To Buy or Not to Buy?

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Materialism is a central quality to our American culture today. We buy and sell in a relentless cycle – and why? Many argue that this “hunter/gatherer” trait has been around since the beginning when humans first started acquiring food, tools and other goods. In his article, “Two Cheers for Materialism”, James Twitchell brings up some very good points about our need for materialism as a culture.

Twitchell suggests a few positive outcomes from our materialistic nature that cannot be overlooked. Materialism is a way of showing our capitalistic freedom. As Americans we have established this capitalistic socioeconomic structure and flaunting our materialism is actually a way of flaunting that we are ABLE to be materialistic. By establishing one’s self in this capitalistic society, they can also show their new-found wealth through material items like BMW’s and expensive clothes and accessories. Materialism gives us the individual freedom to buy what we want (despite how necessary the item may be), and also gives us the freedom to choose which service we would like – restaurants, hotels, travel agencies, etc. We live through our material good and services and use them as an identity (Twitchell, 389-391).

To have a fully-rounded opinion of materialism, we also have to discuss the negative qualities of such a materialistic culture. Materialism can lead to immense personal debt, depression, anxiety, etc. It is all an endless cycle, one stresses about paying a credit card bill and uses a different credit card to pay that bill and the cycle continues down a terrifying road. Our views of materialism have also led to gender-specific stereotypes claiming that women are the ones spending the money. While this can be true, Twitchell states that men were the first ones to materialistic in the dynamic and it only shifted to women after the men had bought the “necessities”. Now women are branded with a “shop till I drop” stereotype that will probably never be erased.

These “pros and cons” of materialism are simply a rough framework for an introduction into materialism but I feel that from Twitchell’s article, I better understand Americans need for material items. Whereas before I just felt as though we were spending leisurely, I can now see that there are two sides to every story.