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    In common use, consumerism refers to the tendency of people living in a capitalist economy to engage in a lifestyle of excessive materialism that revolves around reflexive, wasteful, or conspicuous overconsumption. In this sense, consumerism is widely understood to contribute to the destruction of traditional values and ways of life, exploitation of consumers by big business, environmental degradation, and negative psychological effects.

    Consumerism can be criticized on economic grounds. In the form of conspicuous consumption, consumerism can impose enormous real costs on economy. Consuming real resources in zero or negative-sum competition for social status can offset the gains from commerce in a modern industrial economy and lead to destructive creation in markets for consumers and other goods. Consumerism can also create incentives for consumers to take on unsustainable levels of debt, which can contribute to financial crises and recessions.

    Consumerism is also often criticized as cultural grounds. Few see that consumerism can lead to a materialistic society that neglects other values. Traditional modes of production and ways of life can be replaced by a focus on consuming ever more costly goods in larger quantities. Consumerism is often associated with globalization in promoting the production and consumption of globally traded goods and brands, which can be incompatible with local cultures and patterns of economic activities.

    Environmental problems are frequently associated with consumerism to the extent that consumer goods industries and the direct effects of consumption produce environmental externalities. These can include pollution by producing industries, resource depletion due to widespread conspicuous consumption, and problems with waste disposal from excess consumer goods and packaging.

    Lastly, consumerism is often criticized on psychological grounds. It is blamed for increasing status anxiety, where people experience stress for increasing competition for social status by increasing their consumption. Psychological experiments have shown that people exposed to consumerist values based on wealth, status, and material possessions display greater anxiety and depression.

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