Need help correct essay on money spending

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Hello everybody i'm new here but i have been monitering this site for a while. It's very informative and helpful = ). I wanted to post here and ask you guys on helping me to correct my essay.

-In this essay, im supposed to take a stand on what causes our culture's seeming "obsession" with accumulating wealth and possessions. im supposed to make a causal argument (analyze in depth what causes a trend, event, or phenomenon) regarding wealth, money, materialism and / or success in our culture.

-im sorta talk about how the "obsession" is caused.. like a trend. and im not supposed to talk about the obvious but sorta the underlying theme to whats causing us to buy more.

Without further a do here ya go, any comments/reviews/grammer errors and suggestions would be greatly appreciated thanks

Title: Obsession

Money and success in the U.S. plays a huge role in the way people splurge their income on materialistic “stuff”. In order to splurge, one has to earn a sufficient amount of money to buy the “stuff” they want. The more money one earns and possesses, the more “stuff” one can buy, and eventually that “stuff” becomes useless or unwanted. Soon enough, new “stuff” is bought so that one is temporarily satisfied of being trendy, and not old fashioned with the old “stuff”. The cycle is continuous. In the end, some people go into credit card debt and acquire an “empty” sensation, the feeling that their lives were more content when they didn’t have much. The materialistic “stuff” surrounding us everyday is influenced on us by the people we know, advertisements, and social status.

People in today’s society feel discontent of themselves and turn towards materialistic “stuff” to put up a front to show others who they are. For me, high school was the turning point in which friends were made for what they possessed. Not for true friendship qualities, such as being trustworthy, loyal, and caring. Instead, friends are made by judging one another by the way they dress, the way they look, and the people they hang out with, all are factors in their social status. This social status leads to cliques, which then categorizes students to be either cool or not cool. Eventually, the students at school are seen in groups: the kids with the latest clothing brands and those that don’t have the latest clothing brands. Students are constantly buying to have the latest pair of Nike shoes, the coolest looking North Face backpack, and the latest line of clothes at their favorite brand name department store. Those students who can drive beg their parents to buy them the newest model car. Every student obsesses and competes with one another under social pressures to strive to get the latest of everything. Everyone wants to be part of the crowd and that is how they are judged. No one wants to be inferior, they are not satisfied until they have everything, and when they have everything they thirst for more. The cycle never ends. A quote from Aeschylus, “It is in the character of very few men to honor without envy a friend who has prospered.”

High school and work places are great places for advertisers to advertise there product. In high school, it seemed as though everyone had the same pair of shoes, the same style of clothing, the same backpack, but in a different color and so on. Usually when one or two people have the same product and people like it; sooner or later, mostly everyone will have the same exact product whether they bought it when it first came out or on sale. Teenagers grow old to become adults, and yet the same pattern continues on into adulthood. Adults like teenagers, look at other adults their age and compare their materials to see who has the best, but the fight never ends it continues. However, adults buy more costly materials such as houses, cars, food, and etc. One thing that is the same, advertisers target every age group through television commercials, billboard advertisements on the freeway, and newspaper articles. Through the different tactics advertisers use to address buyers to buy their products; eventually, the buyers will advertise their products by showing off to friends and strangers to buy the exact same product because they also like it and they see other people with it. As long as the advertisers are able to advertise to a certain group of people, their work is done. The buyers are then advertising for the advertisers. People keep buying because they see others with materials that they like, so in return the seers buy because they see others with it. This cycle keeps on going.

Credit cards are our enemies. Practically everyone in the U.S. owns a credit card or even a few credit cards. Often times we buy things unconsciously of how much we have in our bank accounts. Sometimes we may not have enough money in our bank accounts so we depend on the government to help reassure us that it is ok to keep on spending. We keep swiping and swiping thinking that we are continuously given free money, that is until our monthly statements becomes so overwhelming that we can only afford to pay the minimum monthly payment. Since we are only able to pay the minimum, the credit card company charges us for not paying in full, therefore the interest rates increase the amount that has already been charged against us and we as a nation are boggled down with debt. As Spike Milligan puts it, “Money can't buy you happiness but it does bring you a more pleasant form of misery.”

In this nation, people are constantly obsessing for more materialistic “stuff” that will eventually cause us all misery. On a daily basis, we interact with family, friends, and strangers, and are constantly on a prowl in search for better and more things to buy than what someone else already has. We are not sufficient with the materials that suit our needs, but instead we dig a deeper hole to acquire the materials that we want and are excess. This excess material causes us to have a more distant relationship with our family and friends, a more stressful life, and a huge problem with our finances. In the end, is it worth it all just for the extra few bucks to buy that same item the neighbor or friend already has, but even better? Family and friends should always come first before our greed of always wanting more.

Guest · Accepted Answer

Perhaps this short essay could help you

Does increasing income guarantee happiness?
Productivity in US has more than doubled since 1948. Employers pay workers their productivity dividend in higher wages. Increasing income from increasing productivity has influenced US society, but has lasting satisfaction resulted for most Americans? Juliet Schor claims that American workers cannot choose to receive their productivity dividend as leisure time whereas counterparts in Europe do. Americans are time poor, that overwork strains the social fabric and that the work spend cycle fuelling consumerism threatens ecological sustainability.

