Put one figure in the middle: the person who buys. Everything this word can mean is a different answer to the question of what we do with that figure. Build a whole way of living around them and you get the buying culture. Argue that the economy runs on them and you get the economic theory. Decide they need defending and you get the protection movement. Same person at the centre, three different things done about them — which is why one word can sound like a complaint in one sentence and like a proud achievement in the next.
From the word’s history
The Wiktionary entry builds the word from consume, which goes back through Old French to Latin consumere, and from there to consumer plus the ending -ism. The ending is what makes it big: -ism turns a role into a whole system built around that role.
Wiktionary 的詞源把這個字拆成 consume（來自拉丁文 cōnsūmō，經古法文進入英文）→ consumer → 再加 -ism。關鍵在最後那個字尾：-ism 把一個角色放大成一整套圍著這個角色轉的體系，所以這個字談的從來不是一次購物。
Wiktionary, "consumerism"
登入就可以看每一支怎麼連回核心畫面。