Trabalho de Inglês

TRABALHO INGLÊS

     Department stores offered a dream world of luxury, promoting shopping as an once in a life experience. But there was a contry which shopping and consumerism would become a way of life and i´m talking about America. At one point, America was one of the countrys that experienced the most consumerism, creating huge new markets and that made people realized that they could make their fortunes by manufacturing luxury items and prices the America working classes could afford.

     The consumerism took a very different turn when the advertising industry really took of by manipulating peoples desires, certainly creating envy. With all this the temptation and seduction became at least as import as providing information.

      Edward Bernays was known as the father of public relations and he believed that if you understood what motivated people, you could influence their behavior whithout them knowing about it and cajole them into buying things.

     All in all, consumerism is now deep inside our heads. However, in the 70s, the environmental message that people were trying too send was beggining to be taken seriosly. A bunch of different organizations captured the headline and actualy made a move on people´s mind. But then, America and the West took a fateful step, a new breed of politicians dismissed the environmental warnings.

     With the attacks made on 9/11 the President thought the best response they could give to the terrorists was to act normal and shop because they couldn´t let them achieve the objective of frightening our nation to the point they don´t conduuct business. The irony of all this is that the biggest threat to the United States and to the rest of the world isn´t terrorism, it´s consumerism itself.

     But there are practical sulotions if we have the courage to act right now. People are now realising how much we pay for little and insignificant things. Even though there are people who still waste a ton of good things with no reason at all and all that rubbish people keep throwing away just keeps growing.

      For example, on average we throw away 1.5 million computers every year, 99% of them in perfect working order and we buy a new mobile phone every 18 months, Every year we buy more products, things we think we need using more energy creating more waste.

     It´s this lifestyle people are taking that is now threatning life on Earth.