With electronic transfer of funds and credit, Consumer goods and services are available on impulse. Shopping malls, the telephone & Internet deliver instant gratification that condition the consumer behaviors that underpin the work and spend cycle. This cycle helps to structure the consumer’s time and defines social norms. Keeping up with the Joneses is a ‘game’ as defined in terms of transactional analysis (referring to ‘Games People Play’ by Eric Berne). People’s deepest psychological needs are affected & effected through consumerism. Unfortunately, immediate gratification of consumer wants comes at a terrible cost; it is the quality of ‘happiness’ that Aldus Huxley forebodes in Brave New World.

Manufacturers ‘target American consumers aggressively. Ad campaigns introduced as early as the 1920s manipulated American’s deepest desires and fears to influence discretionary spending. But, if consumerism doesn’t deliver contentment, then why doesn’t the American system correct itself. Significant factors include: the decline of unions (which fought for reduced work days earlier in this century); a consumer-oriented society in which workers take on additional overtime to pay for a material lifestyle fed by abundant credit; and the fact that employers seeking to increase revenues can reduce their labor costs by asking their employees to work overtime rather than hire additional workers - automation and downsizing increases the workload on remaining workers after each round of cost-cutting. Consumerism in US is a vicious cycle.

Zz · Answer

High school essay? How much time do you have to finish it? If you can find this book in the library, you’ll find many of the causes for US consumerism explained clearly.

The Overworked American: the Unexpected Decline of Leisure (1993),
by Juliet B. Schor, a Harvard University economist.

It would be easy to structure an essay around these significant points

1 Obsession because leisure time is sacrificed for more money
2 vicious circle because consumers cannot choose leisure over a money reward;
credit is abundant
3 consumers are aggressively targeted by advertisers, since 1920s in USA
4 ‘keeping up with the Joneses’ is a national obsession. The American dream fashions behaviours. Women in the home fill in extra hours and take household budgets to the limit to keep up with a desirable standard of living.

5 unions in USA have become less effective than unions in Europe
6 workers in USA given the choice to work fewer hours fill in free time by finding a second job

All covered in Schor’s book. My list isn’t reliable. Hopefully it could help you see a bigger
picture or at least focus on some key issues.

Guest · Answer

Here are another two short essays covering the same ground.

Juliet Schor challenges the consensus view that, in US, capitalism has delivered increased leisure. “Every time productivity increases, we are presented with the possibility of either more free time or more money. That's the productivity dividend”. US employers prefer to pay employees for long hours rather than translate productivity increases into free Time. The US worker therefore has less opportunity than European workers for choosing one or other of the productivity dividends. With limited options, the US employee is not as happy as her European counterpart.

Schor finds a connection between overwork and consumerism. She argues that The consumerist life style can not create lasting satisfaction; that the consumer may not be aware that she derives her happiness from relative status, i.e., competing with the Joneses; that the quest for relative standing requires the employee to seek increasing income; and that many Americans find themselves overworking to pay off major loans and credit charges for years.

Schor’s critics wondered how Americans could be overworked when the labor force is increasingly composed of temps, contingent workers, and involuntary part-timers. Others challenged Schor's data and her diagnosis of overwork.

In conclusion, Schor states that the work and spend cycle causes time poverty and is straining the social fabric. Furthermore, escalating consumerism threatens environmental balance. For these reasons, it is clear that increasing income and the work and spend cycle it feeds, needs to be reviewed by government and academics so that the US economy may create wealth and happiness for the majority.

Model essay 2

Discuss whether it is true that increasing income guarantees happiness.

Americans are not happier today than in the past even though productivity in US has more than doubled since 1948. Employers pay workers their productivity dividend in higher wages. Increasing income from increasing productivity has influenced US society but has lasting satisfaction resulted for most Americans?

Juliet Schor claims that American workers cannot choose to receive their productivity dividend as leisure time whereas counterparts in Europe do. Americans are time poor, that overwork strains the social fabric and that the work spend cycle fuelling consumerism threatens ecological sustainability.

Goods and services are available on impulse to credit-rich consumers. Instant gratification reinforces and conditions the behaviors that underpin the work and spend cycle. This cycle helps to structure the consumer’s time and defines social norms. Keeping up with the Joneses is a ‘game’ as defined in terms of the school of transactional analysis founded by Eric Berne.

Americans’ deepest psychological needs are manipulated through consumerism. Ad campaigns introduced as early as the 1920s manipulated consumers’ deepest desires and fears to influence discretionary spending. If consumerism doesn’t deliver contentment, then why doesn’t the American system correct itself? Significant factors include: the decline of unions; a consumer-oriented society in which workers take on additional overtime to pay for a material lifestyle fed by abundant credit; and the fact that employers seeking to increase revenues can reduce their labor costs by asking their employees to work overtime rather than hire additional workers - automation and downsizing increases the workload on remaining workers after each round of cost-cutting.

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