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James A. Roberts is a professor of marketing at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, where he has been a faculty member since 1991. Roberts is a nationally recognized expert on consumer behavior, and his research on compulsive buying, credit-card abuse, and the way that materialism affects our quality of life has been featured in media outlets including ABC’s World News, NPR, the New York Times, USA Today, and Cosmopolitan.

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Americans toss out 140 million cell phones every year. We discard 2 million plastic bottles every five minutes. And our total credit-card debt as of July 2011 is $793 billion.

Plus, credit cards can make you fat.

The American Dream was founded on the belief that anyone dedicated to thrift and hard work could create opportunities and achieve a better life. Now that dream has been reduced to a hyperquantified desire for fancier clothes, sleeker cars, and larger homes. We’ve lost our way, but James Roberts argues that it’s not too late to find it again. In Shiny Objects, he offers us an opportunity to examine our day-to-day habits, and once again strive for lives of quality over quantity.

Mining his years of research into the psychology of consumer behavior, Roberts gets to the heart of the often-surprising ways we make our purchasing decisions. What he and other researchers in his field have found is that no matter what our income level, Americans believe that we need more to live a good life. But as our standard of living has climbed over the past forty years, our self-reported “happiness levels” have flatlined.

Roberts isn’t merely concerned with the GDP or big-ticket purchases—damaging spending habits play out countless times a day, in ways big and small: he demonstrates that even the amount we spend at our favorite fast-food joint increases anywhere from 60 to 100 percent when we use a credit card instead of cash. Every time we watch TV or turn on a radio we’re exposed to marketing messages (experts estimate up to 3,000 of them daily). Consumption is king, and its toll is not just a financial one: relationships are suffering, too, as materialism encroaches on the time and value we give the people around us.

By shedding much-needed light on the science of spending, Roberts empowers readers to make smart changes, improve self-control, and curtail spending. The American Dream is still ours for the taking, and Shiny Objects is ultimately a hopeful statement about the power we each hold to redefine the pursuit of happiness.

