In Response to Shane Norris...

Can you think of any other industry where this same pricing action occurs? 

The phenomenon of the fast food pricing situation that you wrote about is almost humerus.  I have seen something like this happen as well. As consumers we are trained to only go after the lowest prices when there is a competitors product that is a direct substitute for the one we are purchasing. But, what happened to the saying, "time is money?" In my eyes, you are only going to be spending around a dollar more if you go to one of McDonald's competitors like Wendy's or Burger King. One dollar is most certainly worth twenty minutes of time.

I began thinking about your question and realized that gas stations have the same situations occurring. I have literally seen two gas stations next to each other and one is priced one cent less than their neighboring station. The line for the station priced one cent less had huge lines while the other one remained basically vacant until they lowered theirs one cent as well. Then the line started to die down.

How can it be possible that as consumers we are willing to focus so much on prices like these situations, but then we go ahead an spend so much more than we have? Could studying the lowest prices of products be a way of making ourselves feel better for our splurges in spending?

The Overspent American

In class yesterday we watched a very interesting video about the endless cycle of consumerism in our country. I don't think anyone knows exactly when or why we switched from the regular work schedules of the past to people working up to 80 hours a week. The video seemed to explain that do to our increasing spending habits, we work to compensate for that spending. The more money you make the more money you're going to spend.

After facing some of the questions we were asked to answer, it seemed evident that we really changed in 2003 when the "new consumerism" traits started to occur. This new consumerism is a result of companies simplifying their marketing strategies and blasting consumers with multi-media advertisements. Since people generally aspire for a lifestyle that is hard to achieve, it makes sense that people are willing to work 80 hour weeks in order to live the lifestyle of the "Gates's."

The problem with this is that since the mansion you purchase, sports car you drive and designer clothes you wear are tangible objects, they physically show the rest of the world how successful you are in a subliminal way. The people that see that you have these things do not know how much money is in your bank account. Or how much debt you have on your credit card. So, consumers in our country are constantly bringing on debt in order to purchase these flashy products in order to achieve the sense of prosperity that they have longed for.

In our modern day, it is apparent that the "Overspent American" is getting worse. Do you think that things will continue on that path? When will it eventually be too much?