In studying the choices for consumption, marketing scholars have been almost totally occupied with a very narrow spectrum of choice, viz brand choice. This paper discusses the nature of consumption patterns and how social choices leading to particular types of consumption patterns are made. It is argued that the dominant consumption pattern in capitalist societies consists of private consumption, at an individual level, and in a passive way. It is further argued that such a consumption pattern is an inevitable outcome of the skewed distribution of power and control of resources and that it continually deepens the predicament of powerless and poor consumers.