Vance Packard

The Waste Makers

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An exposé of “the systematic attempt of business to make us wasteful, debt-ridden, permanently discontented individuals,” The Waste Makers is Vance Packard's pioneering 1960 work on how the rapid growth of disposable consumer goods was degrading the environmental, financial, and spiritual character of American society.
The Waste Makers was the first book to probe the increasing commercialization of American life—the development of consumption for consumption's sake. Packard outlines the ways manufacturers and advertisers persuade consumers to buy things they don't need and didn't know they wanted, including the two-of-a-kind of everything syndrome—"two refrigerators in every home”—and appeals to purchase something because it is more expensive, or because it is painted in a new color. The book also brought attention to the concept of planned obsolescence, in which a “death date” is built into products so that they wear out quickly and need to be replaced. By manipulating the public into mindless consumerism, Packard believed that business was making us “more wasteful, imprudent, and carefree in our consuming habits,” which was using up our natural resources at an alarming rate.
A prescient book that predicted the rise of American consumer culture, this all new edition of The Waste Makers features an introduction by best-selling author Bill McKibben.
Vance Packard (1914–1996) was an American journalist, social critic, and best-selling author. Among his other books were The Hidden Persuaders, about how advertisers use psychological methods to get people to buy the products they sell; The Status Seekers, which describes American social stratification and behavior; and The Naked Society, about the threats to privacy posed by new technologies.
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381 printed pages
Original publication
2011
Publication year
2011
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Quotes

  • Soliloquios Literarioshas quoted5 years ago
    Six months earlier, the same Mr. Donner was quoted in Sales Management as supporting what it referred to as “artificial obsolescence.” Mr. Donner was reported stating, “If it had not been for the annual model change, the automobile as we know it today would not be produced in volume and would be priced so that relatively few could afford to own one. Our customers would have no incentive or reason to buy a new car until their old one wore out.” He clearly was concerned about giving car owners “an incentive or reason” to turn in their old cars before they wore out physically
  • Soliloquios Literarioshas quoted5 years ago
    As early as 1957, Automotive Industries reported that the low silhouette had become so low that “many people feel we have reached bottom.” It added, however, “There is a feeling that stylists are aiming even lower.” The sight line of drivers had dropped nine inches below the sight line of prewar autos. The following year, The Harvard Business Review carried an illuminating paper on product styling by Dwight E. Robinson, professor of business administration at the University of Washington. His investigations had taken him, among other places, to Detroit’s secretive studios for styling. He reported: “Stylists recognize that the extreme limits on lowness imposed by the human physique are only a few inches away and [will] come close to realization in the 1960 models.”
  • Soliloquios Literarioshas quoted5 years ago
    By the late fifties, Poiret’s law that all fashion ends in excess was indubitably being demonstrated in the automotive field
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