Contemporary Marxists argue that one of the main functions of the family in capitalist societies is to act as a ‘unit of consumption’ – the family unit is supposed to buy the products necessary to keep capitalism going.
Key to understanding this theory is the idea of ‘false needs’ – which in Marxist theory are perceived ‘needs’ created by the capitalist system, rather than our ‘real needs’.
‘Real needs’ are basic material things such as food, shelter, clothing, but we might also include transport, health, education and general welfare.
‘False needs’ arise because of the demands of the capitalist system, rather than what we as individuals need. They include such things as the need for distraction or anything else we ‘need’ to make life bearable in an unfair system, anything we might buy to give off a sense of our social status, and anything we buy or do to give ourselves or our children an edge in an artificially unequal world. We could also include many of the products we buy out of fear, or out the need to make ourselves safe, if that fear is engineered by the capitalist system to keep the population under control.
This post has been written as part of an evaluation of The Marxist Perspective on the Family, part of the families and households module within A-level sociology.
False needs and the family
It is possible to think of many examples of families making purchases and consuming stuff which could fall into the category of false needs, which ultimately serves the needs of the capitalist system. Examples could include:
- Purchases parents make just keep their kids quiet and simply give themselves time to manage their lives, given that parents do not have enough time at home because they both must work in a Capitalist system. This could include toys and subscriptions to media entertainment packages.
- Purchase parents make to give their children an advantage in education. In Marxist theory education reproduces class inequality, primarily because the middle classes can buy their kids a better education.
- Purchases parents make to give their family a sense of status to the outside world – this could be for the family as a whole, such as a better car, or parents giving in to the demands for kids to have the latest status clothes or phone.
- Products bought to keep kids ‘safe’, which could be mainly for younger children.
- A lot of the above will be exacerbated by ‘built in obsolescence’ of many products.
Evidence of the Family perpetuating false needs
This section looks at possible evidence that families purchase ‘shit they don’t need’, giving into false needs, rather than consumption based on real needs.
Some places we might look for evidence include:
- Case studies of high consumption families, but how representative are they?
- Stats on advertising expenditure aimed at families and their effectiveness.
- Stats on family expenditure – trends in how much parents spend on children. and what do parents actually buy?
- Pester Power – how often do parents give in to their kids nagging?
- Counter studies – what does an example of a family living in ‘real consciousness’ look like?!?
Keep in mind that there are limitations with all of the evidence below and you can always use your own brain-thing to find your own examples!
My Super Sweet 16
Shows such as ‘My Super Sweet 16’ probably show us the most extreme examples of parents willingly meeting their children’s false needs. An excellent analysis of this is provided my the most excellent Charlie Brooker in the clip below (5.30 mins on)
The problem with such case studies is they are maybe not that representative of families in America, let alone in the UK!?!
According to the FintechTimes children receive almost £20 a month in pocket money, sometimes for doing chores.
According to their research, nine year olds are already well versed in the habit of saving to buy expensive consumer items, as this top chart of products shows:
Whether you regard this as evidence of ‘false needs’ being established from a young age is debatable. Some of the products would fall well within the ‘false need’s category – the Play Station and Slime for example, but others seem quite educational – lego and books seeming to be high up the priority list!
A third of parents say Pester Power has made them take on debt
Corporations know that children Pester parents for toys they want, and so a good deal of advertising has historically been targeted at children. Some recent research from 2018 suggests that a third of parents have given into pester power to the extent that they’ve bought something on credit, just to stop their children nagging.
Parental Expenditure on Education
The average UK parental expenditure on education is almost £25K a year, and that’s over and above the free education provided by the State. Most of this will be by middle class parents trying to give their children an advantage.
Counter Evidence
Don’t forget to look for counter-evidence too – you might want to look up recent restrictions on the power of companies to advertise to children (reducing pester power) or look for examples of ‘frugal families’.
Criticisms of the Marxist view on the family as a unit of consumption
Are parents really in false consciousness, do they really have ‘false’ needs. ?
To what extent are parents under false consciousness and buying ‘shit they don’t need’ for their families and their children, rather than buying stuff because they have made a rational decision?
Some of the safety products for babies may well come under this category – maybe this is a genuine need – maybe it is better to spend £400 on a super safe buggy rather than relying on your parent’s hand me downs?
Individuals might have more false needs than families
I’m also not convinced that the family in particular is the most significant unit of consumption – young adults not yet in families are perfectly capable of buying ‘shit they don’t need’ themselves in their 20s and 30s, and it’s debatable whether their relative expenditure on ‘false need’ type items will be higher when they have families in their 30s 40s and 50s?
