In the third chapter of The Culture of New Capitalism, the author tries to convey the idea of consumerism and the hold it has on our society. Not only does he try to convey this idea but he also attempts to convey how political power is promoted through the same way as modern marketing techniques used for products. The chapter begins by describing that there are two groups of individuals that have emerged in the new economy. First, there is the elite group of individuals that control the wealth. These people can be described as the executive type of people that are in control of business and have the means to control production of goods and services. The other group that is identified is the everyday working-class citizen. These individuals do not hold as much power and are dependent on the upper class in the sense of being provided work (Sennett 132). This notion is not anything new. This closely mirrors the economic perspective of Marx. Marxism first described an almost identical scenario referring to these parties as the bourgeois and the proletariat. With these distinct classes identified, the author proceeded to lay out how the control the elite class has on production leads to the heavy consumerist culture we have today. The first major point that was brought up was the idea of “gold plating.” This is an idea that even though there is a great diversity in the products we buy, take cars for example, there is no difference from one to another, they are merely marketed and repackaged to seem as if there are superior products when compared to each other. The author used Audi, which is owned by Volkswagen, as an example. When comparing the top luxury model to the lowest priced base model there is only a very small difference in these cars, they are about ninety percent the same car. Even though there is about a ten percent difference in the design of the car, the luxury model sells for about double what the base model does (Sennett 145). It does not seem logical that such a small difference in the materiality of what you are buying would cause such a dramatic increase in purchase price. The way in which producers are able to pull this off is the way in which they present the product to the consumer. The producers market these products so that the consumer is fooled into believing that there is a substantial difference in the products being offered. This can be done in a variety of ways including the presentation of a commercial or simply changing the packaging on different classes of products. A second main idea that was brought up was the idea of planned obsolescence. This is the idea that producers create an environment in which the consumers are tricked or forced into having the need to buy new things Sennett 140). The first way in which this is done is by consumers attacking consumers psychologically, they make them think they need the newest and best products. This is done by using simple tactics such as constantly coming out with new models of things as well as stressing new trends and fashions. Also producers can make products that are not of very good quality, making them wear out sooner, causing people to have to buy replacement goods. Another aspect of consumerist culture that the author discussed is the idea of what he called “branding and potency.” This idea is describes the nature of the products we buy. With so many advancements in technology and our ever-increasing distance from a self sufficient (as in individuals and families producing much of what they relied on) economy, many individuals know very little about the products they buy. The book explains that we should educate ourselves much better about the products we are consuming (Sennett 145). This does not mean that we need to know how to build it ourselves, but we should know how the products we use work. The reasoning behind this is that much of what we purchase is excessive beyond our means. This is not to say that we can’t afford these items, but their capabilities surpass our practical capacity. Take for example an IPod. The larger models of IPods are capable of storing up to 20,000 songs. It is possible to fill this to capacity, however, not only is It pretty unlikely, it is surpasses our mental capabilities as well. The average person would only be able to remember a fraction of this amount of songs to recall that they are even on their IPod, so having this many songs is effectively pointless. The author also uses the example of people in cities driving cars that are designed for extreme terrain such as a hummer, or driving a high performance sports car, just to end up spending a majority of their time sitting in traffic (Sennett 151). I think that all of these ideas can be directly related to the topics that we discussed this past week in class. The fact that companies use these techniques to sell their products and profit heavily from them may be seen as unethical practices. I believe this relates to the Machiavellian managerial ethic that we discussed. By using tactics to sell their products that some may say are deceptive, companies are helping to ensure their survival and gains. Companies that use these strategies clearly only have their self interest in mind. Although companies do need to sell their products and have gains, they can still accomplish these tasks, but use more consumer-friendly ways of conducting business. If companies took an approach to doing business in a way in which created good for all, this would be much more responsible. Rather than focusing on simply making as much money as possible, companies have the ability to create benefits for everyone depending on how they conduct business. Things that companies can do to create a shared benefit include ideas such as being environmentally healthy, providing high quality products at low prices and provide employees with a good work environment. Companies that consider the triple bottom line are shown to be more profitable in the long run than those that do not. Along with this notion is the idea that companies need to uphold their social equity and stakeholder concerns. If more companies took this approach instead of the Machiavellian approach then there would be fewer problems with the issues that have been discussed.
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