The consumer criticism has been fueling academia for the last 40 years and has only achieved making people buy more for less which means more pollution and bad payments for those who produce. The irony of this turn in consuming behavior is largely a result of guilt for spending too much money on one single item. Its seen as irrational, hedonistic, wast full and immoral.
Max Weber says that this guilt derives from the Protestant puritan ethics that has been dominating vestern societies. He defines spirit of capitalism as the ideas that favour the rational pursuit of economic gain. That is why we feel so satisfied and smart when we get something on sale " I saved soooo much buying these three items for the price of two!".
This cultural baggage is a big problem when it comes to climate issues such as waste. Cheap stuff are usually of bad quality, which means you have to throw it away next season. The quantity demand requires more exploitation of the earth. Which basically makes it quite unethical to buy these kind of cheap, low quality, mass produced goods.
So Academia continues to to focus on the hedonistic unreflected human being who in large part is what mass media reflects, expecially when it comes to female consumer behavior turning this thing to a self forfilling prophecy.
“Everything's got a moral, if only you can find it.”( Lewis Carroll quote)
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