How Capitalism and Consumerism Swallowed Democracy
We’ve become a society of consumers instead of citizens
I grew up thinking that capitalism and democracy go hand in hand.
And certainly for many years, the two were intertwined. Increasingly, however, the two have begun to diverge, with capitalism and consumerism overshadowing traditional democratic attitudes, structures, civic institutions, and way of life.
But capitalism is not democracy. Capitalism is an economic system characterized by free markets. Democracy is a political system where the people of the nation can take an active part in decisions that affect the common good.
Capitalism has consumers. Democracy has citizens.
But increasingly, in modern discourse, the terms “citizen” and “consumer” are used interchangeably.
This is not a simple matter of semantics.
The conflation of the terms reveals real and significant shifts in the way we view ourselves and our role in a democratic society.
The term “citizen” connotes civic responsibility, which includes both attitude and action in accordance with democratic ideals and participation.
In contrast, the term “consumer” is an economic term used to describe an actor that uses particular resources — i.e…
