Synthesis essay托福作文

Shirley ZhangMr. Michael CrachioloAP Language 216 October 2016Ever since the industrial revolution, science and technology have developed at a high speed and exert a profound and significant impact of people’s lives. The introduction of the steam powered manufacture machine has increased the productivity of industry drastically. The production output gradually fulfills people’s basic needs. However, people’s wants can not be satisfied. In today’s society, people become more materialistic.It is human nature that we do not get satisfied for just getting the basic material for living. According to Henry David Thoreau, after guarantee “the grand necessity—warmth, rich food, houses, clothing,” people will turn to the product that can bring them a higher level of satisfaction—luxury ( Economy P474-476). Luxury can serve as a symbol of middle-class or higher social status and a symbol of identity. Therefore, it is able to provide the processer with the emotional satisfaction he needs. And gradually, people focus their needs for spiritual demand on material things, and thus, become more and more materialistic as the demand increase. As Phyllis Rose suggests “We Americans are beyond a simple, possessive materialism.”The writer points out some interesting phenomena in the article Shopping and Other Spiritual Adventures in America Today that shopping has been functioning as a form of therapy.People nowadays not only go shopping for the material goods, but also use the purchase of those material goods as a way to human communication and connection. The fact that women like to communicate with each other in the dressing room can serve as a great support for this argument (Shopping and Other Spiritual Adventures in America Today P483-484).Some people may hold the opposite of my perspective by saying the prices of the luxury goods have remained constant for years, which indicates that the demand for those goods has remain constant. Based on the statistic of the Forbes Price Index of Luxury Goods, the price change of the luxury goods is insignificant. For instance, the prices of Gucci Loafers, Four Season Hotel, Face-lift, Rolls-Royce Automobile, and Louis Vuitton Duffel bags have remained unchanged from 2009 to 2010 (Forbes Price Index of Luxury Goods P498-499). Those people simply based their opinion on the assumption that the increasing demand will definitely caused the increase of the price. As a matter of fact, the luxury goods can be considered as a special type of product, which suggests that the price of luxury won’t be as flexible as the price of the normal product. In order to maintain the high stander of their brands, they have to keep their price stable. Based on my own observation, more and more people are open to the idea of processing luxury good. And many luxury stores have emerged in the downtown mall for the recent years. All these phenomena indicate the fact that the purchase of the luxury goods has increased.The wants of human are impossible to satisfy. They do not become less urgent the more amply the individual is supplied. According to John Galbraith, “Consumerwants can have bizarre, frivolous or even immoral origins”. And he also indicates the want of the material goods will keep accumulate by quoting the words from Economy Possibilities for Our Grandchildren, “may indeed be insatiable; for the higher the general level, the higher still are they”. Thus, the increasing creation of the material goods can simulate and create “the wants it seek to satisfy” (The Dependence Effect P 478-481). And according to Juliet Schor, the “competitive consumption”can also simulate the want of people. “The competitive consumption is the idea that spending is in large driven by a comparative or competitive process in which individuals try to keep up with the norms of the social group with which they identify”. And the precipitous decline in the savings and the skyrocketed credit card debt both suggest the purchase willingness and the purchase ability have increased (The New Consumerism P 487-488).In conclusion, the wants of human can not be satisfied. The sufficient amount of material goods will simulates the demand for a higher level. In today’s society, people will the guarantee of the basic needs for living are more materialistic, since they require higher level or purchase to satisfy their spiritual needs.Works SiteHenry David Thoreau, EconomyJohn Kenneth Galbraith, The Dependence Effect, The Affluent Society Fortieth Anniversary EditionJ.M. Keynes, Essays in Persuasion, “Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren”(London: Macmillan, 1931), p. 365Phyllis Rose, Shopping and Other Spiritual Adventures in America TodayJuliet Schor, The New Consumerism, the Boston ReviewScott DeCarlo, Forbes Price Index of Luxury Goods, the Forbes magazine Wed site, on September 23, 2010。