The Spendthrift Theme in Confessions of a Shopaholic

Our Society thrives on the idea of making money just to buy nice things. Now, this is not completely a bad thing, because some people work hard for what they have and feel they deserve the nice things life has to offer; but when does it become a problem? There are many people who live above there means to say that they have those expensive labels that others wish they could afford. Since we live in a consumer society the idea is that we help build our economy. When we buy items we help create jobs which produce more money to help buy more items; it is nothing but a cycle. Sometimes the items people spend their money on are unnecessary and they could do without. The idea of spending money is around us all the time in magazine ads, commercials, television shows etc. the madness with never ends but it can be controlled.

A movie that is relatable to this topic is Confessions of a Shopaholic. It is about a young woman who grew up wanting to wear the nice “labels” but whose mother couldn’t afford them. She dreamed of having a high fashion job and she attained that, along with being thousands of dollars in debt and running from bill collectors. Even though she was in debt she did would ever she had to do to get the latest of the latest. The main characters father, Graham Bloomwood played by John Goodman stated, “The American economy can be billions of dollars in debt and still survive! So can you!” It is almost as if he is telling his daughter that just like the economy, which is bad, that the United States beautiful and rich taste and still sustains and she could do the same even without spending the unnecessary money. In the end, she learns that all the material items she spent her money on could not bring her permanent happiness.

So now, let us address why people buy unnecessarily. For some, material items fill a void. For others, like the young woman from Confessions of a Shopaholic, it is to have all the nice things that you might have been deprived of a child. Whatever it may be, all things are good in small doses. It is when you would spend your very last to obtain an item of your desire when you know that you have bills due or more important business to take care of. According to James B. Twitchell, author of Needing the Unnecessary, who states, “you are not what you make. You are what you consume. And most of what you consume is totally unnecessary yet remarkably well made.” Our economy and generation are used to the luxury of everything out that is seen in every life. And if you ask Virginia Postrel, she would say, “We want our vacuum cleaners and mobile phones to sparkle, our bathroom faucets and desk accessories to express our personalities. We expect every strip mall and city block to offer designer coffee, several different cuisines, a copy shop with do – it –yourself graphic workstations, and a nail salon for manicures on demand. We demand trees in our parking lots, peaked roofs and decorative facades on our supermarket, and auto dealerships as swoopy and stylish as the cars they sell (Postrel, 315).” And really, it is all just for show.

Everywhere you look you see designer labels and expensive cars because it is what everybody wishes they could attain. For some, even spend a little more money on water just because of the brand. The real question is why spend more when you could get it for less? Some people tend to believe that the higher price the better the quality. For certain items this may be true but when it comes to water buying an off brand should be okay, right? Wrong, because even your most expensive water is tied to something glamourized by the media. There is even a website (zebo.com) that describes itself as The World’s Largest Repository of what people own. According to Kris Browning, twenty –six, said she likes to check out whether he friends have purchased anything new or not and to peruse their wish list (Rosenbloom, 332). This only feeds the urge to spend more money and have the latest of everything.

Is it or is it not quiet astounding to think millions of people are out spending money every day to help build our economy. Yet only to realize that our economy is still very much in debt from events that took place years ago. In the U.S., the total amount of debt held by all 50 state governments combined amounted to $4.17 trillion in 2012 (website ). Shouldn’t we all be a little depressed about this? Looking around while shopping it is rare to see a sad face in the mall; people enjoy spending their hard earned money on the things they feel they deserve and companies know this. Study after study has been conducted and the results of their research, thus far, are clear: money does buy happiness – but only to a point. Studies also show that the inhabitants of richer countries are, on average, significantly happier than those of poor ones (peck, Douthat, 352). We’re the least happiest society in history if we measure happiness in terms of mental health, personal growth, or general sense of aliveness (Schumaker, 358).

Now, think about this. How many hours a week do you work? Is it because you have to or you feel you have a lifestyle to maintain? There are many wealthy and unknown professionals or business persons whose work has become routine for them (Csikszentmihalyi, 363) but they stick with it because they feel they have to maintain a lifestyle. The more boring and routine their day to day life becomes, the more seeking substitutes for enjoyment increases (363). Even the celebrity’s you idolize fall into routine with their day to day life. Their high paying jobs keeps them away from their loved ones for months at a time, and for some the stress that comes along with their high profile lives can sometimes be their downfall. We usually hitch our emotional wagons to ego, ambition, personal power, and the spectacular. But all of these do not matter when it comes to happiness and enjoyment. Today’s “success” has become a blueprint for failure (Schumaker, 360).

