A person’s success is gauged by how high he climbs on the social, professional, and economic ladders. In other words, with success being relative to that of others, a person succeeds by way of others’ shortcomings. For many people, achievements translate into material possessions exclusively available to those who’ve earned them. First impressions are often based on a person’s superficial achievements, in other words, a person’s tangible assets. People constantly compete against each other, every individual vying for the prize of fame and fortune, the american dream. At present, the american education system is flawed in its predisposition to favor the wealthy. Recent economic conditions have caused severe budget cuts within the public school system.

Birth Order And Personality Essay

Students without the means to attend private school are oftentimes subject to an inferior education. Even with the prospect of scholarships, a student able to pay his way through school is more likely to be accepted into a school depending on paid tuition. A tried and true example of such is the donation and legacy system practiced in the most highly esteemed private colleges. If two applicants to a college demonstrate the same standard of academic ability, the so called legacy student or student whose family donates a wing to said college will be favored over the student in need of a full scholarship. The social ladder is widely accepted due to the idealistic prospect of upward mobility.

Unfortunately, it’s becoming nearly impossible for those starting with a financial handicap to catch up. Our writers can help get your essay back on track, take a look at our services to learn more about how we can help. Essay writing service essay marking service place an order consumerism is not just an issue that has come about in this new age and modern time it has been around for decades. For the most part, we only become aware of consumption when it is a problem, when there is environmental degradation caused by the production of goods in excess and more than we can consume.

To understand this social phenomenon we must first understand the social and historical context of a consumer society. Objects resemble a social status or go further than that and have an emotional attachment with ones self. Goods are not only consumed for there material characteristics, but even more for what they symbolize there meanings, associations and there involvement in our self image. It is quite likely that never before in history has consumption become one of the central values of a culture.

In modern society one learns merely to consume, and tasteful or appropriate consumption is only one of the numerous choices. It is this focus on consumption as a central worth that makes us a consumer culture. Consumption no longer seems to reflect our cultural values it has itself become a cultural value. Every public space, every occasion for public gathering, every creative expression is seen as an opportunity to encourage more consumption.

To understand how we have become this consumer crazy culture it is important to understand the humble beginnings of this crazy fixation. Before the industrial revolution of the eighteenth century, what people consumed was, either goods mad by family members or a person the consumer has a personal relation with. In early europe the form consumerism took place in the weekly markets and seasonal fairs.

Unlike in europe, where markets and fairs preceded the development of shops, in america shops emerged as the customary way of buying and selling in its early colonial period. It was not until the eighteenth century that markets and fairs became popular in the united states. Fashion not only includes clothing, but also any object where there is a concern for what is different, new and improved and which allows us to express our individuality. Fashion is so central to modern day consumption that it is difficult to imagine a culture in which it is not a major force. People throughout time have always been interested in the beautiful or in signs of status and in the pursuit of anything that brings them pleasure or happiness.

It was during the last quarter of the sixteenth century in england that consumption first took off amongst the european nobility. First, queen elizabeth the first used the dramatic spectacle of fashion as a display of government power. Second, she forced social competition among the nobility by removing them from their locality where they were clearly superior and forcing them to attend the london court where they had to compete with equals. Previously consumption had always been a family matter and what benefited the family the most.

But now elizabethan noblemen began to spend less on their families and more on themselves to further show there class and status. He had this new understanding of fashion and the market place.â wedgewood was a manufacturer and retailer of pottery in the eighteenth century. He was the first to recognize that if the rich and elite could be induced to adopt fashions, the other classes would follow soon. There are only certain societies where it is possible for a fashion to spread to the higher class to the lower class. Fashion has to be affordable for those in the lower class and the classes must be close enough with some fluidity between them that those in the lower class could imagine themselves owing what those in the upper class have.

In england during this period the lower class was eager to possess whatever the upper class deemed fashionable. Wedgewood understood the immense financial potential of such a social situation and learnt how he could control it. Wedgewood learned to closely observe what the upper class was buying in order to predict what direction the lower class consumption habits would follow through. Who wrote this essay request removal example essays another factor adding to the consumer culture is the portrayal of this culture. In the united states consumption spurred as a symbol for rebellion rather than a symbol a homogeneous conformity.

Schutte and ciarlante describe coca cola, levis and marlboro as symbols of individualism and freedom. Three phrases from stuart and elizabeth ewens channels of desire 1982 which they see as indicative of the recent tendencies within consumer culture describe it best. Everyone can be anyone.' this suggests there is a war against uniformity, a surplus of difference which results in a loss of meaning.

The repercussion is that we are moving towards a society without fixed status groups in which the adoption of styles of life which are fixed to specific groups have been surpassed. We have been encouraged to buy in order to establish our individuality in a mass produced culture. To express our disgust with consumption by more consumption, to purchase the latest improved traditions. Now people are encouraged to buy to convey their rejection of homogenized lifestyles. Technology would have cured most human short comings, and there would be abundance of resources available for all.