NEW QUALITY OF LIFE IN A CONSUMER SOCIETY, GEORGE RITZER, BENJAMIN BARBER AND THE MAGICAL WORLD OF CONSUMPTION

The consumer society is a society full of goods. A consumer is a man surrounded by
objects, and the amount of goods used by consumer testifies his place in the society. A big
consumption is better than the lower one. The level of consumption speaks about the status
of consumer. In a consumer society everything is focused on the material values. This is true
also for the quality of life.
The quality of life is difficult to define, it is a highly subjective issue. The quality of life
of a consumer is determined by the principles and rules of the world of consumption. The
more expensive are one’s holidays, the more exotic place one is heading for, the more it is
valuable and precious. It does not matter what is giving one a real rest, it matters only what
is trendy, compatible with the current fashion which changes every season. It does not allow
the consumer to be stuck in a root, to a certain degree of stagnation and satisfaction. He
should incessantly strive to the realization of the current standards, set by what is
fashionable and advertised (at the very moment). Georg Ritzer and Benjamin Barber are
showing how the new understanding of what is the quality of life and how it is changing the
consumer’s life. A consumer is submitted to the dictatorship of those who are setting the
trends. The submission is voluntary. A human – consumer wants to be similar to the other
peoples and to feel good in the society to which one belongs. The rejection of the principles
and the rules of the world of consumption could make him being regarded as nonfashionable
and in result as non-significant at all. The quality of life of a consumer who does
not want to meet the demands of the world of consumption, is perceived as very low, and as
a result such a person is not valued as a neighbour, nor as an employee.

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Warszawa 2006.
[3] Ritzer G., Magiczny świat konsumpcji, ed. Muza SA, Warszawa 2009.
[4] http://wigwam02.republika.pl/Wigwam28/pliki/potlacz5.html, 07.06.2011.