Lloyd Klein, Queensborough Community College

Free Inquiry In Creative Sociology Volume 22 No.2, November 1994 Page 117 WE'RE GOING TO DISNEY WORLD: CONSUMER CREDIT AND THE CONSUMPTION OF SOCIAL EXPERIENCE Lloyd Klein, Queensborough Community College ABSTRACT Consumercredit is an importantfacet ofeveryday social life. Public interest in material items, services, and social experience is facilitated by the instantaneous availability ofthe various commodities. Social experience is a unique product available through credit cards. Cultural wants and desires are marketed and made accessible to consumers through extended consumer credit lines. DisneyWorld, and its Disneyland forerunner, are prototypical models forescapistentertainment made financially available to average consumers through credit cards. This paper offers an analysis of consumer credit and how credit cards facilitate tourism and the consumption ofcultural experience. Atheoretical analysis oftourism, and the influence ofculture, accompanies adiscussion ofh,ow consumer credit (in the form ofcredit cards) enhances the marketing ofDisneyWorld as a renowned cultural experience. INTRODUCTION accessing experiences previously unaffordable The development of consumer credit (as for the average consumer. facilitating the purchase of products, services The normal sociological conception ofcon and experiences with the promise to provide sumer culture assumes that manufactured future reimbursement) is symptomatic of so goods (or the products stemming from the cial-economic changes occurring in post-in concept 9f the production of consumption as dustrial society. Post-industrial society is trans advanced. by Featherstone (1991 14) carry a formed through expanded demand for differ specific exchange value justifying their pricing ent goods and services. The resulting post in the marketplace. Marx (1850) and members Fordist period, where evolving consumer de of the subsequent Neo-Marxist Frankfurt mand is fulfilled, encourages manufacture School (Horkheimer, Adorno 1972; Lefebvre and distribution of various consumer goods 1971; Marcuse 1964) reiterate the establish and invites expansion of the marketplace. ment of culture value inherent in the creation Sociologists or economists generally of markets for new commodities. emphasize the mechanistic market manipula Featherstone (1991 14) reiterates the ten tions and relationships between producer and dency toward product diversification, promo consumer. However, the analysis offered in tion ofnew consumer goods and services, and the discussion ofleisure and tourism assumes consumption ofthe specific commodities (oth that a social relationship exists between con erwise known as post-Fordism). The relation sumerculture and the consumption oftangible ship between the creation and consumption of goods and intangible experiences. The credit new products, leisure time and cultural value card facilitates leisure and the acquisition of is rather interesting. As Schor(1991) observes cultural capital through arranging expensive in a recent book on the decline of leisure time, airline travel; car rental; the attainment offood, leisure was commoditized into a diversified lodging, souvenirs, and specialized tours; and product incorporating many different goods provides cash for unexpected emergencies. and services. Productivity increased while lei Further, the images and experiences offered in sure was transformed into a scarce commod the travel experience encompass a staged ity. Schor refers to increased productivity: authenticity transferring sightseeing into a cultural pursuit. Workers can only achieve the Since 1948, productivity has failed to rise in only cultural experience through utilizing the credit five years. The level ofproductivity ofthe U.S. card throughout the vacation or leisure activ worker has more than doubled. In otherwords, ity. we could now produce our 1948 standard of The everydayconception ofconsumercredit living (measured in terms of marketed goods eventually extends credit card ownership be and services) in less than halfthe time ittook in yond the everyday use as a financial device that year. We actually could have chosen the enabling the purchase of tangible consumer four-hourday.Oraworkingyearofsixmonths. goods. Consumer credit promotes and facili Or, every workerin the United States could now tates the acquisition of recreation activities, be taking every otheryear offfrom work-with tourism and the search for alternative social pay. Incredible as it may sound, this isjustthe experiences. Creditcards form the gatewayfor simple arithmetic of productivity growth in Free Inquiry In Creative Sociology Volume 22 No.2, November 1994 Page 118 operation. (Schor 1991 2) decline in leisure time places greater premium on the limited time that American