Judith Lichtenberg: Consuming Because Others Consume (=CBOC)
MAIN POINTS
- Often people consume, because others consume
- An example of the relativity of consumption
- Usually assumed to be bad, but it needn't be
- Often it is reasonable and respectable and ethical to consume
when others do
- Because people consume because others do, reductions in
consumption if done generally needn't involve sacrifice
- Why considered bad to consume because others do?
- "Keeping up with the Jones"
- Engaging in conspicuous consumption
- Competition to outdo others in consumption
- Trying to get superior status by what you consume
- Show you are better than others
- Judging others by their material possessions, what they consume,
is considered shallow
- We care too much about what others think of us
- We assess our own worth solely or mainly in terms of what
others think of us and this is a mistake
- Suggests that people have vices (bad character traits): Sheep-like, shallow, greedy, envious
- Examples?
EXAMPLES AND REASONS SHOWING THAT CBOC NEED NOT
BE IRRATIONAL OR MORALLY INAPPROPRIATE
- One: Many needs are contextual/relative and so what one needs
depends on what others are doing (consuming)
- We often think of human needs as absolute
- A need is a need independent of context
- Basic biological needs seem absolute; e.g., caloric intake
- Even here context can matter (e.g., amount of physical
activity required)
- Often needs are contextual
- Busses/car examples: A car in the suburbs is a need, but not a need in
a city, a traditional agricultural society, or where there is good public
transportation
- If others take busses there will be busses and less need for cars; if
no bus system exists, people will have to use cars
- So desire for a car dependent on what others do
- If everyone else has a car you must too
- Not a function of greed, envy, desire for status, or even
convenience
- Two: Entrenchment of new: How new "luxury" goods become
more like needs
- E-mail: At first a luxury, now a necessity
- If many have it and you don't you become worse off relatively by
being isolated from the information that others have
- Answering machines
- When people own these, makes sense to ask someone to call a
dozen people
- Person w/o machine makes caller work harder and likely will not
be reached at all; puts you at a severe disadvantage
- Businesses without machines have frustrated callers and go out of
business
- Three: Salience (acquaintance breeds desire)
- When others have things, you become more aware of them, and
more likely to want/buy them, as now notice their value
- Perfectly respectable process of acquiring desire
- Advertising that does this is not manipulative
- Four: Consumption as a means to self-respect
- Having certain consumer goods can be a communication to
others that we are as good as they, or at least not worse than them
- Could say that you shouldn't care what others think
- But we do
- And it is not irrational to care about what others think about
us or to want respect from others
- Someone who did not care at all about what others thought
of them might have psychological problems
- CBOC is not necessarily bad if reason is seeking equality rather than
superiority over others
- Still isn't it unfortunate that how others think about us depends on
what we consume?
- It depends: If a person consumes a twelve pack of beer, doesn't
that seem relevant to our perception of them? What we consume
often expresses our values.
- Five: Consumption as a means of communication to others
information about ourselves
- Lawyer who drives a fancy car gives the impression that she is
doing well (winning big settlements and so can afford a fancy
car) and thus you might want to hire her.
- Contractor with a big truck or a VW beetle?
- Juliet Schor wears organic cotton, fair trade clothing in part to
communicate her values to others.
- LICHTENBERG'S DEFENSE OF CONSUMING BECAUSE
OTHERS CONSUME IS COMPATIBLE WITH AND SUPPORTS
THE IDEA THAT WE ALL WOULD BE BETTER OFF IF WE
CONSUMED LESS
- Changing our consumption patterns/habits if done collectively may be
less traumatic than those of us who are used to a certain level of
material comfort suppose.
- Because we CBOC, reductions in consumption if done generally
needn't involve sacrifice
- To extent that people consume because others do, we could
consume less and if others did too, there might not be a loss in
well being
- If consumption relation and well-being relative, then prospects
for reducing consumption w/o loss of well being are improved
- Thus worries about asking people to consume less for
environmental or social justice reasons are exaggerated