Business and Society Reflective Journal: Consumer Society Analysis

This reflective journal explores the concept of the affluent society, also known as a consumer society, where material benefits are abundant and individuals focus on lifestyle, image, and consumption. The author reflects on the consequences of consumerism, including the replacement of goods, increased unemployment, economic inequality, and environmental degradation. The journal highlights the negative implications of prioritizing materialistic benefits and the impact of globalization and technology. The author acknowledges the rat race to earn more and the loss of a peaceful life. The journal concludes by emphasizing the need for consumers to analyze their buying power and purchase goods of necessity rather than luxury, advocating for changes to mitigate the issues associated with consumer society and promote a more equitable and sustainable lifestyle.

Running head: Business and Society 1
Reflective Journal
Business & Society

Business and Society 2
Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Reflective Journal: The affluent society is a consumer society.......................................................2
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................3
References........................................................................................................................................4

Business and Society 3
Introduction
The affluent society is a society where there is no scarcity of the material benefits. The goods are
available in a wide range so that the individuals can have a feasible access to a prosperous
lifestyle (Black and Pemberton, 2017). In present time, the affluent society is also termed as a
consumer society. A consumer society can be explained as a society where there is rising
affluence, the key focus of the individuals is on construction of lifestyle, image building, and
presentation of individual identity, investing time of leisure activities, increased consumption
and having recognized social status (Baudrillard, 2016). With thorough readings, I have
identified that globalisation; consumerism and increased technology have resulted in increased
number of consumer societies.
Reflective Journal: The affluent society is a consumer society
There are several consequences which have occurred because of the continuous development of
the consumer societies. Just like most of the people, I also used to believe that if we have
enough purchasing or buying power then we must replace our goods and take use of innovating
and new technologies and goods. But gaining insights from the reading I really have a good
understanding of the various consequences of living in a consumer society and also its negative
implications for the future generations. In a consumer society, the older goods are replaced with
the newer ones. The consumers purchase the products, take use of those goods and then throw
them and then new goods are purchased by the consumers (Goodwin, Ackerman and Kiron,
2013). There can be have replacements and few modifications and those goods can be reused but
people have a good amount of money to purchase new products so they instead of taking use of
those goods just replace them with newer ones. All such aspects of a consumer society lead to
increased level of unemployment, depression and recession. In the consumer society the craving
for goods is increasing with a rapid rate and so the desire of the individuals. With the increased
income a level, the purchasing power of the consumers also keeps on improve and upsurge. It is
a rat race where people are striving hard to earn more and more and on the hand coping up with
the increased level of work related tensions and stress. I have also agree that people are losing

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their present and a peaceful life for achieving the materialistic benefits to have a more leisured
and luxurious lifestyle.
I also certainly believe in the cataphrase that in a consumer society, “The rich get richer and the
poor get poorer” (Yang, 2017).It is one of the most negative aspects of a consumer society that
there exists economic inequality which results in increased buying power of few of the
individuals and decreased living standards of few of the other segments of the society (Storper,
2010). The material wealth is now the key aspect that decides whether a society or a nation is
considered as highly developed or not. There is increased dependence upon the devices which
are labour saving as in homes people take use of automated machines and technologies for casual
work so atht they don’t have to invest their time in work harder for such non-leisure activities.
Such over dependence on the devices that are labour saving give rise to a more concrete form of
consumer society. The increased level of ecological imbalances is also one of the outcomes of
consumerism and consumer society as for attaining a more lavished lifestyle with huge number
of goods and services and this directly depletes the environment, weather and the natural habitat
and eventually increase the number of health issues and level of pollution (Autio and Heinonen,
2004). There are wide consequences in context with the work as people work to attain
materialistic benefits, comfort life, luxurious goods, high purchasing power and possession of
techno savvy gadgets. All such aspects of the consumer society force people to earn more and
more for maintaining their standard of living which affects both their health as well as the
personal associations (Firat, et al., 2013).
Conclusion
I had a great understanding of the negative consequences and implications of the increasing
number of consumer societies across the globe as every single action of the consumer society is
associated with its relative implication that affects the lives of other individuals too. The world is
more of a global nation where the consumption and actions of few individuals also have a
widening and in-depth impact for the people residing in other overseas regions. I have also
realized that, we as the consumers must analyse our buying power and must purchase goods of
necessity rather than buying goods for hiking up our living standards and possessing luxurious
lifestyle. By such small initiatives, there can be a big change in the societies and the issues

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associated with the development for consumer society can be declined and the individuals can
once again attained a more satisfactory and peaceful life with increased level of economic
equality.
References
Autio, M. and Heinonen, V., 2004. To consume or not to consume? Young people’s
environmentalism in the affluent Finnish society. Young, 12(2), pp.137-153.
Baudrillard, J., 2016. The consumer society: Myths and structures. Sage.
Black, L. and Pemberton, H., 2017. An Affluent Society?: Britain's Post-war'Golden
Age'Revisited. Routledge.
Firat, A., Kutucuoglu, K.Y., ArikanSaltik, I. and Ungel, O., 2013. Consumption, consumer
culture and consumer society. Journal of Community Positive Practices, 13(1), pp.182-203.
Goodwin, N.R., Ackerman, F. and Kiron, D. eds., 2013. The consumer society(Vol. 2). Island
Press.
Storper, M., 2000. Lived effects of the contemporary economy: globalization, inequality, and
consumer society. Public Culture, 12(2), pp.375-409.
Yang, Q., 2017. Interpreting gentrification in China: the rising consumer society and inequality
in the state-facilitated redevelopment of the central city of Chengdu (Doctoral dissertation,
University of British Columbia).