Over the past few years, the world has been grappling with the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), and most news bulletins and topics of conversation, particularly those involving retirees, centre on share-market volatility, sovereign debt, interest rates, lack of growth in the economy, the softness of the retail sector and so on. The causes of the GFC are many and varied, but at the centre, it appears to me that the problem begins with people and governments borrowing money they can not afford to re-pay, from people and institutions that do not really have the money to lend. The greed of the top people in the financial institutions, whose salaries and bonuses depend on the turn-over of the business, are far too willing to lend out vast sums as though it were “monopoly money”, in order to secure their bonuses. The man in the street sees this, wants a share of the action, and is only too willing to take the loan to buy the big house, car and new TV set, in order to keep up with the Joneses. Then the crunch comes. The man in the street can not keep up the repayments, the bank loses its cash, because even if it re-possesses, it can not sell the asset, and the next domino then falls as the bank can not repay the loan it took to on-lend the money to the man in the street. Magnify this across whole countries, and their governments, and you have a GFC.
So, at the very heart, the consuming man in the street wants the latest gismos and other things he can ill-afford, and there, stoking the fire and fanning the flames are the advertising agencies. These agencies exist for no reason other than to make people dissatisfied with what they have, and make them want to buy something bigger/better/flashier etc, that they do not really need. What industry could be more morally bankrupt, specializing as it does in stimulating human dissatisfaction? It is not possible to escape their activities. Every time a TV is turned on, a magazine or newspaper opened, or simply walking along a street—-there are the messages that what you have is not good enough, and you need to go and buy something better!
Battered by this onslaught of messages, the consumer takes one of several routes. Ideally, he will ignore it all—not watch commercial TV and so forth, and only purchase the things he knows he needs. Or, he can succumb to the deluge, and buy more stuff. To do this he gets into debt, putting more stress on himself and his family, and probably becomes depressed. He may turn to gambling in order to raise the money to buy stuff, or to pay the debts—which generally only compounds the problem, and makes matters far worse. And meanwhile, the pressure is continually applied by the advertisers. The rampant horse of consumerism is not only unbridled, it is being whipped into a fury by the advertisers
I think a proper scientific study would show that a lot of petty crime and mental illness such as depression, could be linked directly to the advertising industry. But who will speak out—the almighty economy depends upon people buying stuff they do not need with money they do not have!
Slingsby's Miscellany 