What does affluence imply?
Affluence implies having the economic means to privately afford leisure time and luxury material consumption
- luxury in this case could be considered anything beyond basic subsistence
- affluence comes from the Latin verb ‘affluere’ = “to flow abundantly”
What 3 categories can we break time into?
Leisure, Sustenance, Work
What is Leisure Time?
Time spent not working and not engaged in sustenance activities
- as individuals and society, we face choices btw working more and taking more leisure time
- should rationally balance our work and leisure time to maximize utility
- each person will have a different relative value of leisure time vs working to support the consumption of goods and services
Industrial Revolution
- Average industrial working hours ~70hrs per week
- Workers earned only enough for a very meager existence
- Had very little leisure time
Early 1900s
- Through the 19th century and early 20th century workers movements (unions) pushed for an 8hr day and weekends off work
- Wages increased to allow for a comfortable living with these hrs
6 Hour Work Day
- With basic needs met, there was a continued union push in the 1920s for establishing a 6hr work day plus weekends
- During the great depression, the gov’t supported reduced working hrs to try to spread employment out
What was the general expectation for a 15-hour work week being sufficient?
Productivity increases = should have to work less
- ideas was that by the yr 2000 we would be down to a 15hr work week
Wait, 15 hour work week… What Happened?
- Preference
- Do you prefer to work more or do you prefer more leisure time - Early 20th century Working Classes and Consumption
- at this time members of the working class were modest consumers; culturally, this group emphasized thrift and modesty
- consumer goods available through department stores and mail order catalogues and consumption was growing at a modest rate as ppl were demonstrating a greater interest in reducing their time working - Government
- with a fairly closed economy, the federal gov and producers of the early 20th century worried that w/o increased demand the economy would stagnate
- both US gov and US corporations saw benefits in accelerating the growth of consumption
- progress being sold as being great
- gov wanted economic power - Corporations
- they want to grow and they want more revenue and profits = need ppl to buy more
What are 4 ways to accelerate consumer demand?
- Increase pay for working class, but push back against reduced working hours
- Improve access to credit
- Credit was very limited in early 1900s but took off in the 20th century
- A way to lock ppl into working more; increases productivity bc they have to work more to afford things - Planned Psychological and Physical Obsolescence
- Producers and retailers sought to shorten the psychological and physical lifespan of products
- It’s difficult to maintain demand with the approach of ‘lifetime’ products
- Repairability; historically ppl fix their stuff but now it is intentionally manufactured so they can’t or it is difficult - Advertising
Rise of mass media advertising
Radio and TV allowed advertisers access into the homes of the masses
- Became fundamental parts of everyday life in nearly every household and provided access directly to consumers in a way not possible in the past
Significant Overconsumption
Too much is being consumed (in aggregate) to be sustained leading to CATASTROPHE FOR SPECIES unless something changes
- this is where we are at today!
Misconsumption
Individual consumes in such a manner that it undermines THEIR OWN WELL-BEING (sub-optimal consumption). In most cases at present, it is ppl consuming more goods and services than they should (and working and/or going into debt more than they should).
Persuasion
A form of social influence. It is the process of guiding another person to changing their beliefs or preferences.
- Persuasion is INTENTIONAL ‘socialization’
High Cognitive Path of Persuasion vs. Low Cognitive Path of Persuasion
Change agents —> High Cognitive Persuasion —> Belief/Preference Change —> Behaviour Change
Change agents —> Low Cognitive Persuasion —> Belief/Preference Change —> Behaviour Change
High Cognition Persuasion
- Challenge old and new belief/preference (B/P) through comparing strengths/logic of argument
- Encourages high effort (high cognition) process by targeted individual to consider
- Change in B/P occurs when convinced by fact based argument overcome currently held B/P
Low Cognition Persuasion
When factors OTHER THAN logic of argument are used to persuade someone often taking advantage of our heuristics and our emotions. Such as:
- Emotional forms of engagement that disengage skepticism/mistrust using humour, fear, excitement, etc.
- Characteristics of the Messenger (authority, pop artists, influencers, etc)
- Taking advantage of our fears and hopes regarding ‘Social Identity’ and ‘status’; use something called ‘Descriptive Norm Messaging’ to define what is normal and desirable
Social/Self Identity and Consumption
- Decisions to make purchases are part of an attempt to find meaning, status, and identity (results in misconsumption)
- Such decisions are heavily influenced by the cultural environment (of which advertising is a part)
- Products are no longer sold by Advertises, instead lifestyles are sold, with products/brands acting as conduits to the lifestyle
What term did Veblen (1899) coin? What does it mean?
Conspicuous Consumption
- consumption that the primary intent is based upon a goal of gaining status
- he found that a large part of the expenditure of the wealthy classes was entirely focused on status
- this is a type of institution; rules and norms that have costs and benefits
- not just about being at the top of the status hierarchy, rather it is about fitting in and not falling in status; cruel game that pushes and rewards consumption
What is the problem with status seeking (maintaining and enhancing status)?
Status is a Zero Sum Game so at a societal level economical growth may be doing nothing to improve total ‘happiness’ and in fact may be reducing it through encouraging misconsumption and overconsumption
How are costs often ‘automatic’?
Just having a basic life in North America makes one a high consumer
- rent/mortgage
- utilities
- insurance
- child care
- cellphone
- car payments
What are the impacts of commercial marketing?
- Difficult to measure
- Appears to be supporting continuation and expansion of consumption based lifestyle/happiness
- Increasingly commodified world
What are the 2 forms of persuasion through advertising/marketing?
- Commercial Marketing: persuasion driven by industries that want you to consumer their product
- Social Marketing: persuasion by governments, NGOs, and others meant to change your behaviour to support the social good
What does Low Cognitive marketing mostly involve?
Injunctive Norm messaging
- Telling someone how they SHOULD behave
What is ‘descriptive norm messaging’?
An effort to ‘normalize’ good behaviour and denormalize the behaviour you are trying to stop. In others generating a sense that the ‘normal’ and/or desirable state is one which involves the promoted behaviour
- smoking is an area where this has been used a lot
- use humor, sex, celebrity etc. in the same way that commercial marketers do
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Module 1 - Introductory Cases25
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Module 2 - Growth, Capitalism, Modernity31
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Module 3 - Environmental Concerns15
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Module 4 - Growth and the Environment30
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Module 5 - Collective Action Problems and Institutions23
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Module 6 - Taxes and Subsidies29
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Module 7 - Cap and Trade16
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Module 8 - Law and the Environment22
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Module 9 - Transboundary Issues5
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Module 10 - Command and Control15
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Module 11 - Culture and Socialization25
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Module 12 - Affluence25
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Module 13 - Politics23
