Capitalism has turned into a business of selling people goods they do not necessarily need, said a nationally renowned political theorist Thursday afternoon.

"We have gotten to the point where we have everything we need or want. That's a problem for capitalism," said Benjamin Barber, political theorist and professor at the University of Maryland. He spoke to about 200 students, faculty and community members at his lecture, "Consumers Are Not Citizens: How Markets Corrupt Democracy" Thursday in the K-State Alumni Center Ballroom.

Barber said a few hundred years ago, people made an effort to find new products that others would need, whether it was at that moment or ten years later.

Eventually, people ran out of needs, which was harmful to capitalism because it led to a surplus of products that were not being bought, he said. Instead of going to other countries with needs for their products, companies talked people into needing products they already had.

One example he cited was the availability of water in the U.S. He said although clean water is readily available from taps and faucets practically everywhere, the U.S. has spent almost $10 billion on bottled water while 3-4 million people in Third World countries do not have access to clean water.

"I want to know what earthly need we have for bottled water," he said.

Barber said another example of questionable capitalism techniques is the prevalence of Botox use in U.S. society. He said companies are making Botox concoctions while people in Third World countries need simple anti-viral and anti-diarrheal medicine just to survive.

He said people now are not buying products based on need, but on the viewpoints of other people. He said with any other aspect of society, this obsession would be frowned upon.

"Wherever you see a Coke or McDonald's sign, imagine you saw a sign that said 'Love Christ' or 'Respect Buddha,'" he said. "We would think we live in a theocracy," he said.

Barber said citizens need to take two steps to change the culture of capitalism.

First, citizens need to return capitalism to what it was in the 1800s.

"We need to put capitalism at the disposal of the world's needs," he said. "We need to produce goods and services the people actually need."

The second step people need to take, he said, is to recreate the partnership between democracy and capitalism. He said governments need to have some regulation about how businesses trade and sell goods.

He said allowing companies to form monopolies cuts access to other companies and does not allow capitalism to work properly.

Chris Boutiette, graduate student in public administration, said he enjoyed Barber's lecture because he focused on how the U.S. culture is focused on producing more for itself and less for other countries who need basic staples.

Boutiette said students need to get involved with groups of people interested in the same issues as them.

"Every student has something they care about," he said.

The Institute for Civic Discourse and Democracy at K-State sponsored the event. David Proctor, director of the ICDD, said the lecture was one of the largest the institute has had.

"He is the most internationally known speaker we've had," Proctor said. "He is a very important scholar in this area of civil discourse, and he was a very engaging and entertaining speaker."

Proctor also said the lecture was important to the members of ICDD.

"He is talking about consumerism in terms of democracy, which returns directly to our work at the ICDD," he said.