1. Consumerism
Sergio Fernandez
Landon Patterson
Andrew Hatch
Jeff Rohrbach

3. Introduction of the Financial
Crisis
 We continue to face a global economic
crisis that began in U.S markets in 2007.
 Nearly 5 years later our economy is still
struggling to recover.
 Has affected almost every country in the
world.
 This is the first “Global Recession”

4. What Actually Caused the
Financial Crisis?
 The
following were the main reasons
markets collapsed in 2007:
 Cheap Money
 Lax Credit
 Booming Housing Market
 New Financial Products
 Huge Enconomic Deficits

5. What I took from the
“Occupy” Experience
 Gave me a notion of what people
actually understood, and what they
don’t.
 I felt like many people didn’t really know
what the cause of the financial crisis was,
and just blamed it on Wall Street.

6. How do we begin to solve the
financial crisis?
 Most viable solution would be for
Government to encourage businesses to
re-invest in the U.S. Economy through:
 Hub Zones
 Tax Breaks
 Publicity
 Inflow of cheap funds to money markets.

7. Great Pacific Garbage Patch
• Trash trapped by the North
Pacific currents
• Pelagic plastics, chemical
sludge, and other debris
• Estimated size: up to
5,800,000 sq. miles – 8.1% of
the pacific ocean
• Located between 135
degrees W and 155
degrees W

8. What I learned
 Most of the environmental issues we see
today can be linked to consumption
 37 percent of species could become
extinct due to climate change
 Our constant need for consumption has
led us to the current state of corporate
corruption
 Occupy Wall Street

9. Reflection of Project
 Connection of our consumerist culture
and current state of affairs
 First hand view of Occupy Austin
Movement
 Trash kills
 We are the problem, not the CEOs.
 Stop consuming, they don’t get paid

10. My Research
 Global Financial Crisis of 2008
 Financial gap between classes
 Occupy Movements
 Wide variety of opinions

11. What I learned
 FinancialCrisis did not affect just the
United States
 Small steps in education can be the
solution
 People are not willing to change

12. My Semester Research
 Consumerism is caused by us
 We cannot accept a simple life
 Impossible to stop, we can only improve

13. Occupy Austin Experience
 Starting to die down
 Most
people were just looking for
something to do
 Some did have legitimate causes

14. Questions?