Television has a way of glamorizing all things materialistic. This makes it easier for everyone in society to fall victim to a materialistic lifestyle, and if it cannot be obtain one becomes envious. Since the target has been marked, and everyone is under its raider it is time for the marketing ideas. Companies spend thousands of dollars on marketing ideas, so in return they have to make their money back in this vicious cycle. So they do it by any means necessary. Advertisements for the luxuries are all around us: Internet, billboards, magazines, walking advertisements, radio and television commercials, and the list goes on. The U.S. residents are now exposed to anywhere from 3,000 to 5,000 advertisements each day. That’s a far jump from the 500 to 2,000 a day in the 1970 (Heldman, 341), but not all ways are very appropriate.

For many years, women have been the targets for every advertisement. Either the item being sold is completely directed toward women like most cleaning supplies or vacuum commercials or things directed toward men. A perfect example of this is the Fiat Arbarth commercial, where they have a beautiful woman lying in the sand with only a bikini on and a scorpion on her back. In the background a fast car zooming past, and then the scorpion snaps the string of the woman’s bikini. In many ways the commercial targets both sexes but in the end it is the woman who gets downgraded to nothing more than a symbol of sex. This is when all good things of our consumer society become sour.

On the bright side, living in a consumer society does do some good. As stated before, the more we buy the more jobs we create, and the more jobs the more money there is to spend. The Tommy Hilfiger clothing line, aimed at preppies, became hot in the inner city, highly crediting rap artist who took to the clothing maker’s stylish, colorful vestments. Hilfiger told Forbes magazine that there was a forty seven percent rise in earnings over the first nine months of its fiscal year 1996-1997 (Kotlowitz, 330). As for targeting a certain audience to persuade them to buy a product the media does a wonderful job. You will never find a Polo advertisement in the Good Living magazine, just like you will never find an advertisement for patio furniture in the Cosmopolitan where you would find Polo. Keeping the two separate helps keep focus on the different age group and interest of the age group targeted. Using women in advertisements adds the appeal of the item being sold. Granted it is sex appeal, which some feel demoralizes women but it still drives the public to buy the product. As for debts among people in society it is something that everyone experiences, whether it is from school, credit cards, or poor budgeting. Whatever it might be it is never a good thing but it can be maintained so it will not be too out of control.

We are no longer those people who thrive off just needs alone, we all have wants. Sometime you just have to rationalize whether or not that want is really something you need. Our society holds on to the idea that to “make it” means to consume at will, to buy a $100 Coach wallet or an $80 Tommy Hilfiger shirt. There are many people in the world that would love to drive the expensive cars there idol drives but won’t be able to because of cost. As regular hard working people in society we learn to adjust and to settle for a little less. We may not be able to afford Bugatti, which is a 1.2 million dollar car but we would settle for the Mercedes, Chrysler, ford, etc. as long as it resembles a little wealth. To help with the over indulging in the un-needed urge to spend money one could us The Nerminological Laws of Consumption that was created by Twitchell. He used this concept with his children and the idea is to isolate the need ( Do you need this item or is it just a want?), next shop around to find a better deal, can you afford the item you desire, and last can you properly operate the item you desire ( this last step depends on item ) (twitchell, 336). They began to use it and it was pretty effective. So much that they questioned their own father’s new hot buy (a Miata).

Another thing to remember is when buying clothes don’t always look for the label or the name brand. You can still look good on a budget and nobody has to know where your clothes came from. If a label or designer is really a big deal to you shop at a consignment store they usually sell gently used high end brand names for a low price, and to go even cheaper there are also some good finds a the goodwill. They even have mark downs on there already low prices. It is never really how much you pay for an outfit it is how you rock it.

In the end consuming is never going to go away since our society is all about making money. It is just a way of life that we have become accustom to, and it is not a bad thing. It is when it is excessive and drives us to debt, and we become envious of what others have. It is better to appreciate all that we have worked hard for, and maintained without having the items we have worked hard for and maintained make us. Just like the girl in Confessions of a Shopaholic, we all eventually figure out what is more important in this world. For some, it will be family and for it will still be their materialistic values but whatever it might be the choice was always yours.