Consumption and the Consumer Society

4.3 Private Versus Public Consumption 
 
The growth of consumerism has altered the balance between private and public consumption. 
Public infrastructure has been shaped by the drive to sell and consume new products and the 
availability of public and private options, in turn, shapes individual consumer choices. 
In the early 1930s, for example, many major U.S. cities—including Los Angeles— had extensive, 
relatively efficient, and nonpolluting electric streetcar systems. Then, in 1936, a group of 
35
Anonymous, 2007. 
36
South Carolina Department of Mental Health, Eating Disorder Statistics, www.state.sc.us/dmh/anorexia
37
Lovett, 2012. 
38
Jean Kilbourne Web site, www.jeankilbourne.com. 

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CONSUMPTION AND THE CONSUMER SOCIETY
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companies involved in bus and diesel gasoline production, led by General Motors, formed a group 
called the National City Lines (NCL). They bought up electric streetcar systems in 45 cities and 
dismantled them, replacing them with bus systems that also tended to promote automobile 
dependency.
39
U.S. government support for highway construction in the 1950s further hastened 
the decline of rail transportation, made possible the spread of suburbs far removed from 
workplaces, and encouraged the purchase of automobiles. 
Many of the choices that you have, as an individual, depend on decisions made for you by 
businesses and governments. Los Angeles would look much different today—more like the older 
sections of many East Coast and European cities—if it had been built up around streetcar lines 
rather than cars and buses. Even today one can see tradeoffs between public (or publicly accessible) 
infrastructure and private consumption. As more people carry cell phones and bottled water, pay 
telephones and drinking fountains either cease to exist or become less well maintained, leading 
more people to carry cell phones and bottled water.