Consumers Quotes

“When life hasn’t got a swing anymore, people may give in to obsessive oniomaniac compulsions, in as much as they are going out of their way to construct a flamboyant life style and change their identity from “don’t-need” to “must-have” consumers, so as to satisfy their gripping buying desire. ("Buying now. Dying later")”
― Erik Pevernagie

“I see things in windows and I say to myself that I want them. I want them because I want to belong. I want to be liked by more people, I want to be held in higher regard than others. I want to feel valued, so I say to myself to watch certain shows. I watch certain shows on the television so I can participate in dialogues and conversations and debates with people who want the same things I want. I want to dress a certain way so certain groups of people are forced to be attracted to me. I want to do my hair a certain way with certain styling products and particular combs and methods so that I can fit in with the In-Crowd. I want to spend hours upon hours at the gym, stuffing my body with what scientists are calling 'superfoods', so that I can be loved and envied by everyone around me. I want to become an icon on someone's mantle. I want to work meaningless jobs so that I can fill my wallet and parentally-advised bank accounts with monetary potential. I want to believe what's on the news so that I can feel normal along with the rest of forever. I want to listen to the Top Ten on Q102, and roll my windows down so others can hear it and see that I am listening to it, and enjoying it. I want to go to church every Sunday, and pray every other day. I want to believe that what I do is for the promise of a peaceful afterlife. I want rewards for my 'good' deeds. I want acknowledgment and praise. And I want people to know that I put out that fire. I want people to know that I support the war effort. I want people to know that I volunteer to save lives. I want to be seen and heard and pointed at with love. I want to read my name in the history books during a future full of clones exactly like me.

The mirror, I've noticed, is almost always positioned above the sink. Though the sink offers more depth than a mirror, and mirror is only able to reflect, the sink is held in lower regard. Lower still is the toilet, and thought it offers even more depth than the sink, we piss and shit in it. I want these kind of architectural details to be paralleled in my every day life. I want to care more about my reflection, and less about my cleanliness. I want to be seen as someone who lives externally, and never internally, unless I am able to lock the door behind me.

I want these things, because if I didn't, I would be dead in the mirrors of those around me. I would be nothing. I would be an example. Sunken, and easily washed away.”
― Dave Matthes

“The world economy would collapse if a significant number of people were to realize and then act on the realization that it is possible to enjoy many if not most of the things that they enjoy without first having to own them.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana, The Use and Misuse of Children

“To really change the world, we have to help people change the way they see things.”
― Suzy Kassem, Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem

“For their never-ending endeavours to obtain or retain wealth, countries desperately need companies, because they—unlike most human beings—have the means of production, and human beings, because they—unlike all companies—have the means of reproduction.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana, The Use and Misuse of Children

“Mold won’t grow on McDonald’s. So, if a lifeform with no brain won’t even eat their food, what’s that say about the intellects of McDonald’s customers? BearPaw Duck And Meme Farm caters to more discerning consumers.”
― Jarod Kintz, Duck Quotes For The Ages. Specifically ages 18-81.

“Some consumers buy products not because they are ‘better” in any way, but simply because they are popular. What they’re buying is not just a product, but also a piece of popularity itself.”
― Derek Thompson, Hit Makers: The Science of Popularity in an Age of Distraction

“They promise us once-in-a-lifetime bargains in the orgies of consumerism that are Black Friday and Cyber Monday. More likely, we end up with precious little, vacant souls and an ever-decreasing appreciation of humanity.”
― Stewart Stafford

“Computers are one of the products in the USA that appear to be unregulated by the government which leaves consumers unprotected from flawed devices.”
― Steven Magee

“Our food system depends on consumers’ not knowing much about it beyond the price disclosed by the checkout scanner. Cheapness and ignorance are mutually reinforcing. And it’s a short way from not knowing who’s at the other end of your food chain to not caring- to the carelessness of both consumers and producers.”
― Michael Pollan, The Omnivore's Dilemma

“Consumption is not bad, but when done at excessive proportions it turns out to be not just bad, but downright deadly for the self as well as the society, as the society itself is a collective functional expression of many selves.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Conscience over Nonsense

“Most consumers are unaware of the ongoing, intense suffering and billions of premature deaths that lurk behind mayonnaise and cream, cold cuts and egg sandwiches.”
― Lisa Kemmerer, Speaking Up for Animals: An Anthology of Women's Voices

“The buyers of useless things are wiser than is commonly supposed--they buy little dreams. They become children in the act of acquisition. When people with money succumb to the charms of those useless little objects, they possess them with the joy of a child gathering sea shells on the beach--the image that best expresses the child's happiness. He gathers shells on the beach! No two are ever alike for a child. He falls asleep with the two prettiest ones in his hand, and when they're lost or taken from him (A crime! They've made off with outward bits of his soul! They've stolen pieces of his dream!), he weeps like a God robbed of a just-created universe.”
― Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet

“Creators always have an advantage because they make the stuff we consume.”
― Richie Norton

“I mean, there aren't many inventions that actually succeed in meeting some human need. Ninety-nine percent of them are just some ugly combo of pushy marketing and spineless consumers.”
― Etgar Keret, The Nimrod Flipout

“There is no such creature as a “farm animal,” except human beings, who have spent considerable time farming down through history. Other species, such as turkeys and pigs, are exploited on farms, by humans. As such, they are “farmed” animals. Similarly, there is no such thing as a “veal calf” or a “lab animal,” though there are millions of calves and mice who are systematically exploited by ranchers, experimenters, and consumers. There is also no such thing as seafood, only sea creatures who are exploited by others for food or profit.”
― Lisa Kemmerer, Sister Species: Women, Animals and Social Justice

