Is consumerism inherent or learned? Discuss and explain.

If consumerism was inherent, then the entire world would be as material obsessed as the United States. But it's not. Small-scale and domestic societies that have been mostly isolated from Western culture and values don't place emotional values on money, cars, homes, and the increasing amount of American "necessities" like cell phones, dishwashers, and computers.

Consumerism is learned greed that we as Americans have absorbed and justified as natural. It is perhaps inevitable in a capitalist society where the gap between the few elite and the masses of working class strive to live at the same financial and luxury level. Advertising also plays a huge role by setting the standard of what specific people in specific groups should look like, wear, have, and buy.