The correct answer to this open question is the following.
It is true that in the 1950s and beyond, Americans spent more money on more disposable goods than any time before. Consuming became part of American life. Some argue that consumer culture was good for all parts of America. How is this possible?
It was possible because marketing and advertising are part of the so-called American way of life, where everything is possible if you follow your dreams and work hard.
This advertising line has been sold to the American people since the roaring 1920s, a time in the United States when American people started to buy everything, needed or not, just because they had some money and most of the purchases were on credit, generating a big debt that had its consequences years later, when the US stock market crashed on October 29, 1929, starting the Great Depression.
This aspirational invitation or demand to be successful in acquiring material things and possessions have been the ultimate success of advertising and the American way of life.
Here lies the error. Even today, after so many events and economic hardships such as the US economic crisis of 2008 in which the federal government decided to resue the big financial institutions and banks, generating more US debt, American people still dream of having much possession as proof that they are successful. With no family, alone, divorce, health problems, lack of internal peace, but with a lot of money and possessions. That's a success for many American people.
