Whether consumerism is rampant or not cannot be decided by looking at economic factors alone.

After all, the reason we need a roaring economy is so that we can keep up a high level of mass consumption. Mass consumption, in turn, usually makes for a roaring economy. So, to justify mass consumption on the basis of a roaring economy is circular reasoning and that is not very meaningful. We have to look at all the effects of consumerism on humanity, the whole picture, before we can come to a conclusion. In a consumerist society, the success, satisfaction, happiness and fulfillment of any person comes to depend entirely on his or her material possessions, beads, baubles, trinkets and toys. This causes an intense rat race which leads to a lot of social ills, as people desperately find ways to relieve their unnatural levels of stress. Many people take to crime in order to achieve material success. All wars throughout human history were fought over control of natural resources for the consumption of one country or another, even if some higher cause was portrayed in order to fool the gullible. Any consumer item needs natural resources for manufacture ultimately and causes environmental pollution in its manufacture and transportation. It has an environmental impact when consumers discard the items. Thus mass consumerism is almost entirely responsible for environmental degradation and the great misery that future generations will face because of it. Although consumerism seems heady and enjoyable, over several generations and on a very large scale, it leads only to misery. We mass consumers are living in a fool's paradise, that will last only for a few more generations and will have an adverse impact on all aspects of life on this planet. Consumerism is based on the fallacy that happiness is dependent entirely on material possessions and physical luxuries. It is this narrow, materialistic view that is the problem. The very fact that the author of the earlier posting considers only the economy and wages, entirely ignoring the effect of rampant consumerism on individuals, society and future generations, is itself a good example of materialistic thinking. Happiness is a state of mind and it does not need material possessions, trinkets and baubles in order to be enjoyed. Humanity as a whole will benefit if more and more people realize this truth and train their minds to depend less on material possessions. This does not necessarily need religion and any person of average intelligence can train himself or herself to attain that level of self awareness, although religion can help. When consumerism cools down all over the world a better way of life will emerge, in which most of the ills humanity faces today will not exist. If intelligent, thinking people do not care to make this effort, then who else will?

Essay 1 Choose one of the two questions below: A. Describe your most valued accomplishment and explain why you view it as such OR B. Describe a time when you failed. What did you learn from that failure? How has that failure made you better equipped for the future? Whenever youre given a choice between two topics, your first step has to be to brainstorm about examples for each. Then, choose the topic that demonstrates your actions and achievements best. How could a failure essay possibly demonstrate that better than an accomplishment essay, you ask? By illustrating your risk-taking nature and ability to recover and learn from your mistakes. Essay 2 Name one current issue (economic / social / political) that Asia is facing and identify a couple of strategies that you feel may adequately address the issue. Human rights, market reform, monetary policy, labor markets, sustainability the list of potential issues to discuss is a long one! Choose an issue that is important to you and use this essay to demonstrate your ability to strategically problem solve and make a clear argument. Essay 3 Rampant consumerism (seeking material goods without the ability to afford them) is one of the main causes for the current global economic crisis. Restraining consumerism remains a key task for developed countries like the US and Western Europe. What are your views? The classroom at NUS is dynamic and interactive. To create a class of students that bring diverse opinions and perspectives to the classroom, the admissions committee wants to hear yours. Share your opinion and how you arrived at it in this essay, present your analysis and recommendations cogently, and let the admissions committee hear your voice. Short Answer Why is it important for you to embark on your MBA now? (max 300 char) This is a very brief (300 characters is less than 4 lines of typical text) opportunity for you to explain what is happening in your professional and personal life that make now the right time to pursue this education. Reapplicant Essay If you are a re-applicant to the NUS MBA Program or its Double Degree programs, please highlight your progress since your last application. (max 300 char) You dont have room for a detailed explanation here. Instead, emphasize your promotions, new areas of responsibility and impact. Briefly describe your post MBA career plans and the course of action you intend to take in order for you to meet your goals successfully. There is no specific word limit for this question since it is not one of the essays limited to 300 words, but their guidance to briefly describe your plans should be heeded by concisely describing what path you plan to pursue. I recommend including your goals for immediately following graduation and your path beyond that. You may choose to include specific milestones you hope to achieve in time or a way that you plan to shape a company, industry, or economy. I recommend linking this path with what you are hoping to learn at NUS. If you would like professional guidance with your NUS application, please consider Accepteds MBA essay editing and MBA admissions consulting.

In 2007 the global economy suffered a crippling and unanticipated shock after some of the worlds biggest financial institutions faltered. Four years on our economy is slowly limping back to life, although the hangover from our spending glut lingers.

