ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the history of consumer goods and how people arrived at this position. The history of consumer goods is really the history of wills, or in other words, what people leave behind. For the modern history of consumerism, the situation immediately after World War II was one of moving from full war production back into the domestic market. M. Lawton points out that the post-war surge in consumerism brought with it planned obsolescence, through cheap goods quickly wearing out or more expensive ones being replaced as fashions changed. Part of the growth in consumerism is the growth in appliance ownership. Ownership of tumble dryers in the United Kingdom only increased from 54 per cent of households in 2001/2002 to 57 per cent in 2010. Norway and Switzerland topped the world in terms of television ownership, with 99.97 per cent and 99.83 per cent of households having a set.
