Introduction On April 1900, Paris held a world trade fair, which brought people from different consumer markets together to celebrate past technological achievements and/or gain an insight on future potential technological developments. The trade fair portrayed the potential of the then and future civilizations to deploy technology, creativity, and innovation to create more consumables to boost the life of future generations. Extensive use of fossil fuels in the production process and transportation implies more green gas emissions, which lead to the emergence of threats to the survival of future civilization. This situation raises the question of whether increased consumerism is a benefit or threat to the current and future populations. This paper responds to this interrogative with reference to discussions offered by Assadourian in the article , State of the World: Transforming Cultures from Consumerism to Sustainability . Assadourian’s Critique on Consumer Cultures Through technological and social changes, over the 20 th century, the American society recorded immeasurable changes compared to the ways of life during the period of 1900s. The society of that time mainly depended on agriculture to support its rural livelihood. However, in the 20 th century, urban community that was dominated by technologically savvy individuals, service oriented economy, and technological product-consumer markets, has replaced the traditional agricultural production-based society. Assadourian is concerned with these changes claiming that, although they may seem beneficial, they have irreversible problems, which hinder environmental sustainability (5). He sees failure of people to save environmental collapse as an issue that relates to culture, as opposed to their stupidity, destructiveness, or ignorance (Assadourian 3). He compares culture with the issue of requesting people to stop breathing forever, not knowing they will only do it for seconds before inhaling again without necessarily being requested to do so. To him, this analogy reveals the difficulties that are encountered while telling people to curb their consumerism cultures in a bid to save the environment (Assadourian 3). In the light of Assadourian’s claims on the innateness of consumerism in human beings, culture defines norms and values, which are hard to smash when they become normalized in a society. Big houses, several cars, air conditioners, and other equipment constitute the norms for the American culture, which is now rapidly becoming a global culture. Assadourian criticizes this emerging culture claiming that, although it appears natural to many people, it is not only unsustainable, but also not an accurate manifestation of the nature of people (3). He maintains that escalated consumption pattern does not increase the wellbeing of people (Assadourian 9). When a new culture emerges, the existing cultural values are eroded. Assadourian criticizes the consumerism culture claiming that it has created the belief that possession of more wealth coupled with material capability defines good life (10). In my opinion, Assadourian criticism is warranted and accurate upon considering the currently experienced problems