Consumerism
Spending money not equal to happiness
Don't seek external validation for happiness
Sigmund Freud - Psychoanalysis
- Mass consumer persuasion
- Product placement in movies
- Moved humans from needs (things you need) to desire (you want it, doesn't matter if you need it or not)
- Dress has become an expression
- Consumptionism
- Consumerism
How Consumer Propaganda Changed America | Epic Economics - YouTube
Conspicuous Consumption
The spending of money on and the acquiring of luxury goods and services to publicly display economic power." (related: Veblen goods - "types of luxury goods, such as expensive wines, jewellery, fashion-designer handbags, and luxury cars, which are in demand because of the high prices asked for them.")
A classic example of this would be a luxury watch: A Rolex isn't better at telling the time than a cheap Casio -- but a Rolex signals something about its owner's economic power and thus their social standing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspicuous_consumption