Abstract
This paper examines how, in today's American society, astounding purchases, the conversion of the nation's core principles and the adjustment to a public governed by consumption highlight the nation's preoccupation with consumerism. It also looks at the argument that it has made Americans too materialistic, forcing them to work too hard and spend less time with family in order to be able to buy more things. The paper concludes that since the culture of the United States of America has been overcome with this phenomenon for over 65 years, it will not soon leave. Its presence is apparent, and civilizations around the globe recognize the U.S. for its Consumerist actions and values.

From the Paper
"The alteration of basic values of the American culture assists in revealing the presence of consumerism in the nation's society. Prior to the Second World War, Americans were virtuous and hardworking people. However, once that great war had passed, society changed. One magazine describes this change saying that America was once a nation defined by household values "conducive to work, investment, deferred gratification, and service." The magazine continues on describing that the nation has since, however, given way to "consumerist capitalism" defined by morals which are "conducive to laxity, impetuousness, narcissism, and consumption" (Barber 74). A once proud country that found working hard and doing service for one's community to be instinctual has now converted to a land of men and women who are lazy, impulsive, egotistical, and bent on purchasing in ever increasing quantities. "

Tags:purchases, shopping, money

Abstract
The paper examines the works of Maurice Meisner and Minxin Pei concerning the high social, political and economic price of China's approach to development. The paper then explains the phenomenon of Chinese consumerism that exists while millions struggle to obtain basic subsistence. The paper portrays the disparity in the American-style high consuming class and the working or unemployed poor.

Outline:
Introduction
Consumerism - Chinese Style
Disparities and Frustrations
Time and Unfulfilled Promises
Consumerism and Culture
Concluding Remarks

From the Paper
"Meisner noted a small percentage of urban population are members of the nouveaux riches that support "the world's most rapidly growing market in luxury goods." (1999 534) Otherwise there is much conspicuous lesser spending. A report for business people planning to do retail business in the PRC in 2005 with China's permission of foreign distributors with World Trade Organisation membership stated that the Chinese consumer still shops daily, likes processed and packaged foods, expects shopping to be an outdoor, urban activity and favours products to do with sport, leisure and general convenience. (Iyengar 2004) Car ownership is proportionately low and the distances great so that distributors have to work hard, if promoting a new product in China, to see that it reaches every targeted region. Mail order business is unknown and Internet shopping just beginning. The leisure culture taking form in the 1990s showed little sign of declining. Consumers were less automatically taken by foreign manufactures but wanted goods that made their lives more convenient. A Euromonitor International article referred to a positive attitude in the PCR towards owning one's housing, letting housing out to others, high demand for household durables and leisure goods that allowed for a busier lifestyle. (2006)"

Tags:conveniences, luxuries, poor, working, class, capitalism, democracy

Abstract
The paper discusses how modern technology has brought the states and peoples of the world closer together than at any other time in human history. Globalization is creating conditions of unparalleled prosperity, but it is also setting in motion the destruction of the planet. The paper contends that human beings must begin to consider their effects on the natural world. The paper identifies consumerism - the desire for more goods - as the driving force that lies behind much of the threat to the Earth's natural environment. The paper maintains that if the multinational corporations - the economic movers and shakers of the consumerist world - can learn the lessons of the more traditionalist peoples of the developing world, the Earth's natural environment might yet be preserved.

From the Paper
"The physical bounty that humanity once thought inexhaustible is rapidly being cut up, drunk up, ate up, and dug up. Ancient forests are disappearing. Once-clear lakes and rivers are being contaminated. The soil and the air are being polluted with the waste products of a modern industrial society. Globalization is creating conditions of unparalleled prosperity, but it is also setting in motion the destruction of the Planet. Human beings must begin to consider their effects on the natural world. Humankind must begin to consider the ethical implications of consumer society. Men, women, and children everywhere must begin to think of the environment as a Global Public Good. A Global Public Good belongs to everyone. Together, we must begin to recognize the problem, and work to solve it."

Tags:globalization, multinational, corporations, pollution, deforestation

Abstract
This is an argumentative essay that argues animal cruelty against animals tested by cosmetics companies and underhanded sporting events like dogfighting is aided and abetted by a consumer society more interested in products and profit than the welfare of defenseless animals. It looks at the different forms of testing that takes place on these animals and show how these companies have come to conceal their continued role in this kind of experimentation. The paper then shifts gears to look at the role of dogfighting and its status as a cultural or regional tradition. It looks at the way in which this status as a cultural tradition innoculates it in the minds of those who practice it from being classified as animal cruelty. From there, it ends by insisting that the only way to stop animal cruelty as practiced by corporations and "sportsmen" is to strip it of its status as average consumer behavior or as a cultural tradition.

From the Paper
"Animal cruelty is one of the most serious problems facing our society today. Whether it stems from the desire of companies to test consumer products on helpless animals in pursuit of profit, or through the sociopathic behavior of owners who torture their pets through both passive and active abuse, animal cruelty is clearly a problem that must be addressed without delay. Perhaps the ultimate solution is an increase in criminal as well as civil penalties for such abuse that is above and beyond that already offered. Perhaps one of the most disturbing acts of cruelty against animals is..."

Tags:testing, dogfights, passive abuse

Abstract
When discussing how American culture "corrupts" our children, the first words that come to mind are usually four-letter words or words pertaining to highly sexualized scenarios. This paper argues, however, that the culture of American capitalist cultural consumption is, if anything, more universal and equally damaging to American children. It has created a legacy of prominent consumption of unnecessary consumer products over the course of the past, present. and future of American television and culture. The paper argues further that American consumer culture is likely to continue to affect the minds of our children, creating a generation of people who believe they are what they buy, rather than who they really are as a person.

