Why does consumption increase in a time of recession?

Economy is changing, people are getting fired, forced out of business, faling in to debt and so on. Eventhough this is happening all around us the consumption are still increasing insted of declining, how is this possible?
Why does people continue shopping eventhough they know that the economy is changing for the worst.

A possible explenation is that people belive the economy will change for the better within a short period of time. Once more they will find them self on the top of their game. If this scenario would turn out to be correct, they may argue that it’s only foolish to stop shopping.

Shopping inspite of the economical sitution may by some people be seen as helping the economy back on it’s feet. Instead of holding on to there mony, they choose to spend them at local stores, putting them self in a situation which there is no way out of. Insted of "helping" the economy back on it’s feet, they become a victim of the recession and falls into the debt when they loose their income, which is quite possible in these times.

A major cause to the consumption increase, is that it becomes a drug. People that once have started shopping often get hooked and can not stop. It does not matter if the economy takes a turn to the worse, the need of being able to walk outside and buy whatever they want still exsists.

As sure as shopping becomes a drug it gives us a glance into the main cause of this phenomenon. In a time of economical hardship, for many of us consumption becomes a way to escape our thoughts and troubles. Beeing able to buy the same things as our friend´s, not needing to stand on the sideline saying “I can’t afford it”, gives us a feeling of worth and happines n that instant. But when we get home our problems once more surfaces in our heads, the answer is once more to go outside and buy something that we really don’t need.

Finding the right reason/reasons to the consumption increase during a time of financial hardship, is not an easy task. The causes that has been discussed – consumption in the belief that the economy will change, consumption as a way to help the economy back on it’s feet, consumption as a drug, consumption as a way to forgett all our troubles – in this short text is a way of answering the question asked in the title. I’m sure you can find many more causes to answer this question, however I belive that these causes are of importance to many, when discussing the reason for this phenomenon.

Formal and Informal text

1)
What is style?
In the sense of academis writing, style is the diffrent ways of expressing yourself depending on what kind of text you aim to produce. When producing a text you need to know who´s going to read your text, their age, intrests, if it´s a man or a woman, their line of work, their religion, political status and so on. All these things and the genre of the text, decides the style of your text.

2)
Formal text - Satlinism and Nazism Dictatorship in Comparision by Ian Kershaw and Moshe Lewin (student litterature)

"The launching of the Stalin revolution, first in the countryside and the in the industry, destroyed the basis of the regims fragile relationship with the great majority of the population (the smychka) and creted a new crises of legitimacy and authority.
By ending NBP and almost all privite production and trade, Stalin created the first modern non-market, state-run economy, on that simultaneously eliminated rival sources of power and resistance to the will of central authorities" (p. 35)

Informal text - The Curious Incident of the dog in the night-time by Mark Haddon (a murder mystery novel)

Then she turned and went into the house. She moved very slowly because she was an old lady and she was inside the house for more then 6 minutes and I began to get nervous because i didn´t know wht she was doing in the house. I didn´t know her well enough to know whether she was telling the truth about getting orange squash and battenburg cake. And I thought she might be ringing the police and then I´d get into much more serious because of the caution." (p. 53)

Distingushing features, formal and informal text.
* Vocabulary
* Length of the sentences
* Rythem when reading
* Content, these text´s are not intended to reach the same public.

3)
Formal text - topic christmas.
Christmas, a celebrated holiday all over the world, with traditions that change depending on your location. Exampels on diffrences in tarditions can be Santa Claus appearence, christmas presents that´s opened on diffrent days and times of the day. The christmas dinner may consist of diffrent dishes.
Regardless of diffrences in traditions, christmas is christmas. A holiday celebrated by all ages, a time of happines.

Informal text - topic christmas.
Christmas is a wounderful holiday that is celebrated all aound the world, Almost everyoune have their own tradition´s, they differ in one way or another. Maybee ower Santas don´t look the same, the christmas present´s aren´t opened on the same day or maybee the food is diffrent.
In the end it dosen´t really matter because christmas will always be christmas. It´s a holiday for both old and young, a time for joy.