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Information about Economic Materialism

This article addresses materialism in the economic sense of the word. For information on the philosophical and scientific meanings, see materialism.


Materialism refers to how a person or group chooses to spend their resources, particularly money and time. Literally, a materialist is a person for whom collecting material goods is an important priority. In common use, the word more specifically refers to a person who primarily pursues wealth and luxury. Sometimes such a person displays conspicuous consumption.

Many believe that a "considered" and "realistic" form of materialism leads to economic behaviors supporting a sustainable community. For example, recycling, thrift shops, garage sales, and the like are materialistic in that they show respect for real resources, rather than just throwing them out. Furthermore, a person, in spirit, cannot own his possessions or tools; an attitude of stewardship toward them engenders conditions for mental health.

Opposition

Opposition to economic materialism comes from two sources, religion and social activism. Many religions oppose materialism because of the belief that it interferes with spirituality and the divine, or that it leads to an immoral lifestyle. Some social activists believe that materialism is often a source of societal ills such as war, crime, poverty, oppression and genocide. A main concern is that materialism is unable to offer a proper for human existence.

“Young people see artifacts as providing a means of expressing individual and group identities” (Taylor, 2000, 3) .

“They are the ones most susceptible to advertising and promotion and most interested in new products” (Goldberg, 2003, 285) . (See neophilia.)

See also

External links

materialism is that form of physicalism which holds that the only thing that can truly be said to exist is matter; that fundamentally, all things are composed of material and all phenomena are the result of material interactions; that matter is the only substance.
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In economics, factors of production are resources used in the production of goods and services, including land, labor, and capital.

Land, labor, and capital

Resource in economics distinguish among such factors of production as:

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Money is any token or other object that functions as a medium of exchange that is socially and legally accepted in payment for goods and services and in settlement of debts.
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time.

One view is that time is part of the fundamental structure of the universe, a dimension in which events occur in sequence, and time itself is something that can be measured.
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Conspicuous consumption is a term used to describe the lavish spending on goods and services that are acquired mainly for the purpose of displaying income or wealth. In the mind of a conspicuous consumer, such display serves as a means of attaining or maintaining social status.
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Sustainability is a characteristic of a process or state that can be maintained at a certain level indefinitely. The term, in its environmental usage, refers to the potential longevity of vital human ecological support systems, such as the planet's climatic system, systems of
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Recycling is the reprocessing of materials into new products. Recycling generally prevents the waste of potentially useful materials, reduces the consumption of raw materials and reduces energy usage, and hence greenhouse gas emissions, compared to virgin production.
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charity shop, second-hand store (U.K.), thrift shop, thrift store, hospice shop (U.S., Canada), resale shop (when not meaning consignment shop (U.S.)), or op shop (Australia/N.Z.
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garage sale, also called a "yard sale", "tag sale", "attic sale", "moving sale", or "junk sale", is an informal, irregularly scheduled event for the sale of used goods by private individuals, in which "block sales" are allowed, so that people don't have to obtain business licenses
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Stewardship is personal responsibility for taking care of another person's property or financial affairs. Historically, stewardship was the responsibility given household servants to bring food and drinks to a big castle dining hall.
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Mental health is a term used to describe either a level of cognitive or emotional wellbeing or an absence of a mental disorder.[1][2] From perspectives of the discipline of positive psychology or holism mental health may include an individual's ability
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religion is a set of common beliefs and practices generally held by a group of people, often codified as prayer, ritual, and religious law. Religion also encompasses ancestral or cultural traditions, writings, history, and mythology, as well as personal faith and mystic experience.
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Activism, in a general sense, can be described as intentional action to bring about social or political change. This action is in support of, or opposition to, one side of an often controversial argument.
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Spirituality, in a narrow sense, concerns itself with matters of the spirit. The spiritual, involving (as it may) perceived non-physical eternal verities (or even abilities) involving humankind's ultimate nature, often contrasts with the earthly, with the material, or with the
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Divinity and divine (sometimes 'the Divinity' or 'the Divine'), are broadly applied but loosely defined terms, used variously within different faiths and belief systems — and even by different individuals within a given faith — to refer to some transcendent or
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Morality (from the Latin moralitas "manner, character, proper behaviour") has three principal meanings. In its first descriptive usage, morality means a code of conduct held to be authoritative in matters of right and wrong,
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WAR is a three-letter abbreviation with multiple meanings, as described below:
  • War
  • War (band)
  • War (film), a 2007 movie starring Jet Li and Jason Statham
  • Warrenton Railroad (AAR reporting marks WAR)
  • WAR, a Japanese professional wrestling promotion

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The word crime comes from the Latin crimen (genitive criminis), from the Latin root cernō and Greek κρινω = "I judge". Originally it meant "charge (in law), guilt, accusation.
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Oppression is the negative outcome experienced by people targeted by the cruel exercise of power in a society or social group. It is particularly closely associated with nationalism and derived social systems, wherein identity is built by antagonism to the other.
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Genocide is the deliberate and systematic destruction of an ethnic, religious or national group. While precise definition varies among genocide scholars, the legal definition is found in the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide
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Cultural identity is the (feeling of) identity of a group or culture, or of an individual as far as he is influenced by his belonging to a group or culture. Cultural identity is similar to and has overlaps with, but is not synonymous with, identity politics.
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Neophilia is defined as a love of novelty and new things. A neophile is an individual who is unusually accepting of new things and excited by novelty.

The word has particular significance in Internet and hacker culture.
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Consumerism is the equating of personal happiness with the purchasing of material possessions and consumption. It is often associated with criticisms of consumption starting with Karl Marx and Thorstein Veblen.
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Cultural Creatives is a term coined by sociologist Paul H. Ray and psychologist Sherry Ruth Anderson to describe a large segment in Western society that has recently developed beyond the standard paradigm of Modernists versus Traditionalists or Conservatists.
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gambling has had many different meanings depending on the cultural and historical context in which it is used. Currently, in Western societies, it has an economic definition, referring to "wagering money or something of material value on an event with an uncertain outcome with the
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wargame is a game that simulates or represents a military operation. Wargaming is the hobby dedicated to the play of such games, which are also called conflict simulations.
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simulation is an imitation of some real thing, state of affairs, or process. The act of simulating something generally entails representing certain key characteristics or behaviours of a selected physical or abstract system.
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economy is the system of human activities related to the production, distribution, exchange, and consumption of goods and services of a country or other area.

The composition of a given economy is inseparable from technological evolution, civilization's history and social
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WAR is a three-letter abbreviation with multiple meanings, as described below:
  • War
  • War (band)
  • War (film), a 2007 movie starring Jet Li and Jason Statham
  • Warrenton Railroad (AAR reporting marks WAR)
  • WAR, a Japanese professional wrestling promotion

..... Click the link for more information.


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