Speaker sir, there is no direct connection between consumerism and corruption. Instead I can say that consumerism can stop corruption to some extent. For example, whatever we buy, there is a little tax hidden in the price of the item. Hadn't there been no consumerism, sale of items would drop drastically and thus government would turn to other illegal corrupt ways to earn money. But thanks to consumerism, the government gets enough money for the welfare of the nation. Nowadays, we can see many vendors of the same product offering products with greater features at lower rates. Also as more and more vendors come up in the market, employment also rises and automatically reduces corruption. This was only possible because of consumerism. Otherwise, we would have a fixed choice of every product unlike the variety today and also there would be employment problem more than what it is today. The rising consumerism in India has led to the passing of the consumers protection act 1986 which guarantees the rights of the consumers and indirectly also fights against corruption. There is countless more ways in which consumerism actually helps in fighting corruption. I think these examples are more than enough to change your mind about consumerism leading to corruption.
Corruption is actually a mindset among us which was there in us since untold ages. Nobody taught them one fine day to cheat on others for own benefit. So if some corrupt seller cheats on customers, it doesn't mean that because of consumerism corruption is increasing in our society. It would be like saying education system is promoting corruption just because some students cheat in exams. In the end, I would like to conclude my speech saying that consumerism doesn't lead to corruption, but the corruption exists deep in the mind of individual itself.
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