Consumed: How Markets Corrupt Children, Infantilize Adults, and Swallow Citizens Whole

While I don't agree with all the examples the author gives I do appreciate the fact he is challenging adults to start acting their age and stop allowing corpora America to baby talk us into believing the stuff they push is a need. He correctly notes that true capitalism is about meeting needs, and that we have evolved into a junkie society where businesses have as their motto 'make a need an fill it'. When in fact its more like pushing drugs rather than something healthy. In fact I kept thinking of Jackie Kennedy who was in barely in her thirties when she became a widow, and how most women that age in 2007 want to remain in their early twenties or even teens, rather than act adult. Same with men these days. Look at ads aimed at men. They want adult men to believe they are kids, who never grew up. Look at the prime mortgage mess and how we have become a society that believes we can have something for nothing NOW. Forget about saving for the down payment. Forget about living below what one makes in income. And no, the author isn't against authentic capitalism and free enterprise. He simply wants us to wake up and look at reality rather than make excuses for poor personal choices.

Although this book stings to read I found it struck a chord in me that resonated very strongly throughout. The overall message is right on. There are some minor errors, however how important is it that he mistook a football players position. Even with the minor statistical errors you'd have to be BRAIN DEAD not to appreciate the realities we are bombarded with every day of which he speaks. As a baby boomer I have been acutely aware of the dumbing down of the markets and projection of rabid consumption as the end to which we must all strive. You may not like what he says about the de-generation of our great culture but it is true. As I father 4 kids from 24 to 6 I can say with AUTHORITY they have been seduced by the "consume" message then pressured by their peers groups and live by the "I consume therfore I am" motto. I am insisting they read it before they even THINK about badgering me for the latest iPODiPHONEiSTUPID disposable junk from china. Yes I have had ENOUGH and this book is saving my sanity and hopefully my kids. Insist they read it. HEY see if they can get it on iTUNES as a audio book download. Maybe it will be the one mindless purchase that will lead them down a more enlightened path.

I see a number of other reviewers belittling the book because of some trivial factual error regarding sports figures or celebrities, but in my eyes those points merely underscores the point that Barber is trying to make. In the end the constant media focus on these types of people is in my eyes a mass distraction. Does it change my life one iota when a drunken celebrity does something stupid? Not at all, but the media covers it for hour on end, and people lap it up. People defend popular culture such as Harry Potter or Shrek, but these are all pure escapism and have very little relevance to our daily lives. Reviewers of those films make tortured comparisons to try and prove relevance to daily life, but the sad fact is that many people have become conditioned to not expect more, and perhaps not even have the patience to view a more substantive work. Other reviewers insist that they aren't manipulated and that they have free choice. To an extent that is true, but one can easily argue that many people are making poor choices because they have been so deeply conditioned by advertisers. How can you justify spending 50K$ on a car, and replacing it when it is 3 years old when an inexpensive well-made car will fulfill the basic needs of transportation and may last 5-8 years instead? How can you justify spending money on bottled water when tap water in most areas is just fine? And how can you justify accumulating tens of thousands in consumer debt just to acquire all of this stuff? There are countless such examples all over the place. And finally, there is the paradigm that runs deeply through our society that having more money and having more material goods will somehow make you happier. The problem is that these desires can never be satisfied - there is always something more, and there is always someone else who has more. In the end all of this materialism leaves people feeling empty, and the only tonic that they know to try and fill the void is to go out and shop some more. On the other hand, if you can reach a point where you are content with what you have, you may find that many of the things that you do have are completely superfluous and can be donated to Goodwill or sold. Get rid of enough stuff, and that McMansion will seem empty, and a more modest and affordable house may meet your needs quite nicely.

This is the best book I've read in 5 years. And I usually read 30 or so a year. It is the most challenging thing I've ever read. Throughout almost every sitting with the book, I would have to walk away and just sit to let it soak in. It was extremely cutting and exposing to me. And I dare say convicting. It's helped me to realize what a hyper-consumer I am and how childish I am in my tastes and entertainment. Even how childish I am in my spending. I never thought there would be a day when I felt like I needed to grow up and be a man, but this book helped me to entertain the possibility. The basic idea of the book focuses on the infantilization (dumbing down) of our society via the means of marketing and advertising. And the hyper-consumerism capitalism that we live with today. I couldn't recommend this book more highly. But I will give one disclaimer. It's 300+ pages of really small type. What makes it worse is that the author writes it like an academic paper. For example the first chapter which is only 35 pages long has 98 footnotes. It's just a really difficult read where reading 20 pages takes you an hour. So you'll either love the book or hate it. If you're a nerd, you might dig it. If you're not a nerd, you won't.

Barber's books shows how we can reign in Leviathan without losing our liberties. It shows how we can regulate the excesses of global consummerism without loosing the virtues of free markets. It is not hostile to capitalism, only hostile to obscene global imbalances and looming ecological disaster. It shows how citizenship, development, and equity can accompany global civil society. Consummed is written in the economic spirit of Amartya Sen, the nobel laureate, and I really must say, the earlier review suggests to me the reviewer didn't really read the book or might not really be over 13 years old. Buy the book. Read it. It's a page turner. You'll enjoy it. You'll be talking about it. Nobody is better than Barber at putting things together and making sense out of the world we live in.