Examples Of Materialism In America

English 1301
October 3rd , 2013 Materialistic America Unfortunately, the American dream is becoming more and more materialistic. I guess it was always a bit materialistic, but when I look at America today, I see a nation obsessed with shopping and buying unnecessary products. Previously, people aspired to have a nice house in the suburbs with a couple of cars, the big SUV, the Costco member ship and the greener grass. Now, there is no end to the products that people want: the latest I Phone, expensive cars, and designer purses, the list is endless. The American dream revolves around luxury goods for most people. Shopping is not a problem on its own; it’s the obsessive accumulation of unnecessary products, along with the hope that
The mass produced items and in large bulk, for a low price have driven our quality of life down the drain. Wal-Mart’s are being built in small rural areas and running the “Mom & Pop” shops out of business. The small town and simple way of life is no more once a Wal-Mart moves into town. Fisher stated, “The public image Wal-Mart projects may be as cheery as its yellow smiley face mascot, but there is nothing genial about the process by which Wal-Mart gets its suppliers to provide tires and contact lenses, gun and underarm deodorant at everyday low prices. (Para
Is Wal-Mart eroding our quality of life? Wal-Mart is taking away American jobs to decrease inflation and send the jobs overseas for less than minimum wage. It’s almost to the point where were shopping ourselves out of a job, you can’t shop if your unemployed. The low prices are convent for low income shoppers, but in my opinion we wouldn’t have low income shoppers if we tried to create more jobs here in the U.S. , so why not start with Wal-Mart first? “Wal-Mart projected sales have taken a hit twice in the last 10 quarters, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The last time was four quarters ago.” (Para 9.) With Wal-Mart’s sales not doing as well as they expected it has put Wal-Mart in a financial insecurity with worries of what their future sales could be like within our economy at this moment in time. “The early arrival of holiday goods is throwing off shoppers such as Troy Hollar, who regularly shops at Wal-Mart. The biggest question I have is, how can they put out this stuff two months early and they can’t even have regular stuff out? Hollar said.” I personally started to scratch my head when I recently went into a Wal-Mart and saw Christmas items out on display, along with Thanksgiving and Halloween. I’m thinking to myself, well the only one their missing now, is New Years and chuckle to myself. I don’t know what the strategy behind that ordering and display was, but