantages of the online cart, the virtual catalog and the discounts and additional advantages offered by buying through the network.
Tips to survive in the culture of consumerism
1. Denounce the mechanisms of manipulation and misleading advertising.
2. Learn to manage with ease before a payroll or knows solvency receipts such as electricity, telephone, water, etc. The ignorance of these skills makes it difficult, and even impossible for the exercise of rights, then, you can hardly claim an error that harms their interests who does not have a minimum command on these issues.
3. Give a second chance to what you do not use. Giving it instead of throwing it can be very educational, but you can also sell it if you need income.
4. Every purchase must have a criterion of necessity and use. You have to differentiate between what is necessary (for everyone), what is convenient (according to work, the job, the studies, the hobbies of each one ...) and what is superfluous. We buy what is necessary, although we must accept the subjectivity of what is really "necessary or not".
5. You can not give up the value of sharing.
6. It is important to create awareness of the responsibility of the expenses. Be critical of consumption, even after having bought, to recognize, in your case, that a bad purchase has been made. Errors are also learned.
7. Periodically review how and in what money is spent at home. It is often discovered that what is denied to children does not have the same treatment when it comes to parental hobbies.
8. The consumerist mentality also leads to not taking care of things, to change them for the eagerness to use new ones, sometimes as a consequence of the frivolity that is easily dazzled by the new thing that, as it is, seems better than the previous one. A behavior often encouraged by advertising campaigns that leads to consume more than necessary.
Ricardo Regidor
