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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
This 3 page paper is a close reading of Peter Whybrow's article about American consumerism and the problems it causes. Whybrow argues that it is Adam Smith's theory of the free market – though in a perverted version – that drives the market economy.
Page Count:
3 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_HVWhybrw.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
ragged in the pursuit of material goods? We take fewer vacation days than anyone else on the planet; we talk a lot about how much we love our children but
spend as little time with them as possible; and we have allowed ourselves to become obsessed with stuff. We are working harder and longer, but more and more of us
are falling behind and getting deeper into debt, all to be able to afford the latest, largest, most with-it, most updated absolutely-have-to-have-it piece of technology / entertainment / whatever on
the market. Why have we succumbed to this madness to the point where some of us are getting physically ill, and most of us can only look forward to more
of the same? Whybrow writes that it doesnt really matter whether we call it "victimization" or "moral turpitude," our debt load "is symptomatic of a deeper problem. In an affluent
society such as the United States, it is not need but unbridled desire that drives debt" (Whybrow). We "crave" material things in a way that is almost frightening, and it
is this craving that we have to understand if we are to understand the desperation and frustration that mark American society today. Whybrows theory is that it goes back to
Adam Smith and his ideas of economics. Smiths theory of economics "is firmly grounded in the biology of human behavior" (Whybrow). Smith rationalized "human instinctual desire within the practical economic
framework of the marketplace" (Whybrow). Whybrows use of the word "rationalize" is interesting, for it suggests that Smith wasnt entirely comfortable tying the concept of instinct to that of economics,
and using that instinct as a justification for unbridled purchasing. Rationalization, as we know, is a psychological process in which we find reasons to do things that were not sure
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