> Converted Americans from citizens to consumers No, that was the purpose of Indian schools. [1] The European immigrants were already knowingly part of the gr

> Converted Americans from citizens to consumers No, that was the purpose of Indian schools. [1] The European immigrants were already knowingly part of the great experiment: a capitalist nation from its birth. All of the colonies had economic goals, even those pilgrims [2] we're taught were being purely religious. In general, the rise in consumerism [3] started a generation or two before Stewart's existed, so I wouldn't blame them for that. And American consumerism as we know it today is usually traced to the end of WWII. [4] It was due to rapid industrialization and a bunch of managers trained [5] for the war effort combined with the G.I. Bill creating a better educated populace. It wasn't long until the invention of the teenager [6] and it was all downhill [7] from there. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Indian_boarding_schools https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Indian_boarding_schoo... [2] https://plymrock.org/the-economics-of-the-pilgrims/ https://plymrock.org/the-economics-of-the-pilgrims/ [3] https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/the-rise-of-consumerism https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/the-rise... [4] https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/tupperware-consumer/ https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/tupperw... [5] See Drucker: https://www.drucker.institute/perspective/about-peter-drucker/ https://www.drucker.institute/perspective/about-peter-drucke... Also Deming: https://deming.org https://deming.org for how industrialization helped the US war effort, leading to the post-war Toyota Way (and today's Lean software). [6] https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2018/02/brief-history-teenagers/ https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2018/02/brief-history-te... [7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ski_Party https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ski_Party