NYU ITP: If Products Could Tell Their Stories Class 2

The consumer’s role:

On need vs. want in the American psyche:

35% of Americans surveyed aspired to reach the top 6% of the income distribution, and another 49% aspired to the next 12%.

Only 15% reported that they would be satisfied with “living a comfortable life” – that is, being middle class.

But 85% of the population cannot earth the six-figure incomes necessary to support upper-middle-class lifestyles.

The result is a growing aspirational gap: with desires persistently outrunning incomes, many consumers find themselves frustrated.

-Susan Fournier and Michael Guiry, University of Florida, 1991.

This, and more, and recent recalls here:

 

 

Consumption Gross National Happiness