"In this society, consuming is, for those who can afford it, a major form of cultural and social activity and at the same time a central feature of the economy which is imposing such frustrations in the first place. The production of an ever-increasing range of consumer goods is crucial to modern capitalism while the consumption of those goods is crucial not only to the economy but to the ideology which supports it. Marx chose to begin his great study of the capitalist system with — the commodity; not because of its economic role alone, but because of what it means.

"The conscious, chosen meaning in most people’s lives comes much more from what they consume than what they produce. Clothes, interiors, furniture, records, knick-knacks, all the things that we buy involve decisions and the exercise of our own judgement, choice, 'taste'. Obviously we don’t choose what is available for us to choose between in the first place. Consuming seems to offer a certain scope for creativity, rather like a toy where all the parts are pre-chosen but the combinations are multiple. Consumerism is often represented as a supremely individualistic act — yet it is also very social: shopping is a socially endorsed event, a form of social cement. It makes you feel normal. Most people find it cheers them up — even window shopping. The extent to which shoplifting is done where there is no material need (most items stolen are incredibly trivial) reveals the extent to which people’s wants and needs are translated into the form of consumption....

"Ownership is at present the only form of control legitimized in our culture. Any serious attempts at controlling products from the other side — as with the miners’ demand to control the future of their product, coal (or the printing unions’ attempts to control their product, newspaper articles, etc) are not endorsed. Some parts of the left find these struggles less riveting than the struggles over meanings in street style. Yet underlying both struggles is the need for people to control their environment and produce their own communal identity; it is just that the former, if won, could actually fulfil that need while the latter ultimately never will."