Describe the "consumer class" and note the implications for public relations professionals

What will be an ideal response?

The world is awash with consumers. By one calculation, there are now more than 1.7 billion members of "the consumer class"–nearly half of them in the developing world. Worldwide, private consumption expenditures topped $20 trillion in 2000. The consumer class includes nearly two billion people worldwide. Often, their diets include highly processed foods, they desire larger homes and cars, they have higher levels of debt, and they have lifestyles devoted to the accumulation of non-essential material goods. The spread of consumerism has placed fresh pressures on multinational companies to act ethically, in the best interests of their global customers. Often it is public relations techniques and societal sensitivities that help distinguish a company and its products from the competition.