If I had to decide for an idea that would describe modern civilizations, it would not be Capitalism, nor Communism, Christianity, Islamism or any other religion or ideology, but there is a feature that is present, almost in a totally homogenized way across the globe, and that is, according to me, consumerism.
Consumerism seems to be found in every corner of the planet, it does not matter if you are in a very developed place in the West; such as the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia or New Zealand; or if you are in China, Africa or Latin America, regardless of the religion that is practiced and the political-economic model you have, an element invariably present, it seems to be; consumerism.
Even in the poorest countries people change an iPhone 5 for an iPhone 6, and although this behavior is more common in the richest countries, because they have greater economic facilities, in the poorest countries those who have an economic advantage above their compatriots they quickly imitate the behavior of the inhabitants of the rich countries, that is, they turn almost completely to consumerism.
We all need a bigger internal memory, a better camera, a battery of longer duration, and all those features that the new model of the latest electronic device available on the market gives us.
The economy works, on the one hand, under the parameters that consumers define, and on the other hand, under the parameters determined by politicians and large industrialists. All together in a collective effort to produce and consume more.
This behavior, in the first instance, seems quite logical from the economic point of view, what separates the developed nations with respect to the poorest nations is precisely their productive capacity. Now, the issue to be addressed is whether this collective behavior, and whether "wealth", in these terms, is really desirable.
Consumerism can't make any people rich, on the contrary, impoverishes it. This is simply the fundamental principle of the economy; supply and demand. Consumption increases demand, and if this demand is made up of the vast majority of the population, the fact that people want more, only makes them poorer.
In the modern economy, consumer behavior makes large companies earn a lot of money, and this, in turn, makes them invest in renewing their product by making small improvements, in this way, advances are achieved, but also, other two things that are not taken very much into account.
First, the fact that most people have a consumer behavior makes life more expensive. In poorer countries, that is, where there are fewer material goods available for consumption, this becomes more evident than in rich countries. In these poor countries there is always, as I said, a class of economically advantaged people with respect to the rest of the population, they can afford to maintain a lifestyle similar to that of people in rich countries, but at a lower cost, because they take advantage, consciously or unconsciously, of the economic conditions that a poor country provides to people with their opportunities. In poor countries you can always find material goods at a lower cost, and this is mainly due to lower demand because there is less consumption.
The rich of the poor countries live with the same luxuries as the rich of the rich countries, they drive sports cars and they have mansions, only that some pay more than others to obtain exactly the same or more. With the same amount of money that a millionaire can buy a large house with many amenities in the United States or Europe, in South America or Africa he could probably buy double.
The problem, generally, is that the rich find it very annoying having to coexist with poverty, however, this problem is always solved by creating small urbanisms and "special economic zones" that act like a bubble. The rich of the poor countries only spend the money in these special zones, that is, in a certain number of businesses, luxury restaurants, shopping centers, and other similar places, which, of course, belong to themselves.
The prices in these places are always higher than in the rest of the country, high enough to keep the rest of society away from that area, but low enough to maintain the cost at a much lower price than the one It finds in the rich countries, in such a way, that they take advantage of obtaining low prices at national level, thanks to the little consumption of the population in comparison with developed nations, but in turn, to be able to develop their life in a consumerist way in a circle closed, we see how it develops more that area where they spend their money compared to areas where people with less money and less consumption spend theirs.
Secondly, we must bear in mind that if consumption increases and resources run out, it is easy to determine that we are becoming poorer and not richer. If you carry out a process of deforestation, you only change trees from their organic state by tree derivatives in their inorganic state, and excepting the decrease in oxygen supply, the material "wealth" remains the same, however, once consumed the tree in its inorganic state, it is impossible to say that we have become richer than when it was, together with others, forming a forest.
The same happens with oil and all non-renewable resources, they are consumed until exhaustion, not to mention that consuming and transforming these resources leads, at present, to a high level of contamination of the rest of the ecosystem.
With all this on the table, it is very difficult to say that the consumer society can make us richer, even when it stimulates industry and the economy. Hence, it is richer, not who has more, but who needs less.
Wealth, then, varies according to the conception we have of it, and today, under the parameters and concepts of the consumer society, wealth is all that is available to consume. If you have a sea full of fish, but you don't fish, you are considered poor, but instead, if you have a sea that is polluted and overfished, you are considered quite rich.
The possibilities offered by having a healthy ecosystem, a sea to swim, surf, or sail, a field to explore or camp, a clean air to breathe, are supplanted by the possibilities of being able to consume.
In such a way that it is necessary to ask ourselves, in the first instance, if the consumer society is correct, if it is moral, and if it makes us truly rich, and in the second instance, if it is physically viable.
