Marketing capitalism: have we sold our soul for profit? /Ramesh Shrestha

Capitalist salesmen have found a market from newborn infants to senior citizens, essentially capitalism found markets from cradle to grave.

Not too long ago

As a Programme Officer I recall attending a workshop on social marketing many moons ago. UNICEF did miracles in promoting oral rehydration salt which saved the lives of millions of young children in developing countries from dehydration. But capitalism has given a new meaning of salesmanship to a whole new level unmatched by anything the world has seen in marketing. It has penetrated all five senses - sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch - of human species. The target of capitalist salesmen starts from newborn infants to senior citizens, essentially capitalism found markets from cradle to grave. 

The marketeers exploit people even at the most vulnerable moments - grieving for departed souls, by offering choices of bouquets costing ten times the market price. Have we sold our soul for profit?

 

What is the secret? 

The capitalist marketeers conferred the idea of authority, a self-expression giving individual identity. It is the most vociferous idea piercing the human mind that you are at liberty to choose what you want; you have the supreme power to decide! And people simply embraced it with blind faith. The idea of consumerism has colonised the entire world, assisted by global media networks, which are the tentacles of capitalism. There are no secrets; it was a simple idea of abusing the human psyche. 

The second issue is the idea of ‘need to keep the momentum of economic growth’. Market is important, no doubt, it fuels the economy; it generates taxes for the government which funds all public services. Marketeers exploit the human ego. Some of the slogans that exploit human ego are; ‘you are the consumer and consumers have the power’; ‘consumers are always right’. Has the idea of market and choices gone too far? Market and marketing in itself are not a problem. 

The problem is the lack of distribution of wealth generated by the market. Market and Capitalism has become a Siamese twin – inseparable. 

Market imperialism  

Market as we experience now is not just a cluster of shops where people buy and sell. It is now a synthesis of the corporate power and the most intrusive media, accessible to everyone 24/7. We are over extracting, over producing and over consuming encouraged by marketers. You can even buy Coca Cola at Sangboche trek (12,000+ft altitude), on the way to the Everest base camp.

The corporates, under its wings, own all components of the economy - manufacturing, funding, insuring, distribution, advertising and marketing – an all-in-one business. The idea of competition sold to the public is just a farce. The reality is that it is a big fish eats small fish game. Small businesses are either being taken over by the big ones or simply dying unable to compete with big entities. It has generated unemployment and poverty, which are attributed to faith – karma! As capitalism continues to market the flawed economic models globally, traditional economies and local productions are dying or dead in many places.  

Consequences we are enduring 

The lack of savings among people during COVID-19 lockdown exposed the bare truth, the results of inequality that has engulfed every country in the world. The politicians, irrespective of political ideology have blindly embraced capitalism as a model for economic growth. Thus, by default capitalists are in control of the governance, whose interest is to protect the Capital and the Capitalists, not the poor, not the average individual person.  

The media with all its might have sold us a lifestyle which not everyone can afford, but everyone has willingly accepted as the way to go! The alternative models that once existed have all died or dying under external pressure. Materialism, our faith in consumerism has become our status symbol. Markets and consumers are essential for the economy. But we have taken it to a much higher level to the point that it is destroying both our society and nature collectively. Capitalism associated with protectionism has become a bad combination for most economies. It is negatively impacting mid- and low- income countries and causing erosion of social protection systems everywhere, including in many industrialised countries. Did the media oversold capitalism? 

Do you know? 

There are expiry dates on car seats and helmets which makes you worry and make you buy new ones as the expiry date approaches. People are sensible enough to replace such products as required but by simply printing an expiry date makes you think twice in using these products. It is a way of exploiting the human mind, pure and simple. If something happens to you or the child, not related to the car seat or the helmet, the insurance company, which in essence most likely is colluding with manufacturers, might say that you are using expired product, hence not covered by the insurance. Where will this stop?  

As consumerism grows, we are also creating a lot of waste. Most of this waste cannot be recycled, no matter what the corporations and media say with recyclable print on the products. It is expected that we will be producing about 3.4 billion tonnes of solid waste and 1.6 billion tons of carbon dioxide per year by 2050.  

Our dilemma 

In order to reduce the waste, we need to buy less which would be unacceptable to the corporations. It would also mean slowing down the economy, which means reduced revenue for the government. But … 

There is only so much we can abuse nature with over extraction and garbage we dump in landfills, rivers and oceans. We can certainly survive with little less without harming nature and without harming the economy. It is up to us.

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Ramesh Shrestha can be contacted via: ramesh.chauni@gmail.com

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