Consumer culture

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Consumer culture describes a lifestyle hyper-focused on spending money to buy material goods. It is often attributed to, but not limited to, the capitalist economy of the United States. During the 20th century, market goods came to dominate American life, and for the first time in history, consumerism had no practical limits. Consumer culture has provided affluent societies with alternatives to tribalism and class war.

Consumer culture began to increase rapidly during the extreme economic growth of the Roaring Twenties^[1] The challenge for the future is to find ways to revive the valid portion of the culture of constraint and control the overpowering success of the twentieth century.^[2]