?OPPOSING RHETORIC CONSUMER SOVEREIGNTY?.
Consumer Sovereignty is the freedom of spending to yield greater satisfaction. This phenomenon reflects in the ideals of capitalist producers to be forced by competitors to use their resources in the way that will satisfy consumer wants. If this concept were true, a producer would not be in control of what they produce. This will leave an industry, powerless its decisions of what and how much is to be made. In the middle of the 20th century, this concept of Consumer Sovereignty was criticized by John Kenneth Galbraith in his articleThe Non Sequitor of the Dependable Effect?. The two men had different views of consumer sovereignty.
The article Galbraith wrote deals with the concept ofThe Dependence Effect?. The Dependence Effect is where Galbraith tries to explain that in our affluent society one should not have any needs, expect those that are determined by the individual. He stresses the issue that all your needs are premeditated before birth. Those needs that are not premeditated are an extension of the controls and influences of society, which are not original in the person from the start. These needs should be eliminated from ones desires to focus on more fundamental needs. Galbraith statesOne cannot defend production as satisfying wants if that production creates these wants?, what Galbraith says in his statement goes against Consumer Sovereignty? He argues that the producers creates the want they satisfy. He thinks that if advertisement can create a want the desire wasn't urgent. For example, one could see a commercial for a new product, such as a beer. Now suppose before this commercial, one has never seen this product and didn't have the desire to drink beer. Nevertheless, the advertisement has captured some consumers. One day you see your neighbor enjoying this new product such as beer. It seems to you that they are satisfied with the beer.
