Author Archives: David

The 1950s marked the beginning of a cultural change called consumerism. The new culture convinced Americans the need to buy new homes, cars, appliances, credit-cards and even succeeded in redefining ‘freedom’. From the pre-world war meaning of freedom, which was to starting to focus on anti-segregation policies, the meaning of freedom shifted to consumption. Foner does not go into much detail but does make it a point to mention that this new idea of consumerism, being the goal of freedom, resulted in American’s being comfortable with living in never-ending debt.

I believe Foner is right in that redefining freedom; consumerism began an a culture Americans are still struggling to deal with. Consumers in American to this day live under the pretense that comfortable means ‘buying more than you can afford’. Although consumerism has succeeded in redefining freedom, it has failed to redefined what the realities of such life-styles are. The fact that debt became a part of life ‘comfortable to live with’ is shocking. As a result we live in a country that is experiencing an economic recession, loss of jobs, a growing national debt and increasing deficit in international trade. Foner even mentions that the goal of women obtaining jobs was not to help the family out of poverty rather to promote the ‘family’s middle-class-lifestyle’. A life-style that put more families in debt. Of course there are exceptions to all this and the middle-class ‘revolution’ did promote better living conditions in America. But it has come at a cost the US is still struggling to deal with – an ever expanding national debt. I fail to see the freedom or comfort of consumerism because reality says otherwise.

National and Individual Debt Clock