affluenza
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I felt the Affluenza video brought up a lot of somewhat disturbing issues that are a part of our everyday lives. Affluenza is defined as the social disease caused by consumerism, commercialism and rampant materialism. It is characterized as an unhealthy relationship with money, creates stress, bankruptcies, and even cause problems in relationships.
Advertisers who promote and shape our consumer culture seek to condition us to the idea that by trading our life energy for the money needed to buy their product, we will fulfill our hopes for power, happiness, security, acceptance, success, fulfillment, achievement, and personal worth. We have more stuff, but less time, and our quality of life seems to be deteriorating and the disease is sweeping the U.S. at an alarming pace.
In the beginning of the video, the facts that struck me the most were that we now have 2 times the amount of stuff that average families had in the 50's. Even though people have more belongings today, this does not contribute to their happiness. A valid reason the video brought up is that "prosperity" equals "stress" and people today have possession overload meaning that everything owns them; they feel that the belongings and money make them who they are...