Are You Buying It?

Black Friday. Cyber Monday. These are more than just marketing strategies. They are the high holidays of the world’s most popular religion: Consumerism. With every virtual swipe of your credit card, you are playing a critical role in driving the world economy. But it wasn’t that long ago that such materialistic ways were frowned upon by leaders and philosophers. “From Plato in ancient Greece to St. Augustine and the Christian fathers to writers in the Italian Renaissance, thinkers routinely condemned the pursuit of things as wicked and dangerous because it corrupted the human soul, destroyed republics, and overthrew the social order.” (I’ll buy that. But then again, I am a child of the consumer revolution, so I’ll buy almost anything.) From Frank Trentmann in The Atlantic: How Humans Became Consumers: A History.

+ If American consumerism has a pumping heart, it is Amazon; a company that is getting more efficient as it grows. Here’s Brad Stone on Jeff Bezos’ selling machine. “Putting a larger variety of products into Prime attracts more Prime members and vice versa, resulting in ever-increasing sales, which Amazon dutifully converts into even more fulfillment centers, faster shipping and lower prices. This is the flywheel of doom for rival merchants.”