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Shiny Objects

By James A. Roberts

HarperOne

Copyright © 2011 James A. Roberts
All right reserved.
ISBN: 9780062093608

Chapter One

Shiny Objects
The chief value of money lies in the fact that one lives in a world in which it is overestimated.
?H. L. MENCKEN
Shiny object (sh¯´ne¯ o? b´-je?kt´¹): anything that distracts the easily amused.
A ?dog?s life? never sounded so good. Forget about sleeping outside?42
percent of dogs now sleep with their owners and dine on organically grown
meat, vegan snacks, and other gourmet treats. Many even get presents on
their birthdays. Americans currently spend $48 billion a year on their
pets. That?s double the amount spent ten years ago and is more than the
gross domestic product (GDP) of all but sixty-four countries. Spending on
our furry friends is expected to top $58 billion in the next few years.
As a loving pet owner, you can splurge $535 on a dog ramp by Puppy
Stairs to help your best friend make the ascent to your bed, $30 on an ounce
of puppy perfume, and $225 on a trench coat for the family pooch. And
let?s not forget about doggie slippers, bikinis, and $500 Chanel pearls for
those big nights out. What about a $270 Furrari bed for the little guy? Pet
owners are also spending big on drugs to fight depression and separation
anxiety in pets, as well as on psychological counseling, high-tech medical
procedures, various cosmetic procedures, and end-of-life care. Plastic surgeons
offer nose jobs, face lifts, breast reductions, braces, and tummy tucks for man?s best friend.
Nearly $10 billion is spent annually in the United States on veterinary services alone.
Americans spend an additional $10 billion on over-the-counter drugs and supplies.
All doubt as to whether pet pampering is out of control ends with
Neuticles, a patented testicular implant that fetches nearly one thousand
dollars for a set of two. After pets have been neutered, Neuticles allows
owners to ?restore their pets to anatomical preciseness,? and ?preserve
both their natural look and their self-esteem? according to inventor
Gregg A. Miller who has sold more than 240,000 pairs of these little gems.
Prosthetic testicles for your canine companion?only in America.
Pet paraphernalia is only the tip of the iceberg. We are a nation in
love with shiny objects. Our homes, our cars, our offices, our purses, and
that storage unit we hate to admit to are all overflowing with our precious
belongings. Whether your personal weakness is shoes, cars, jewelry,
cigars, or any other possession (vintage posters, books, and watches are my
downfall), we Americans love our stuff.
When it comes to spending money, are you more of a tightwad or a
spendthrift? You?ll have a chance to measure for yourself in chapter 5. Given
that we are a nation of consumers, you might be surprised to learn that the
majority of Americans would be classified as tightwads. With a high percentage
of people living from paycheck to paycheck, how can consumerism
be so rampant? It all boils down to how we pay for our purchases and the
?pain of paying? associated with each payment method? it?s not that tightwads
don?t want to spend money, they just don?t want to feel like they?re
spending money. We are a nation addicted to plastic. Using credit cards greatly
reduces the pain associated with paying for our purchases?so much so, in
fact, that credit cards have earned the nickname ?spending facilitators? by those
of us who do research in this area. When we use credit cards, we make quicker
purchase decisions, are more likely to buy, and are willing to pay more.
But can credit cards make us fat? The answer to this question is an
unqualified yes. When we use credit cards instead of cash at fast food
restaurants, we spend anywhere from 60 to 100 percent more. The average
bill at McDonald?s, for example, increased from $4.50 to $7.00 when
customers started using credit cards instead of cash. I call this the
?supersize effect? of credit cards. If credit cards can expand your waistline or
fatten your thighs, imagine what they can do to your household finances.
As a professor at Baylor University, I have spent over twenty years
conducting research with thousands of consumers from all walks of life
on the related areas of materialism, credit card use, and compulsive buying.
Why, in a land of plenty, do Americans want more? And why is more
never enough? Given that most Americans would readily admit that money
and material possessions are not going to make us happy, why do we continue
to act as if they will? This book is the culmination of my efforts and
those of other researchers to answer such questions. And though consumers
are inscrutable, we have begun to unlock some of the mysteries
behind materialism and its impact on our lives.
As this book details, our obsession with possessions has a significant
impact on our well-being. When asked what we really care about and
what we consider to be the most life-giving elements of our existence, the
vast majority of people respond in terms of the lasting value we place on
our relationships with family and friends. And yet our consumer behavior
contradicts such professed values. Our real habits?the time and resources
we devote to accumulating more stuff?tell a different story. As
the old saying goes, if you want to know what someone really cares about,
look at that person?s bank account.
It is my hope that reading this book will give you the time, space, and
motivation to examine your day-to-day behavior in a way that our hectic
lives rarely allow. Some of the studies and statistics I?ll share may surprise
you. Some may sound like they?re describing someone else. But they all
speak to one undeniable truth: as consumers, we?re not who we think we
are. It?s time to bridge the gap between what we say and what we do. It?s
time to recommit ourselves to the kind of pursuits that are the true source
of our well being: spending time with loved ones, reaching our full
potential as human beings, and participating actively in our world. No small
task, but one well worth the effort: our happiness lies in the balance.
Our current consumer culture is best understood as an environment in
which the majority of consumers avidly desire, pursue, consume, and
display goods and services that are valued for non-utilitarian reasons such as status,
envy, provocation, and pleasure-seeking. Whether you reside in a
major metropolitan city or a rural outpost of North America, you are part
of the worldwide consumer culture. To ignore the importance of material
possessions in our lives would be equivalent to ignoring that we are born
of mothers and fathers.
The emergence of a worldwide consumer culture has potentially severe
consequences for everyone. As you will soon see, even if you don?t
practice or espouse materialistic ideals, you are affected by others? pursuit
of them. A good example might be the ghost of a recent Christmas past
for retailing giant Walmart.
Surely a man the size of Walmart worker Jdimytai Damour could control
the expected Black Friday shopping crowds. At six feet five inches and
270 pounds, he was a force to reckon with. In fact, he was chosen to work
the front entrance to the Walmart store at the Green Acres...