Consumerism
Part of the idea of what people refer to as "The
American Way of Life" is wrapped up in the whole notion of our
"Standard of Living". The "Living Standard" is a measure of
consumer spending. It is concerned with how many things we can buy, how
expensively we are able to live, what luxuries we might afford. For many
(perhaps most) Americans, the purpose of work is to earn a wage or salary in
order to support the level of consuming that we believe is right for us and
will make us happy.
Americans will say they reject these materialistic ideals. Yet they might find
it difficult to explain how their vision of work and leisure differs from the
"getting and spending" syndrome that plagues our society.
Chesterton's writings offer a ready cure for this disease. He will remind us
that work is or should be a vocation and that it is really more fun to produce
than to consume. He will remind us that the end purpose of work is a product,
not a wage, and that all the exchanges in which people exploit one another,
both socially and financially, are also opportunities for people to dignify one
another.
Chesterton lamented that "the spotlight of social importance" had
passed from workmanship to salesmanship and from thrift to indebtedness. He
regretted that "the tricks of every trade are tricks of selling things
rather than tricks of making them". He knew that the getting and
spending lifestyle is no road to any kind of happiness. Chesterton called his
alternative "Distributism" and those who dismiss it as "impractical"
have nothing to offer us but materialistic dreams of avarice and clutter.
Gilbert! will continue to publish articles dedicated to Distributism,
including our regular "Urban Distributist" feature, Carl Cassidy's
"On-The-Job" stories, the "Distributism Is Everywhere"
press clippings, and Chesterton's own writings on the subject.
[And for further reading in
Chesterton's works, see "The Enemies of Property" and "The
Modern Slave" in What’s Wrong with the World and "A Workman’s History
of England" in Utopia of Usurers]. The model version figures in Martin Ward's
Chesterton page.