A brief history of consumer culture

When did the notion of human beings as consumers first take shape?

Before World War I, but became common in the 1920s. (1)

The traditional objective for making stuff was that it was useful (you make a nail because people need to build a wall); in the US, what replaced that motive and when did that occur.

The goal of profit and the need for machinery of enticement. (5)

By the early 1920s, businessmen and the economists who suck up to them were in a panic about a permanent crisis. What was that crisis?

Crisis of overproduction, productive powers met the needs of the population 

What did Herbert Hoover’s 1929 Committee on Recent Economic Changes most celebrate?

The expansibility of human wants and desires, the insatiable appetite for goods and services, and the appearance of new wants to keep consumers satisfied. (14)

What did Charles Kettering, head of research for what was then the largest corporation on Planet Earth, want you to experience? Why?

He wanted consumers to experience dissatisfaction to keep capitalism moving (it can never be stationary) (15)

How did advertisers in the 1950s view the luxuries of the upper class? That is, what did they want to make?

They wanted to turn luxuries into necessities for all classes, marketing them as status symbols. (20)

Assuming they succeeded, what is being sold? What is being consumed?

Status is being sold, and endless material objects are being consumed

What does Packard mean by the terms planned, functional and psychological obsolescence?

Planned obsolescence - the intentional design of inferior items

Functional obsolescence - the product wears out quickly 

Psychological adolescence - products are designed to become obsolete in the mind of the consumer sooner than the components used to make them will fail

If you’re a bit short on cash and want to snag a new dress at Schein, how much might it set you back?

$2.10

Edward Bernays was panicked, on behalf of his rich clients, by the rising influence of middle and lower-middle class people. What was he afraid might happen to corporate America if you got too much power? And what was his solution?

He was afraid of tax profits, falling sales, and restrictions in corporate freedom.