Consumerism costs more than money

As I sat in the bathroom the other day, staring down at the clothing label innocuously staring back up at me, I realized that it was far more harmful than it seemed. I mean, how much threat can a 1-inch by 2-inch piece of pink, silky fabric really pose? Depending on what you think is being threatened, quite a big one, actually. The garment lists 7 different countries where some type of production happened, though since the majority of writing is in foreign languages, the actual process is hard to determine. Nevertheless, the smallest article of clothing on my body first had to visit the following 7 countries before reaching me: China, Turkey, Jakarta, Malaysia, Romania, Colombia, and Dubai. Not only am I jealous that my clothes have done more travelling than I have, I am also disconcerted by the amount of energy, fossil fuels, and precarious labour that have gone into making a piece of clothing that wouldn't even use a quarter of a yard of fabric.

The solution seems relatively easy: buy locally-made clothes or demand that larger companies be held to a higher standard of production and environmental awareness. Unfortunately, it's easier said than done, and the change must been seen on a far greater scale than a single clothing company. The biggest challenge is that the audience for these products just don't seem to care; they would rather read television guides than clothing labels, so this threat to our environment flies completely under the radar. This trend is a vicious cycle; as Jennifer Good points out, "there is a correlation between television viewing and a sense of apathy" (366) and "[r]ecent research has investigated the relationship between television viewing and materialism and found that heavier television viewers are more likely to be materialistic than lighter viewers" (366). So people would rather watch television than read about or research environmental impacts of consumerism, and watching television both lessens this desire to care, and increases the desire to consume. In and article by Neff, Steinberg & Zmuda, the consumer is blamed for not being active enough in the environmental choices that are available within the context of consumerism. Personally, I don't think they're off the mark. It takes two to tango, but ultimately the consumer decides which companies stay in business and which ones go bankrupt.


Good, J. (2007). Shop 'til We Drop? Television, Materialism and Attitudes About the Natural Environment. Mass Communication & Society, 10(3), 365-383.

Neff, J., Steinberg, B., & Zmuda, N. (2010). Marketers blame the consumer in new save-the-planet pitches. Advertising Age, 81(16), 1-94.