“Feminists lobby against sex wage discrepancies, gays fight homophobic laws, and the physically challenged demand greater access—each fighting for injustices that affect their lives, and/or the lives of their loved ones. Yet these dedicated activists usually fail to make even a slight change in their consumer choices for the sake of other much more egregiously oppressed and exploited individuals. While it is important to fight for one’s own liberation, it is counterproductive (not to mention selfish and small minded) to fight for one’s own liberation while willfully continuing to oppress others who are yet lower on the rungs of hierarchy.”
― Lisa Kemmerer, Speaking Up for Animals: An Anthology of Women's Voices

“Those who are aware of history, of patriarchy and of the feminist movement, tend to understand how difficult it is—and how important—for people to rethink basic behaviors in order to bring about deep and lasting change. We must rethink how we speak, how we spend our time, and what we consume. This is as true for fighting sexism as it is for fighting speciesism—or any other form of domination, exploitation, and oppression. We must change our lives first, and most fundamentally. . . . [Feminists] can and must choose not to continue to exploit nonhuman animals while working to liberate girls and women”
― Lisa Kemmerer, Speaking Up for Animals: An Anthology of Women's Voices

“This book is about what religions teach, not about what religious people believe or how they live. There is often shamefully little correlation between the two.”
― Lisa Kemmerer, Animals and World Religions

“One of the main reasons for market failure in the U.S. healthcare industry is because we are uninformed consumers.”
― Kat Lahr, What the U.S. Healthcare System Doesn't Want You to Know, Why, and How You Can Do Something About It

“Anyone under the age of 65 that has private health insurance is not the true customer in American healthcare. Large and small group employers are.”
― Kat Lahr, What the U.S. Healthcare System Doesn't Want You to Know, Why, and How You Can Do Something About It

“This is, then, no longer a sequence of mere objects, but a chain of signifiers, in so far as all of these signify one another reciprocally as part of a more complex super-object, drawing the consumer into a series of more complex motivations. (Baudrillard, 1998: 27)”
― Francesco Proto, Baudrillard for Architects

“American citizens are self-absorbed, and the U.S. government devotes its immense resources to achieving the capitalistic demands of its citizenry. Thoughts do not saturate American politics. Corporations employ lobbyist and they fund political action committees that exert inordinate influence in shaping the outcome of this nation’s political agendas. Lobbyist devote their paid for services to sway government officials including legislators and members of regulatory agencies to carry out the programs of powerful corporations and wealthy individuals, granting unprecedented socioeconomic power in the hallowed chambers of the American government to wealthy segments of society. American corporations and affluent people exploit American culture, morals, and religion to push their private interests including inexplicable economic and military incursions into foreign counties. I feel increasingly disenfranchised and unrepresented in America’s supposedly participatory democratic government given the entrenchment of power in a select few. American democracy grants material benefits to the wealthy, vulgarizes the middle class, and ignores the disenfranchised poor. Many Americans applaud prosperous groups exploiting the lower classes, presumably because everyone aspires to become rich. A person and a society that employs vanities and greediness to measure their worthiness is hopelessly doomed. Future historians will venerate an empire that pursued achievement of great deeds based upon virtuous principles. Conversely, the historians of tomorrow will skewer contemporary Americans for their compulsive need to consume the ecosystem and trounce upon the rights of other nations to live peacefully. American vanities and unchecked desire to enjoy an easy life could destroy the world, as we know it.”
― Kilroy J. Oldster, Dead Toad Scrolls

“Power companies love people that light up their homes all night long!”
― Steven Magee

“There is an adage in the marketing industry that says, “Don’t sell the mattress, sell the sleep.” This cleverly and concisely captures the idea of marketing a solution.”
― Jeff Swystun, Why Marketing Works: 7 Time-Tested, Brand-Building Principles

“Solutions are highly personal even though the same solution may be used by millions of people.”
― Jeff Swystun, Why Marketing Works: 7 Time-Tested, Brand-Building Principles

“Possessions deteriorate, become obsolete, or teeter towards irrelevance. We will never remember the features of our third-last smartphone but we will remember how it helped us and what it made us feel. It’s the experience of the item, not the item itself, that we value more.”
― Jeff Swystun, Why Marketing Works: 7 Time-Tested, Brand-Building Principles

“Authenticity goes deeper than telling the truth. It means sticking to your ideals and keeping relevant to what made you successful and different in the first place.”
― Jeff Swystun, Why Marketing Works: 7 Time-Tested, Brand-Building Principles

“While there is an enthusiastic foodie culture craving new experiences, larger numbers of the population seek comfort in the familiar. People have their favorite restaurant at which they order the same dish, time and again. This is especially true in fast food and fast casual restaurants who strive to eradicate variability. Most of what is bought in the world is a form of mass customization. Everyone with an iPhone feels unique and special but over two billion have been sold.”
― Jeff Swystun, TV DINNERS UNBOXED: The Hot History of Frozen Meals

“Only producers constitute a market - only men who trade products and services for products and services. In the role of producers, they represent a market’s supply; in the role of consumers, they represent a market’s demand. The law of supply and demand has an implicit subclause: that it involves the same people in both capacities. When this subclause is forgotten, ignored or evaded - you get the economic situation of today.
The man who consumes without producing is a parasite, whether is a welfare recipient or a rich playboy”
― Ayn Rand, Philosophy: Who Needs It