HOME

ANALYSIS

SUPER

PERSONAL FINANCE

INVESTING

ASK THE EXPERT

Analysis
Cost of the consumer lifestyle
Dr Clive Hamilton, April 2007

Public awareness of the cost of consumer lifestyles has given rise to a growing unease—an inner conflict between what we do daily and what we believe is right for us and our society. New research shows a large majority of Australians believe that escalating materialism has harmful effects on parents, children and communities. A survey of over 1600 people found that 80 per cent agreed with the proposition “Most Australians buy and consume far more than they need: it’s wasteful.”

This view is strongly held across age and income groups. The strength of concern about the impacts of materialism stands in odd contrast to the belief expressed by nearly two-thirds of the population, that they cannot afford to buy everything they really need. Although most Australians believe other Australians buy more than they need, they also think they themselves are going without. Most of us can recognise the symptoms of affluenza in others but not in ourselves.

As in the USA, Australians believe the value system that dominates their society is wrong ─ that ‘materialism, greed, and selfishness increasingly dominate life, crowding out a more meaningful set of values centered on family, responsibility, and community’. The vast majority want their lives to be based on the values of family closeness, friendship and individual and social responsibility but believe their society is far from achieving that. They want to achieve a balance between the material and non-material sides of their lives.

Another survey, conducted in 2002 by Newspoll, asked respondents whether they agreed or disagreed with the statement that ‘Australian society today is too materialistic, with too much emphasis on money and not enough on the things that really matter’. Overall, 83 per cent of respondents agreed. The survey question itself gives us pause to ask what ‘the things that really matter’ are. For most people the things that really matter are relationships with family and friends and time to do the things that are personally fulfilling.

This conflict of values emerges in Australians attitudes to work, with widespread concern about the effects of overwork on the quality of family life. Seventy-five per cent of Australians agree with the proposition ‘Too many Australians are focused on working and making money and not enough on family and community’.

Australians seem particularly troubled about materialism’s corrupting effect on children. Four out of five agree that our materialistic society makes it harder to instil positive values in our children. While parents with children aged less than 5 years seem to be a little less concerned, by the time their children grow to adolescence nine in ten agree that materialism makes positive values harder to instil. As their children grow up, parents become painfully aware of the influence on their children’s values of forces outside the home. Once peers, musicians and the media begin to influence adolescent behaviour, it seems parental concern with materialism increases substantially. Single parents are the most anxious group.

Regardless of whether they are parents or not, Australians believe that materialism is harmful to children and that simple steps such as curbing advertising should be taken. Typically, the response of governments and the advertising industry is to suggest that parents take more individual responsibility for what their children are exposed to. But parents cannot opt out of society; they cannot control everything their children see and do; and nor do they want to. Parents feel overwhelmed by the responsibilities governments impose on them and know that taking collective action to protect their children is the best way to make a difference. When governments refuse to accept responsibility for providing collective solutions, they ensure that the problem will persist.

The responses to the various surveys discussed here show a large proportion of Australians believe that they do not have enough money and that society places too much emphasis on money and material goods. This suggests a disjunction between people’s immediate assessment of their own financial position, which tends to be self-focused and income-driven, and their recognition that society in general is too materialistic and motivated by money instead of ‘the things that really matter’.

Australians are deeply ambivalent about the contradiction. They can see that affluenza is eating away at society, yet they are too fearful to change their behaviour in any meaningful way. They are wedded to ‘financial security’, even though they know that non-material aspirations are the ones that will bring them contentment.

Most people find it difficult to change course and introduce more balance into their lives, despite suspecting that a simpler life would probably be a happier one. But studies of those who do make the change − sometimes called ‘downshifters’ − show that, after the initial period of transition, loosening the bonds of materialism does lead to a more contented and fulfilled life.

Whatever your views, you can discuss this article - or any of Clive's articles - on our message board Your 2 Cents, in the Analysis section.

Clive Hamilton is executive director of the Australia Institute, Australia's foremost public interest think tank. He is the author of ‘Affluenza’, ‘Growth Fetish’ and ‘Running from the storm’. He has held visiting academic positions at the University of Cambridge, ANU and the University of Sydney.