VOL. IV (XXI) 2009 - Departamentul de Filosofie si Stiinte ale ...

60 CONSUMPTION AND CONSUMER IN NEW FREE MARKET ECONOMIES
Consumerism for nowadays Eastern European
consumer – Elements for a weak philosophy of consumption
After these short observations what could be possibly said about the
main frame of mentality through which Eastern European consumer
understands his present economic condition? We think that this issue can be
reduced to a general answer, an answer which demands a comparison with
mentality of western type of consumer.
Firstly, we strongly believe that in no way could be possible to talk
about a real existence of such a thing as is the “consumption”, in his pure
western acceptance, in nowadays countries from Eastern European. The
consumer within these economies is nothing more but a poor profiteer of the
western abundance. Of course, he might have the illusion that his life was
improved after the collapse of communism due to his country economical
efforts but this is just a mental toy for some. In reality the Eastern European
consumer is totally dependent from the strong westerns economies in terms
of know how, technology and capital. The consumption in the Eastern
Europe from today is nothing more but a desperate effort to benefit from the
opulence of the West in terms of rapid economic expansion through
westerns loans and technological imports.
Secondly, about the Eastern European consumer, after all that we said
until this point, we also believe that he is no capable, in objective terms, to
understand the fact that the wealth of western economies is something which
was achieved during a relatively long period of time. This could be maybe the
fundamental reason why in the East of Europe from today it is so
predominant the mentality of getting reach as quickly as it is possible and
without any serious effort in terms of real economical activity. The Eastern
European consumer was finding himself already in under the mirage of
welfare society and he is no aware about the work and effort which are
responsible in the West of achieving this standard. Maybe the idea of Jean
Baudrillard that a consumption society is totally obscuring the effort which
was made in order to build it is much truer for nowadays Eastern European
consumer 2 . With all his poverty the Eastern European consumer is already
in a historical position which enables him to get an instant access to a type of
wealth already constructed and accumulated. As a sort of a cynical paradox
it could be very possible that even this situation which is obscuring the effort
realize once again how fragile are their economies and how deeply dependent from
the West are them.
2 Baudrillard, Jean – The consumer society: Myths and Structures, SAGE
Publications Inc., 1998. His idea of obscuring the efforts that stands beyond the
abundance of consumption society, an operation of hiding which consumption
society is making it possible, could be applied even to a standard consumer from
nowadays Eastern European countries because he is in no way aware of those
historical efforts. Of course, in a such context Baudrillard`s idea must be gradated.