Our appetite is voracious. We pick up a new gadget, momentarily engrossed until slack-jawed and bored we toss it on the heap.
Whilst its widely acknowledged that lax regulation of the financial sector was the primary cause of the crisis, there is a deeper social malaise at play here: greed, not just of the bankers but of society as a whole. What about all those people who took on record levels of debt? Arent they also responsible for what happened? After all, banks cant lend unless there are willing recipients. Currently our economy is based on a high-growth model that prioritises profit margins over stability, as we have discovered to our peril. It is not possible to grow by the extraordinary levels we have seen in the western world, and are increasingly seeing in the eastern world unless someone, somewhere, is consuming be that financial products, food or property. In the capitalist system, the good citizen is the citizen who spends a fortune stuffing his face with sugar so that he can pay for a heart transplant from a private medical practice when he has heart failure. Ultimately, the fervent capitalist doesnt want us to make do and mend. He doesnt want us to find fulfilment in anything that cant be bought or sold on the markets. This isnt to imply that there is something inherently wrong with markets per se but that we need to find more of a balance between our current financial model and the supposed alternative of squatting in a socialist commune. There is a happy medium. We need to foster low and stable growth across a portfolio of industries. That means accepting that living standards will not rise at the rates that they have been. That means accepting that the profiteering on steroids of yesteryear will be a thing of the past. We will make money yes, but they will be small and steady gains as opposed to the heart-stopping lottery wins weve seen in recent years. These are unpalatable truths for many. You try telling a CEO that theyre going to earn 50% less in order to prevent our economy from flatlining. You try telling people that their standard of living is going to stagnate because our growth model isnt sustainable in the long-term. No wonder politicians find it

impossible to reform our financial system, no one wants to be the bearer of bad news. We have become a nation obsessed with consumption and our economy feeds off our insatiable greed. Have you seen the portion sizes inAmerica? I ordered a crab salad in San Francisco and was given an entire generation of crustaceans, doused in pink cream and languishing on a bed of lettuce that probably took a family of Argentineans eight months to grow. I ate a tenth of the portion and took the remainder outside to bury. I am now a fully paid-up member of the Endangered Crustacean Cooperative protecting crabs everywhere from the tyranny of expanding waistlines in the western hemisphere. Its not just food. Our appetite for technology is voracious. We pick up a new toy or gadget, momentarily engrossed until slack-jawed and bored we toss it on the heap. Who cares if the television still works? We dont want that old thing. It has to be shiny and new, new, NEW. Ripping into the packaging hungrily, licking our lips like hunters spoiling for a kill. Instant happiness in a can just open and consume! I was watching a programme on product branding the other day which showed that humans displayed similar brain patterns watching big brand advertising as those recorded by people engaged in devotional worship. In the vacuum left by religious decline, products have stepped up to the plate. God is dead all hail Apple! Of course some consumption is necessary and desirable. Without any consumption our economies would shrink and wed have mass unemployment and poverty theres that point about balance again. But we need a fundamental shift in the way we manage our economies, from a volatile high growth profit-based model to a stable low growth profit-based model. Furthermore, I dont think its such a bad thing that we all slow down on this runaway gravy train to wealth and prosperity. My wealthier contemporaries dont appear any happier than anyone else. In fact more often than not they seem a great deal unhappier because they are horribly sleep-deprived and neglecting all their personal relationships for a bumper pay packet at the end of the month. The economic consensus of the day is that higher growth is always a virtue. In fact, it is our relentless pursuit of growth that has lead to the financial and moral mess we find ourselves in now.

The financial crisis was caused in part by rampant consumerism and the desire to be able to engage in this lifestyle. Sub prime loans were lent to people who wanted to take part in the housing market as a buyer rather than a renter. Many thousands of people had raked up huge credit card debts as they bought and bought and bought, and there is little sign that the recession has dampened this desire, the US and Britain are still debtor nations that are living right at the edge of their means relying on credit from more prudent countries.

Consumption is a feature of capitalism and modern society. Being a consumer means consciously buying products and services that are needed. The distinction should be made, however, between

someone in this category and someone who acquires services and products compulsively, without real awareness of the need, seduced by marketing companies that market such products and services. This is a consumerist, or compulsive consumer. Consumerism is a global environmental threat, warns report was the headline in the Journal Estado on January 18, 2010. The Worldwatch Institutes annual report showed that compulsive consumption may undermine the governments efforts to combat climate change and promote an energy-efficient economy. According to the report published by the Worldwatch Institute, the average American consumes more than his own weight in products per day. This feeds a global culture of excess and has emerged as the greatest threat to the planet. Until we recognize that our environmental problems climate change, deforestation and loss of species are driven by unsustainable habits, we will not be able to resolve the ecological crisis that threatens to end civilization, says Erik Assadourian, a Senior Fellow at Worldwatch Institute and director of the project on consumerism and leader of a team of 35 researchers. Developing countries like Brazil, China and India already have habits very similar to those of Americans. The planets resources are being depleted at a reckless speed. In January, China surpassed the United States in the production of cars, and the country is now the largest emitter of greenhouse gases. The conclusion of the report of the Worldwatch Institute states that the growth of consumerism is the result of the efforts of companies to win consumers, says Assadourian. We need a new culture of consumerism, one that incorporates an awareness of sustainable development. As the world struggles to recover from the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, we have the unprecedented opportunity to turn our backs on consumerism. In the end, the human instinct for survival ought to triumph over the desire to consume at all costs, argues the president of the Worldwatch Institute, Christopher Flavin. For more information visit: www.worldwatch