Consumerism

How do you solve a problem like Ikea? How do you solve a problem like Ikea?

All I wanted was a cheap bed. What I got was a Kafkaesque nightmare
  • Can cheap be sexy?

    At a time when Americans are wallowing in consumer debt, let's reconsider the joys of penny pinching
  • What's really in your shampoo

    Sure, a couple ingredients clean your hair. But the rest are a veritable toxic dump on your head
  • IKEA is as bad as Wal-Mart

    Everyone loves a bargain, but a new book illuminates the dangers of cheap stuff
  • Taking in the trash

    An adventure in the thrifty, nifty world of die-hard scavenging, where you won't believe what you can find if you just know where to look.
  • It's an Obamanation!

    Commemorative dildos? Barack toilet paper? If there's one thing that sells in this economy, it's our 44th president.
  • Shop and awe

    Christmas shopping during an economic free-fall is making me anxious: Everything is on sale, but at what cost?
  • Torture porn, made beautiful

    Pasolini's "Salò" blends fascism, de Sade and upscale art cinema into the most notorious film in the medium's history. Watch it at home!
  • The couple who lived in a mall

    After Michael Townsend and Adriana Yoto found their skyline blighted by a colossal mall, they protested it in an unusual way -- they moved in.
  • Dancing with the New Tsars

    With their tricked-out yachts, trained servants and diamond-frosted toys, newly rich Russians have invaded London -- and thrown Britain's elite into a royal tizzy.
  • I'm scattered and have no ambition -- what's wrong with me?

    I could be an actor or a writer or even a therapist, but nothing seems to be worth all the work and commitment.
  • On sale at Old Navy: Cool clothes for identical zombies!

    What a deal! Crush your individuality at state-of-the-art chain stores!
  • Furniture buyers of the world, unite!

    Seeking the triumph of socialism? Look no further than your local Ikea megastore.
  • Better red than brain-dead

    Why did socialism fail in the United States -- and whose loss is it, anyway?
  • Letters to the editor

    Bush's nonchalance toward death penalty is disturbing Plus: Is Microsoft's call for censoring justified? America's "Child Geniuses" are just book-smart.
  • Shop-happy

    Do Americans shop too much? Maybe, but social critics fail to grasp the delights of stuff and the true causes of our nagging malaise.
  • Letters to the editor

    Are black leaders hypocritical in their response to hate crime? Plus: Limbaugh's rush to judgment on McCain; do teachers necessitate tutors?
  • Lessons in consumption

    Only by immersing our children in marketing can we teach them to choose.
  • Attack of the holiday gift guides!

    Annual shopping-spree extravaganzas turn otherwise respectable journalists into shills for Santa Mammon.
  • Testosterama

    The men behind the ballsy "Fight Club" talk about anti-consumerism, annoying boomerisms and how to make soap out of human fat.
  • The malling of America

    Old Navy and Starbucks and Jamba Juice! Oh my! Plus: Feed looks at the latest trend in computer interfaces.
  • The free market or your soul

    Two conservative pundits play a game of moral Twister trying to reconcile consumerism and traditional values.
  • Advertising stole my humanity!

    Capitalism is out of control with sexist ad execs, mix tapes by irrelevant hippies and the inevitable, horrible cloning of "The Bridget Jones Diary."
  • The Surreal Gourmet

    The Surreal Gourmet's solution to holiday retail madness: homemade herbed olive oils.

From Salon's blogs