Jeff Byrne

CONSUMERISM forms the wheels of capitalism. We must buy things we don't need, but think we do, to keep the wheels of capitalism turning. The world of advertising is the oil.

We are constantly bombarded by advertising, principally on radio and television, as retailers try to convince that we need this or that product when most of us really don't

But I was particularly surprised to read of Britain's Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathon Sacks strongly criticizing the late Apple co-founder, Steve Jobs, who died last month.

Lord Sacks criticized Jobs for helping to create a selfish "i,i,i" consumer culture. This, he said, had only brought unhappiness.

Waxing Biblical, Lord Sacks said: "The consumer society was laid down by the late Steve Jobs, coming down [from] the mountain with two tablets, i Pad 1 and iPad 2 and the result is that we now have a culture of iPod, iPhone, iTune, i,i,i. When you are an individualist, egocentric culture and you only care about i, you don't do terribly well," he was quoted as saying in London's Telegraph.

He is only partly right and blaming Jobs is somewhat disingenuous. Consumerism has been around as long as I can remember and a lot longer. And it is alive and well in China.

I don't know what it is called in China but in the West it is referred to as "keeping up with the Joneses".

This newspaper recently carried a story of the 21-year-old daughter of a vice head of Jinping County in Guizhou Province which is relatively undeveloped. The daughter was photographed at an airport lounge with luxury brand products allegedly worth more than 100,000 yuan (US$15,639). The family later claimed the "luxury products" were counterfeit.

Just last week the Shenzhen Economic Daily carried a story about shoppings bearing the logos of luxury brands becoming popular having spawned a booming business for paper bag manufacturers and the buyers paying exorbitant prices -- for what is essentially just a paper bag.

One woman was reported as saying she feels good about herself taking one of these bags to work because other people think she buys luxury goods.

This does nothing more than expose juvenile inferiority and is not a sign of mature character.

Last month, this newspaper carried a story of a young woman who grew up in an affluent family and was educated in Australia. She admitted to "chasing" luxury brands in earlier years but now wanted to do something more fulfilling with her life. And so she is. She joined a volunteer program to teach English at Xinhua Middle School in Leye County, the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, with her mother's full support.

She is a model of thinking outside ourselves, thinking about other people instead of dwelling on petty envy because of what we don't have rather than what we do have.

There is much satisfaction helping others less fortunate than ourselves.

There is a sad culture emerging in this country where a people are valued for how much money they make rather than for who they are.

We should value ourselves for who we are and others for who they are. The rest is simply self deception. As the great ancient Greek philosopher Plato said: "The worst of all deceptions is self deception."