Examples Of Affluenza

In 1997, a PBS documentary introduced “affluenza” to the English language. The word is used to describe people who have a tendency to “keep up with the Joneses,” which gave people an opportunity to poke fun at “America's ever-increasing consumption.” Even though people are entitled to spending their own money, I believe that Americans are too dependent on material goods.

For the most part, I believe that Americans are a little too needy when it comes to material items. In the political cartoon by Jim Sizemore, there is a man and a woman laying in a bed together surrounded by a bunch of clock, pictures and other miscellaneous items with the phrase “Something is missing,” written at the bottom of the picture. This cartoon shows that people can have all that they want, but they will still want more afterwards. When talking about the “American Dream,” mentioning how “ninety-three percent of teenage girls list shopping as their favorite pastime,” is a must (Source E). With all of the “pastime” that teenage girls can have, it is a wonder how they are able to stand shopping at this point.
Since “seeing is believing,” Lapham decided to speak on how “the visible signs of wealth testify to an inward state of grace.” All of the “property” that someone has to own to show that he/she is happy goes spirit deep with “the use of money as currency of the soul” (Source F). To help his fellow brother out, Andrew Carnegie states that “this change, however, is not to be deplored, but welcomed as highly beneficial.” He could not be any more right! We should totally use every penny of our income to buy things that we will maybe use twice in our lifetime to show off all of the progress that we have