Most consumer goods satisfy psychological cravings rather than felt deprivations

Evidence

Most goods serve needs that are discovered to the individual not by the palpable discomfort that accompanies deprivation, but by some psychic response to their possession. They give him a sense of personal achievement, accord him a feeling of equality with his neighbors, divert his mind from thought, serve sexual aspirations, promise social acceptability, enhance his subjective feeling of health, well-being or orderly peristalsis, contribute by conventional canons to personal beauty, or are otherwise psychologically rewarding. — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 389

Categorization

• XREF: Reconnects to the reader’s reading on signalling/commercial culture and the fabrication of needs — parallels the ‘murketing’ and social-signaling literature. — connects to: Markets primarily fabricate felt needs rather than conveying goods to those in need — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 388; The compulsion to consume everything newest replaces rational need with anxiety about falling behind; Under capitalism consumption targets abstract value rather than bodily need — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 753 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Under capitalism consumption targets abstract value rather than bodily need #corroborates (0.85) — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 753
• The compulsion to consume everything newest replaces rational need with anxiety about falling behind #corroborates (0.80)
• Ad-driven desires are false needs producing euphoria in unhappiness #corroborates (0.78) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 114
• Social expectation alone can manufacture intense physical craving #exemplifies (0.70) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1458