Bernays envisions the society as a society of desires rather than a society of needs. Bernays is often cited as one of the precursors of liberal capitalism where, contrary to Marx, people tend to acquire goods on the basis of what they would like to have rather than what they actually would need.

Bernays sees the shift from a society of needs to a society of desires on a request in order to solve the problem of economic stagnation.

The shift from a society of needs to a society of desires is served as a form of propaganda mainly to increase the sale of products at a time when production was monolithic, non-diversified and consisted in a single product for all.

Bernays borrowed from Freud (and critics would claim weaponized) psychology in order to increase the sale of products. One example that could be reminded would be the pitch of cigarettes to women that was presented as a form of empowerment.

In practice, Bernays solved the problem of diminishing returns by urging both production and consumption to be diversified using fundamental psychological strives such as greed, pride, et cetera.