Module 12 - Affluence Flashcards
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
