Wide context

Complete PICLE corpus of essays by Polish advanced EFL students (330,000)

/^t/The western phenomenon of conspicuous consumption is now recognizable also in Poland and it has been linked to the problem of the rising rate of violence. By definition, conspicuous consumption is a wasteful spending intended to attract attention and show one's wealth and high social position, especially done by people who have recently become wealthy and want other people to know it. In simpler words, conspicuous consumption is associated with the dominance of materialistic values over spiritual ones. Since the political system in Poland changed, Poles have become more affluent and they have started to follow the western lifestyle. Simultaneously, the access to drugs and weapon has become easier, which is tightly related to the increase of violence in Poland. On one hand there is, thus, the access to drugs and weapon, and on the other hand, there is the decrease of the significance of moral values. Spiritual matters have become minor or obsolete ones. For many Poles words like honesty, truth, fidelity and patriotism have lost their meanings and importance. The crucial question now is what you have, not what you are. Unfortunately, in Poland violence has become one of the means to strengthen the 'have'.