What’s the problem with consumerism? Eight reasons.

8 April 2021

I find myself returning more and more to the theme of consumerism for a host of reasons. I think it’s one of the biggest challenges for individuals, communities, churches, nations and it is deeply insidious. Here are eight, off the top of my head reasons why I think it’s so deeply problematic.

1. It radically centres the individual over everything else.
We’ve bought into a dream that has ‘me’ as the hero. I’m the centre of the story and everyone else is an ‘extra’, if the hero isn’t happy – he can change the sidekick, dump the gang, find a new country, move to a new town, buy a new look and get some new gadgets. Everything is up for grabs as long as the hero is happy. Hmm. No place for loyalty, faithfulness, integrity, contentment, commitment in this story.¹

2. It believes beauty, meaning, purpose & happiness can be bought.
The challenge comes because consumerism is more than credit card debt and social inequality, it’s a false religion. It seeks to give people what they have always wanted – beauty, life, happiness, purity, contentment and belonging but always at a price. Thankfully the gospel makes a counter-offer, meeting the same needs much more abundantly and by gift of grace alone.²

3. It encourages indebtedness as a necessary part of the system.
Here’s Carl Trueman on the subject: “Economists know that a certain level of debt is good: it oils the wheels of the economy, fuels creativity, helps with social mobility, etc. But unsecured debt linked simply to purchasing can very quickly grow to a level where it is actually hindering all of those things. When the values of the culture link status to possessions, and when credit is easy to obtain, the recipe for bad debt is clear; and that, of course, is a large part of the economic problem, both macro and micro, with which we are facing today.”

4. It’s designed to only give temporary relief
The problem with this offer is that it is a message of law. If I choose this path then a whole new set of rules emerge because I must buy the right products, wear the right colours, have acceptable clothes to the people I want to be accepted by and I must spend more time at the gym. I must because my identity depends on it. I must make new sacrifices every year and the older I get the greater the sacrifices! In the end in my search for happiness and acceptance, I have become a slave to self worth through consumption.³

5. It fuels environmental damage & waste.
At the heart of much of the campaigning for change is the belief that our current way of living in developed nations is unsustainable, we simply can’t go on like this, goes the thinking. We buy too much, waste too much, need so little. This is mostly true. This is at the heart of consumerism.⁴

6. It actually stifles skill acquisition because we replace not repair.
“Fixing things draws you out of yourself, forcing you to think and to care for something. You cannot be self-absorbed and be a good repairman. When you’re done and the object is made or fixed, your competence is evident to the world. A difference has been made in physical reality, and your work is “meaningful because it is useful”.”⁵

7. It wastes design talent on cheap crap instead.
“Nothing here has value: not resources or the natural world, nor people and their skills, not even the trade transaction. There can be no pride in work well done. It’s an insult to all concerned. There is only waste, and everybody involved is a sucker.”⁶

8. It kills generosity by pushing giving to a marginal afterthought.
A church that becomes a consumer product, full of consumers will inevitably slow down in its nation-reaching, church-planting, leadership-raising, money-giving and poor-embracing mission because we will only give what time, money and energy we can spare after our comfort has been maintained.⁷

Looking for more on this theme? See the Simple Living resources page →