Consumer Fettishism

I found today’s discussion on capitalism very interesting. I have always accepted capitalism as the norm and had not really considered other alternatives, however, the idea that people serve capitalism instead of capitalism serving people is definitely worth thinking about. We discussed the negative effects of capitalism and profit-seeking on consumers, workers, the environment, animals, health, equality, and unemployment and via the Pollan readings and class discussions, it does seem that capitalism certainly influences all of the above. However, what is the most disturbing is what we talked about today, specifically what lies behind the products that we desire to fulfill our “needs.” This brings back an idea from Wheen’s discussion on Marxism and what Marx called “consumer fetishism.” The idea is that pure capitalism fails because it does not account for people’s extreme desire for commodities like the iPhone or iPod. When we consider the amount of labor, exploitation, and suffering that goes into making these products, do we really need these luxuries? Is it worth it? At first glance, the answer may be yes, they’re a lot of fun. I know that I personally own tons of things that I certainly don’t need. But when we consider the implicit cost of such items, especially of something like diamonds, the answer clearly should be “no.” At the risk of sounding cliché, our society has simply trained and convinced us to believe that we do need these things. The scary thing is that, while we may not know the human costs to items like clothing and corn, the horrors of the diamond trade have been public knowledge for years, yet we continue to desire them. The companies that exploit low wage workers argue that they do it to compete with their competitors, but the truth is that we as consumers control the fates of those workers.