Consumerism in UK and USA

Ubbquittious

Any time I go to UK I notice way more people carrying around 1,000 euro flag ship smartphones and pretty much any consumer tech that comes out they'll rush out in their droves and buy it. States is even worse they do it with cars, even houses. If a house is more than 10 years old they start to look down on it. Uncle had trouble getting insurance for a house because it was about 50 years old, way better built than all the houses around it but nah it was old so they didn't want to insure it.


People in the States will rush out and buy a new model car a week after it comes out not because they give a damn about cars but because its the shiny new model and the manufacturer packed the interior to the brim with gadgets. How come? Are they all just bored stiff sitting in their houses or desperate to look cool?

Your Face

Where you ever in the States?

Your scenario about their car-buying habits isn't correct.

Ubbquittious

Your Face wrote: »

Where you ever in the States?

Your scenario about their car-buying habits isn't correct.

Yep been loads of times. If that isn't correct it must have changed recently enough

pgj2015

Ireland isn't any different in fairness. how many Irish people went out and bought the latest iphone for 1,200 euro? or dre beats or whatever else is popular and overpriced.

Leg End Reject

I can't speak for the States, but over here it's the new money, new "middle class" types who are slaves to consumerism.

You don't see multi-generational rich people driving the kids to school in a new Range Rover.

It happens everywhere OP. Plus maybe you notice them because of the places you go. I am guessing that some of the people you see might be expats, tourists, etc? You would see more people with flagship models in Dublin and restaurants around the city center or other places that are worth going to. Unlike in a place like citywest for example.

Ipso

Do you remember the septic tiger?

dh1985

Ubbquittious wrote: »

Any time I go to UK I notice way more people carrying around 1,000 euro flag ship smartphones and pretty much any consumer tech that comes out they'll rush out in their droves and buy it. States is even worse they do it with cars, even houses. If a house is more than 10 years old they start to look down on it. Uncle had trouble getting insurance for a house because it was about 50 years old, way better built than all the houses around it but nah it was old so they didn't want to insure it.


People in the States will rush out and buy a new model car a week after it comes out not because they give a damn about cars but because its the shiny new model and the manufacturer packed the interior to the brim with gadgets. How come? Are they all just bored stiff sitting in their houses or desperate to look cool?

Hadn't Ireland the second highest number of smartphones per capita behind japan. Americans were slower embracing smartphones from what i seen.
Very few bad cars on the roads in ireland. Majority less than 5 years old. Lots of rust buckets on the roads in the US.
As.for the houses,.your completely off the mark from what I seen. Very rare to see a new build, most houses are timber houses that are hundreds of years old. Again could be area specific.

ArchXStanton

Consumerism is the new religion, even the Internet gots particularly bad for it lately with ads and stuff you've searched for following you around for weeks

Atlantic Dawn

On my trips to US I found their fleet of cars the most mixed I have ever seen, lots of 90's early Jap cars still running, nothing near the same amount of new model cars we have in Ireland.

chrissb8

Getting yourself in debt over a mobile phone is where you have to question your need for possessions.

FVP3

pgj2015 wrote: »

how many Irish people went out and bought the latest iphone for 1,200 euro? .

Very few. Most iphones in the wild are old, and many are hand me downs. They last. Its the standard cliche though.

I think we are about as consumerist as the UK and the US though.

dh1985 wrote: »

Hadn't Ireland the second highest number of smartphones per capita behind japan.

The UK is highest surprisingly. Ireland isnt in this list but I see elsewhere we are about 80%.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_smartphone_penetration

FVP3

I always find these threads full of anecdotes ( I was in the US and....). It is surely easy to google an answer.

I cant find how many new cars in the US but they have an extraordinary number of cars.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/183505/number-of-vehicles-in-the-united-states-since-1990/

273 million cars registered in 2018. That's almost one each including children, it's more than one per adult.