From the Paper
"Furthermore, as the nation grows increasingly in debt from consuming a large array of cultural products deemed necessary by advertisers, and obese from the amount of food sold through supposedly entertaining venues, the problem of how to address this crisis remains. Artistic integrity of television, movies, and other venues must be maintained of course. But advertising and the first amendment are hardly synonymous with cultural quality. As early as the 1980's, when ET consumed Reece's Pieces, as a result of a marketing deal, and causing the peanut butter flavored shells to skyrocket in popularity, movies as well as television have formed an alliance with advertisers."

Tags:More, Factor, Toys, R, Us, FTC

Abstract
This paper explains that direct-to-consumer advertising is considered to be a powerful marketing tool and to be a helpful service for patients who wish to be informed about their options and be active in their own treatment; however, direct-to-consumer advertisements for prescription medications may hinder effective health care in several ways including reducing doctor-patient communication. The author concludes that the analyzed commercials for Allegra D to treat allergy symptoms and an unnamed cholesterol-fighting drug did adhere to the FDA guidelines. The paper states that these gimmicky commercials are not actually informative to the general public; they are simply a tool used by the medication companies to benefit from the consumerist impulses of the population.

From the Paper
"Direct-to-consumer advertising is a phenomenon of the past couple of decades. The FDA has set guidelines for drug companies to follow that are intended to prevent consumers from being taken advantage of by misleading advertisements. All commercials must use words that common people can understand, without using advanced or complicated vocabulary that would require higher education or specialized training to decipher. Most of these commercials have to state a great deal of information about the product, including intended uses and common side-effects, as well as providing means for consumers to get more information about the product that would include all of the labeling that the FDA requires for the drug. However, the commercials that were observed were exempt from these guidelines because they were brief "reminder" or "help-seeking" ads."

Tags:information, understandable, gimmicky, consumerist, direct-to-consumer

Abstract
By applying a framework of Tantric Buddhism, the film, "Fight Club," can be interpreted as a modern-day story of the path to spiritual enlightenment. This interpretation gives the film a deeper underlying meaning that builds on and complements the surface interpretation of social commentary on Western consumerist culture. This paper shows that, with a Tantric Buddhist interpretation, "Fight Club" can be understood as a somewhat realistic portrayal of how a person caught up in samsara via Western consumerist culture can have a spiritual awakening leading to enlightenment, instead of simply being seen as an outlandish piece of fiction.

From the Paper
"Tantric Buddhism differs from orthodox or Mahayana Buddhism by its assertion that "enlightenment could be attained by means of the things of this world itself [...] involvement in some of the most impure forms of samsara - meat eating, wine drinking, sex." 2 This is the key to an interpretation of the film within a religious framework, because the two protagonists - Tyler Durden and the unnamed narrator - engage in many activities that would be seen as "impure" by traditional Buddhist standards, yet the narrator achieves a sort of enlightenment from his mindless corporate job and consumerist tendencies when led to these activities by Tyler."

Tags:buddhism, buddhist, club, enlightenment, fight, mantras, tantic, tantric

Abstract
Concepts discussed include McDonaldization, cathedrals of consumption, middle class practices, ideologies, consumerist ideologies, meritocracy, Intelligence testing, inequality, race-class-gender and others.

Abstract
The paper explains the nature of a Playbill, a kind of reference guide to the show of the evening, summing up the cast list, the cast biographies, and also giving theatergoers a bit of advice about places to go in New York before and after the show. The paper examines the role the playbill plays in encapsulating the consumerist, capitalist nature of Broadway theater. It also explores the influence wielded by Showboat's playbill.

From the Paper
" "Show Boat," originally produced in 1926, and later revived at the Gershwin theater in 1994, has often been called the first modern Broadway musical. The image on the cover of the show's Playbill during its most recent incarnation on Broadway is a sentimental picture of a turn of the century family of three waving at a large, smoking Riverboat show boat ship. This Playbill artifact encapsulates, perhaps more than any other example of the modern, New York Broadway theater, the nature of Broadway's form of theatrical, musical entertainment. The Playbill is a nostalgic commodity that reduces the show to a singular theme, and attempts to encapsulate within its covers, in as non-threatening a fashion as possible, the nature of a show that has proved disturbing to many viewers."

Tags:controversy, beauty, souvenir, audience, paraphernalia

Abstract
This paper analyzes the conflicts between the new economic world and the traditional cultures. "Jihad" refers to the cultures that focus more on traditional values. It does not simply refer to the Islamic notion of the word, but includes anyone who is opposed to the new modern west. Jihad is slow, personal, and stagnant. "McWorld" is the over-all notion of the consumerist west. McWorld is fast-paced, information-based and ever changing. Members within McWorld are in favor of individual rights and personal advancement over the culture as a whole. The paper concludes that Jihad and McWorld must learn to work together all over the world.

From the Paper
"In his book, 'Jihad vs. McWorld', Benjamin Barber takes a view of the new economic world as it relates to those cultures that are hanging on to traditional values. There is a basic conflict between these two ideologies: tribal control vs. technological and economic upward mobility. Barber describes each these two schools of thought, and how they work for and against each other."

Tags:barber, benjamin, capitalism, jihad, terrorism, economic, traditional, values, cultures, McWorld