America is renowned for consuming more than any other nation. Perhaps this is a natural situation – in a free-market economy, prosperity is predicated on productivity growth, and productivity growth in turn requires high-levels of consumption. But there is nothing inevitable about this. There are plenty of free-market economies around the world that function perfectly without their respective populations buying as much as Americans do. So why do Americans consume so much?
Consider, for a moment, the enormous dishes served in this nation’s restaurants. Burgers like car tires, pizza pies you can pitch a tent on: perhaps these are symbols of American prosperity. Nourishment is a fundamental human need, and America is rightly proud that no one in this country lacks it. Copious amounts of food are available, well within the means of every individual here, employed or not. It is a sign of progress, of the benefits of liberal social cooperation, of freedom. But let's look closer.
I am sitting in a diner in Jamaica Queens enjoying a steady stream of coffee. It is a weekday, early afternoon, and through the window I watch a man leave a run-down looking apartment block, hurry across the street, and walk through the restaurant door into the warm. Given the time of day, and the state of his residence, I figure he is probably unemployed, and evidently intending to profit from these affordable, enormous meals that are served in diners across the country. Within ten minutes, an immense burger with bacon and cheese, and a gargantuan serving of fries arrives. He tucks in immediately, eating at a comfortable pace, but as he devours more he gradually slows down. Eventually he stops and pushes his plate, which still has a number of fries and a few mouthfuls of burger on it, to one side. He slouches in his seat, adjusting the belt on his Levi jeans, looking slightly uncomfortable: it is clear that he has consumed a bit beyond his limit. He stretches his arms – I notice his adidas sweater. He extends his legs – I see his Nike sneakers. He struggles back to his feet, fishes in his wallet for a ten dollar bill to pay, and slopes back to his ragged apartment in all his brand-named finery. I’m left a little stunned by this incongruity.
I am sure we have all incredulously witnessed similarly incomprehensible indulgence in needless products at the expense of more basic necessities and wondered “why?” But on reflection, have we not just witnessed excessive consumption being naturalised in the diner? Everything in our lives has been commodified, and our daily existence is permeated with the consumption of these commodities, from the furniture in our home to the food we eat to the clothes we wear. There seems no reason why our attitude to consumption in one area should differ from our attitude to it in another. With the naturalisation of excess encompassed in that titanic meal, perhaps we should not be surprised that this guy also finds himself compelled to consume other commodities in a way that is beyond his limits. In which case, is it any surprise that Americans are increasingly living beyond their means, borrowing huge amounts of money and getting into serious debt? I do not mean to blame spending habits entirely on the size of the meals being eaten, but it seems that enormous servings in restaurants in the name of value and projecting prosperity, as well as encouraging habits that are physically unhealthy, may help instil a mind-set that benfits economic growth in the short-term, but is financially harmful to the consumer (and as we have learnt recently, to the wider economy) in the long-term.
Could it be that America’s dietary crisis and its financial crisis are in fact feeding each other?
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