We have a free market system....consumer capitalism is up the individual, certainly businesses try to practice that...and we are seeing more and more of that in the tech age, with Facebook, Amazon etc using search history etc
For the last hundred years American consumers have been preyed upon by a business community whose sole motivation is greater profits. Consumer capitalism stands a free market on its head since it substitutes contrived desires for human needs.
Consumer capitalism
"In 1919
Edward Bernays began his career as the 'father of
public relations' and successfully applied the developing principles of psychology, sociology and motivational research to manipulate public opinion in favor of products like cigarettes, soap, and
Calvin Coolidge.
"New techniques of mechanical reproduction developed in these decades improved the channels of mass-market communication and its manipulative power.
"This development was described as early as the 1920s by
Walter Benjamin and related members of the
Frankfurt School, who foresaw the commercial, societal and political implications."