Commercialism, in its original meaning, is the practices, methods, aims, and spirit of commerce or business. Today, however, it is mainly used as a critical term, referring to the tendency within capitalism to try to turn everything in life into objects and services that are sold for the purpose of generating profit; commercialization, where the value of everything, including such intangible things as happiness, health and beauty become measured in purely commercial, materialistic terms, and where public services are being privatised or outsourced to private companies. Commerce is the trading of something of value between two entities. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Capitalism Capitalism has been defined in various ways. ... Net income is equal to the income that a firm has after subtracting costs and expenses from the total revenue. ... This article needs cleanup. ... Public services is a term usually used to mean services provided by government to its citizens, either directly (through the public sector) or by financing private provision of services. ... Privatization (sometimes privatisation, denationalization, or, especially in India, disinvestment) is the process of transferring property, from public ownership to private ownership and/or transferring the management of a service or activity from the government to the private sector. ... Paper shredding can be contracted out Outsourcing (or contracting out) is often defined as the delegation of non-core operations or jobs from internal production within a business to an external entity (such as a subcontractor) that specializes in that operation. ...

The related term "commercialized" is often used in an accusing way, implying that someone, often an artist, has compromised the quality of his work for monetary gain by selling out. It can, for example, be applied to a painter who uses his/her talent to do flattering, expensive portraits to order, an independent music band that signs a contract with a major record label and then changes its music and/or appearance to become more appealing, or a novelist who switches from writing difficult "highbrow" novels to populistic thrillers. Look up Artist in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Artist Artist is a descriptive term applied to a person who engages in an activity deemed to be an art. ... Selling out is a common slang phrase. ... Highbrow is a colloquial synonym for intellectual. ... It has been suggested that Thriller fiction be merged into this article or section. ...

See also

• Capitalism
• Laissez-faire
• Productivism
• Free market
• Economic materialism
• Consumerism
• Consumption
• Over-consumption
• Consumption (economics)
• List of things which are neither production nor consumption
• Post-materialism
• Gross national happiness
• Utilitarianism