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Consuming America:What Have We Done to Ourselves? What Did (Are) They Doing to Us?
George RitzerDistinguished University Professor
University of Maryland
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Three problems with Fordham symposium title “Consuming America: What Have We Done to
Ourselves?”
1-Consumption, production, “prosumption”
2-America in the “global age” (British more in debt; Dubai a consumer society)
3-What they had done to us
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What have we done to ourselves?
-Irrational exuberance-“Hyperconsumption”-“Hyperdebt”-Wrong kind of debt-Consumers got what they deserved-“We” do bear some of the responsibility-But, at least to some degree, “blaming the victim”
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What have they done to us?
Who are “they” (of course, in part, us)?
They created-shiny new financial tools -easy, even fraudulent, credit-marketing, advertising campaigns
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-managed great corporations into the ground-designed great cathedrals of consumption to lure us into
hyperconsumption-cheap products-extreme American capitalist system
… What have they done to us?
This leads us to buy things we don’t need or use
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Dupes?
“Dupes” versus “Kings”
-Consumers have some power, rationality (bounded)
-Consumer systems also have great power, resources
-Consumer Protection Agency (Elizabeth Warren)
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Role of US Government
Stimulate consumer spending
Great contradiction:Government concern over hyperconsumption, hyperdebt, but can’t accept slow-growing economy
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The “Evils” of Hyperconsumption: an Example
The “mall girls of Warsaw, Poland”
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The Cathedrals of Consumption as “Wienies”
-Disney-“wienies” (mountains, castles) to lead consumers where you want them to go
-Wide applicability (e.g., “fantasy cities”)
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Eiffel Tower (1,000 ft high)
1889 World’s Fair (“dream worlds”); Space needle from 1962 Seattle World’s Fair. Eiffel Tower tallest structure in world until:
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Chrysler Bldg, NYC, 1930
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Empire State Bldg, NYC (1250 ft)
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World Trade Center (taller than Empire State)
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Taipei 101 (1441 ft)
Shanghai World Financial Center (1555 ft)
Petronas Twin Towers (Kuala Lumpur, 1482 ft)
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Burj KhalifaWienie of all wienies
-2,717ft-160 stories-taller than Chrysler atop Empire State
Why? -plenty of desert -Dubai as fantasy city-lure -made necessary by huge investment
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Palm Islands
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The World
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Little invested in high culture (opera houses, museums, symphony halls), but lots in malls (another kind of wienie)
Dubai Mall (2008)-1200 shops, gold souk, aquarium (recently sprung a leak), ice rink
Mall of Emirates- 400 metre ski slope
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Ibn Battuta Mall-themed a la Disney Wafi Mall-pyramid (a la Luxor in Vegas)Mercato Mall-simulated architecture,
themes
Planned (delayed) Dubailand- 107 square miles, 6 themed worlds, 2x as large as all Disney lands/worlds
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Las Vegas
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Modern Cruise Shipswienies not because of height, but sheer massiveness
Royal Caribbean “Oasis of the Seas”
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Why?-Baran and Sweezy’s monopoly capital
-price to sales competition-sales -spectacular cathedrals, landscapes of consumption-large numbers of consumers, hyperconsumers, hyperdebt
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From Cathedrals to Dinosaurs of Consumption (Who are the wienies Now?)
Dinosaurs- extinct; possibility of extinction-“sickly symbols of a bankrupt era, way of life”
Shibuya Crossing, Tokyo
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International City, Dubai
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Echelon, Las Vegas, 3 towers halted mid-construction
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Fontainebleau, Las Vegas, bankrupt, on hold
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Future of Cosmopolitan, City Center ($11 billion; most expensive private construction project in US history)
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Lake Las Vegas-bankrupt in 2008; Ritz Carlton bankrupt, to close in May, 2010; Casino Montelago closed in March 2010; golf courses in foreclosure, mall nearly empty
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Malls - Randall Park Mall (Outside Cleveland) closed in 2009
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Malls - deadmalls.com
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Xanadu
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“Oasis of the Sea”“a dinosaur- a floating emblem of a bankrupt era”
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What are “Our” (US) options? a-Return to an agricultural age?
b-Return to an industrial age?
c-(Return to) the age of services?
d-Back to consumption?
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A Likely Future Scenario:
a-Our global economic position after WW II (production) and after 1950s (consumption) -both unsustainable
b-Adapt to a relatively smaller economyc-Global redistribution of wealth d-Global economic equality is welcome (easy for
me to say)e-New inequalities are arising
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Hope?
a-Creative Destruction
b-Comparative advantages of the US