Britain’s long consumer binge is ending – and the political fallout will be huge | Andy Beckett

The cost-of-living crisis is a direct challenge to the kind of lives many of us have become accustomed to living

One of the main promises of modern capitalism – of modern life, really – is that you will always be able to buy more and better stuff. It’s not true, of course. Capitalism takes away as well as provides. And for poorer people, or those who are just financially stretched, the constantly advertised pleasures of consumer life often lie tantalisingly out of reach.

But for more than half a century, enough people have been able to afford them – or been able to borrow the necessary money – for society to be largely shaped around consumer habits in Britain and other rich countries. City centres, suburban retail parks, huge stretches of the internet and the inside of our heads: all are alive with, and constantly remade by, our acquisitive desires.

Andy Beckett is a Guardian columnist

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from The Guardian https://ift.tt/A0ILgn8