WAPO OP Ed: The consequences of America's moral drift: Consumerism and the addiction economy are undermining the republi

[lindysalsagal]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/10/26/america-moral-crisis-attention-economy/

Consumerism and the addiction economy are undermining the republic. By Spencer Cox and Ian Marcus Corbin

October 26, 2025 at 7:00 a.m. Yesterday at 7:00 a.m. EDT

(Disclaimer: I would replace the instances of the word "moral" with "Ethical", but that's just me. I also don't trust the overwhelming religiousness of Utah in this endeavor.) By Spencer Cox and Ian Marcus Corbin
Spencer Cox is governor of Utah. Ian Marcus Corbin directs the Public Culture Project at Harvard and serves as a senior fellow at the think tank Capita.

“In a simpler time, advertising merely called attention to the product and extolled its advantages. Now it manufactures a product of its own: the consumer, perpetually unsatisfied, restless, anxious, and bored. Advertising serves not so much to advertise products as to promote consumption as a way of life.”

It’s one thing to buy well-made shoes because they protect your feet and look attractive. It’s another to buy yet one more pair of shoes because advertisers have convinced you that your present life is shabby, but this next purchase will finally make you happy.

The online attention economy, especially social media, has intensified the reality Lasch described. Practically every aspect, down to the shade of red that alerts you to a new comment or like, has been calibrated not to make you wiser or happier but to get you hooked. Other examples of the addiction economy include the destructive rise of buy-now-pay-later financing, mobile sports betting, online pornography and vaping."

So, although I agree that we are no longer citizens, we are "the american consumer", the remedy surely isn't religious: That's just an emptier promise and more ruthless addiction.

But it's inescapable that our desperate attempts at material fulfillment are undermining the republic. If the orange menace hasn't proven that, nothing else will.

[bucolic_frolic]

1. Gee .... did they mention Amazon? /nt

[FalloutShelter]

2. Yes ...

Buddhists call it Samsara.
Grasping constantly.

[lindysalsagal]

8. Yup! We create our own suffering. But then additionally, sometimes others deliberately induce suffering

but it's their own delusion that money and power ameliorate suffering .

[mwmisses4289]

3. They are just now getting this?

How old is Mr. Cox? I remember hearing these concerns being brought up when I was a teenager, and constantly being brought up from the late 1980's (toward the end of the reagan era) forward. Usually came up around the holidays, mostly Christmas and Easter, but sometimes at the start of summer.
The solution definetly isn't more "religion", that's an even worse solution. Not sure what the solution is, but maybe we start by not buying into whatever the latest social media trend is.

[Biophilic]

4. And who has pushed the hardest to increase consumption and addiction?

The wealthy, the oligarchs, the millionaires and now billionaires who have made their hoard of gold off the backs of those they talked into buying and buying and than buying more. Almost every part of our culture from entertainment to sports to you name it are devised to convince people to buy more and more. No, this isn't on the addicts this should be on the "drug pushers" who never have enough money and don't want to share what they have.

[Scrivener7]

5. Fuck WAPO. WAPO regularly undermines the republic. What a joke.

And a Mormon telling the rest of us that we've fallen prey to scams is a bit rich. It's true, but a Mormon isn't really in a position to call it out to the rest of us.

[lindysalsagal]

9. Agreed

[haele]

6. This is still an attempt to get in front of the upcoming pain to Americans

By blaming them for falling to advertising targeted to their betters and buying what they "don't need"...
Being poor is a moral hazard Gawd intends you to overcome.
Poorer, even middle class folks, need to be frugal and build up that emergency fund to cover them for a year or two, even if it means not purchasing a junker and renting a two bedroom "efficiency" for your family of four.
Work harder, get an extra job or two. Put 1/3 of your income in savings or better yet, an index fund so rich folks like your employer can get a bit of the money they spent hiring your ass back.
No eating out. No special treats for your kids. No new appliances or cars, thrift stores and used only
Maybe, just maybe - you can afford to help one kid buy a house or go to college when you're close to retirement. Or go on a vacation.
That is, if you still have Social Security or a pension for your retirement
Remember, being poor, not being a "winner" is a Moral Hazard and Gawd's intention to make you prove you're worthy of any "blessings" of comfort and prosperity.

[Ping Tung]

7. Before you can get rich you have to .............

[Hotler]

10. Stop spending as if Bidon was still president. Choke off their money supply.

People underestimate the power and leverage of their consumer dollar. Wages and benefits trickle down.
Consumer dollars flow up, control the flow to the corps. and banks. Votes can only be used every 2-4 years, consumer dollars have power 24/7-365. If everyone of the 11-million at the No Kings rallies chopped an extra $25.00 a week from their spending, do the math, 4-weeks a month, 12-months a year. Mobs, gangs and organized crime don't like their money supply messed with.
Let MAGA float the economy

If it helps, don't think of it as a spending boycott, think of it as saving $25.00 a week for and emergency fund.
The more that participate, the bigger the results. Not spending money can be done from the comfort of your couch.
Not spending money is as easy as ordering from Amazon, plus you're saving.