workers can Schor continues by noting that the narrow enjoy. Workers utilize alternatives provided by ing of time for leisure time pursuits has a the consumer culture in enjoying their limited significant impact on the marketing ofspecific leisure time. Consumption is commoditized in alternatives: terms of its cultural value. Featherstone offers an interesting Marxist interpretation. of the But between 1948 and the present we did not relationship between leisure and exchange use any ofthe productivity dividend to reduce value: hours. In the first two decades after 1948, productivity grew rapidly, at about 3 percent a Leisure time pursuits, the arts and culture in year. During that period, work time did not fall general become filtered through the culture appreciably. Annual hours per laborforce par industry; reception becomes di.ctated byex ticipant fell only slightly. And on a per-capita change value as the higher purposes and val (ratherthan alaborforce) basis, they even rose ues of culture succumb to the logic of the abit. Since then, productivity growth has been production process and the market. Traditional lower but still positive, averaging just over 1 forms ofassociation in the family and private life percent ayear. Yet hours have risen steadily for as well as the promise ofhappiness and fulfill two decades. In 1990, the average American ment, the 'yearning for atotally different other' owns and consumes more than twice as much which the best products of high culture strive as he or she did in 1948, but also has less free for, are presented as yielding to an atomized, time. How did this happen? Why has leisure manipulated mass who participate in an ersatz been such a conspicuous casualty of pros mass- produced commodity culture targeted at perity? In part, the answer lies in the difference the lowest common denominator. (199114) between the markets for consumer products and free time. Considerthe former, the legend As Featherstone claims, the post-modern aryAmerican market. Itis averitable consumer's interpretation ofleisure and culture emphasized paradise, offering adazzling array ofproducts the view that varying in style, design, quality, price, and coun try of origin. The consumer is treated to GM emphasis shifts from production to reproduc versus Toyota, Kenmore versus GE, Sony, or tion, to the endless reduplication ofsigns, im Magnavox, theApple versus the IBM. We've got ages and simulations through the media which Calvin Klein, Anne Klein, Liz Claiborne, and effaces the distinction between the image and Levi-Strauss; McDonald's, Burger King, and reality. (199115) Colonel Sanders. Marketing experts and advertisers spend vast sums ofmoneyto make Consumer society becomes cultural as social these choices appealing-even irresistible. And life becomes deregulated and social relation they have been successful. In cross-country ships become more variable. comparisons, Americans have been found to The postmodern view of consumer credit spend more time shopping than anyone else. and consumer culture views credit cards as They also spend ahigherfraction ofthe money variable symbols useful in extending cultural they earn. And with the explosion ofconsumer capital (orcredit cards as quantifiable financial debt, many are nowspending whatthey haven't instruments). The creditcard extendsthe acqui earned. (Schor 1991 2) sition of cultural experience by making the unaffordable "affordable." Few people will Schor (1991 3) then points out that the express surprise with the notion that credit American standard of living is the highest in cards act as symbols enabling us to consume the world. Schor also observes that increased other symbols of consumer and popular cul work hours result when manufacturers seek ture. even more productivity and workers need ad Experiences made accessiblethrough con ditional income for satisfying consumer debt sumer credit dictate a new realm of social and increased spending. Leisure (or the con reality. Consumer culture bridges the cultural sumption offree time) is sharply curtailed-and bound elements of our sensual society with therefore becomes a more valuable commod economic propriety. Each tourist or lifestyle ity. device examined in this section embodies Schor (1991) staunchly believes that the cultural experiencesthatare facilitated ormade Free Inquiry In Creative Sociology Volume 22 No.2, November 1994 Page 119 accessible through consumer credit. In some marketplace. Since then, there have been cases, experiences are marketed as tangible numerous imitations produced by competing products. Some examples ofcultural products companies. The original manufacturer coun intended for· consumer consumption include tered with the marketing of the same product the proliferation

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