Governments are deemed to succeed or fail by how well they make money go round, regardless of whether it serves any useful purpose. They regard it as a sacred duty to encourage the country’s most revolting spectacle: the annual feeding frenzy in which shoppers queue all night, then stampede into the shops, elbow, trample and sometimes fight to be the first to carry off some designer junk which will go into landfill before the sales next year. The madder the orgy, the greater the triumph of economic management. George Monbiot
Our economy is based on spending billions to persuade people that happiness is buying things, and then insisting that the only way to have a viable economy is to make things for people to buy so they’ll have jobs and get enough money to buy things. Philip Slater
Americans spend more than they earn. Danny Schechter PSTV.tv In Debt We Trust ***** PSTV 2006
We live in a world where spending never stops. But why do we buy what we buy? And how is our desire to spend manipulated? Jacques Peretti, The Men Who Made Us Spend, BBC 2014
Yesterday’s desired item is tomorrow’s piece of trash. ibid.
Hard proof of planned obsolescence. ibid.
Logical reprogramming of the consumer – his name was Alfred P Sloan, the head of General Motors ... ‘The organised creation of dissatisfaction’. ibid.
The designer revolution of the ’80s and ’90s cloaked a tidal wave of cheap goods on to the high street we bought and discarded without shame. ibid.
Apple have perfected the idea of obsolescence. ibid.
They’ve exploited our anxieties to sell everything from cars to soap to the secret of eternal youth. Jacques Peretti, The Men Who Made Us Spend II
This notion of soothing our fears has almost endless potential to get us to spend. ibid.
We’re obsessed with Statins and Cholesterol. ibid.
A new word has entered the lexicon – antibacterial. ibid.
If fear could be invoked to sell us flavoured water, anything seemed possible. ibid.
Fear is at the very heart of why we buy. ibid.
In less than fifty years children have become prized consumers, with British and American kids worth seven hundred billion pounds a year. Jacques Peretti, The Men Who Made Us Spend III
Children were targeted increasingly aggressively. ibid.
An entire shopping culture had been built around credit. ibid.
Now, we’re a nation of shoppers. ibid.
Welcome to Whitehall: to the heart of government … I’ll be finding out where billions of pounds of taxpayers’ cash is really going. And who’s policing the spending. From vast projects to what’s happening on our streets. Jacques Peretti, Who’s Spending Britain’s Billions?
The largest warship ever built in the UK … It’s now six billion pounds and they’re still not in service … ‘It could end up costing twelve billion for the two carriers.’ ibid.
When Boris Johnson was mayor … he bought three water canons from the German police: they were never used. ibid.
Why when they’re [Council] told to make savings they’re hiring expensive consultants to tell them how to do it. ibid.
Billionaires use a private network of luxury food suppliers. The World's Most Expensive Food I, Channel 4 2015
As the rich get richer, their spending is escalating beyond belief. ibid.
Not just any coffee ... £325 a cup. ibid.
Food suppliers must constantly raise their game. ibid.
I, Mark Twain, being of sound mine have spent everything. Mark Twain
I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars. The rest I just squandered. George Best, attributions & variations
Our current financial situation means that if we want to buy, we have to spend. Kevin Keegan
It’s our money, and we’re free to spend it any way we please … If you have money you spend it, and win. Rose Kennedy, of Robert’s 1968 campaign