A Brave New World Economic Analysis

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Huxley portrays the dystopian society’s economy to be based entirely on mass production and mass consumerism. Brave New World criticizes the industrial economic systems of the era in which it was written by imagining those systems pushed to their logical extremes. The industrial revolution that began in the second half of the 19th century and sped up through the 20th allowed for the production of massive quantities of new goods. But there is no value in producing new goods that no one wants, so the willingness of the masses to consume these new goods was crucial to economic growth and prosperity. It became an economic imperative, then, that people always want new things, because if people were satisfied with what they had they would not consume…show more content…
'The more stitches, the less riches” (Huxley 194). The World State in Brave New World has made consumption one of its centerpieces. All World State citizens are conditioned to consume. Hypnopaedic teachings condition them to throw out worn clothes instead of mending them, to prefer complicated sports with lots of mechanical parts to simple games, and to refrain from any activity like thinking or reading that does not involve the payment of money for goods. The different social classes are taught to do different things and when put into new situations not known by them they simple do not know what to do. They are conditioned in a way to keep the economy from becoming unstable. They consume it is as if the citizens of the World State exist to serve their economy, rather than the other way around. In today’s world many nations are extremely reliant on consumerism, such as the United States. The U.S. is a nation that is well developed in that it has a stable economy and many of the citizens consume many products. These “products” may consist of games, electronics, food, clothes, cars, homes, and even social…show more content…
Other nations that are not so developed however tend to “mend” clothes and other items due to that fact that they cannot afford to buy a new shirt or pair of shoes. These countries usually have a poor economy and reliant on other nations for the countries wealth. Many people tend to consume more due to the display of advertisements, which tend to over hype many new technologies, and products such as during Black Friday. During this time of year many stores tend to have sales for consumers to buy good that are unnecessary in the long run. In todays society the way one appears and dresses also is important to many. This in turn makes people consume new clothes due to new fashion and styles or even improve their body with surgery. Similarly transportation has also had a big impact on consumerism in many nations whether it is a bus, plane, or train. Overall consumerism is completely dependent on how the government promotes it and the environment one is surrounded by. Overall many societies may promote consumerism to help benefit the economy, however that is not the case always due to the want of

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