[microsound] society of debt

[Kim Cascone <kim@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> I'm personally curious how companies use marketing to perpetuate the
> 'society of debt,' which encourages all walks of life in the United
> States to relinquish financial freedoms in the 'interest' of acquiring
> loans to pay for goods that they cannot immediately afford (no pun
> intended).
yes this is a very interesting topic
in a nutshell:
during WWII the engines of production had been running full blast
it was the first time since the depression that the US had been  
producing at that level
but of course most of the goods we were producing were going to the  
war effort:
bombs, planes, uniforms, bullets, guns, walkie-talkies, etc.
were all being produced by a machine that had not existed before
this was the birth of the US military-industrial complex
companies had gotten fat off the war
and once it was over and
the soldiers came back home from the war
they needed to work
so factories were retooled for producing consumer goods
which had to produce x amount to be profitable
so we 'rebuilt' Europe and opened those markets to american goods
but in order to keep the home fires burning
we also needed to open US markets as well
so the automobile was marketed heavily and sold as part of the  
american dream
as well as appliances for stay-at-home moms raising the kids
being born after WWII
this was called the 'baby boom'
problem was americans weren't consuming as much as corporations  
needed them to
so the credit card was introduced
the first 'general purpose' credit or charge card in the US was the  
Diners Club card -- introduced in 1950

check out a good documentary here:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/credit/view/

so americans could now consume more than they produced
in other words: they were able to buy more than their salaries would  
allow them to
and we have been on a steadily rising curve of consumption
we consume way more than we produce
and in order to sustain this
we are in debt
massive debt
as a nation and as a society
and marketing greases the engine of consumer debt
by making us believe that we need more than we actually do
which is a waste of resources and contributes to global warming

another good documentary:
http://www.endofsuburbia.com/


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