Word: affluenza
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...alleged need for this self-flagellation stems from the fact that the U.S. makes up less than five percent of the world’s population, but Americans consume roughly 25 percent of the world’s resources. As the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) documentary, “Affluenza,” states, “Since 1950, Americans alone have used more resources than everyone who ever lived before them […] The average North American consumes five times as much as an average Mexican […] and 30 times as much as the average person...
...Americans are reaching a breaking point," says John de Graaf, one of the authors of Affluenza, a book that criticizes materialism and overconsumption. What the country needs, he says, is a day off. So he has organized the first National Take Back Your Time Day, scheduled for Oct. 24. The idea--really a nationwide version of the Ridgewood initiative--is for people to take time out to protest what de Graaf and his cohort see as "an epidemic of overwork and overscheduling threatening communities and families." Events ranging from forums on how to create a society that operates...
...wasn't guilty of them all, but enough to start me thinking. I want my kids to work hard, appreciate what they have and give to causes they believe in. Yet we live in an age when "affluenza" makes the cover of Forbes, and young adults have serious credit-card problems. Does the fact that my daughter sees me whipping out my credit card several times a day mean she will be back on our doorstep with her hand...
...give most of his tens of millions to charity and leave just $1 million to his daughter, a nice cushion but not enough to live well on without working. Other rich folks, including Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, have similar plans to spare their heirs what wealth advisers call "affluenza," an affliction that was fleetingly pandemic during the dotcom daze. Wealth doctors have lost a few patients since then. But even as stocks have slumped, home prices have swelled. Household net worth is down only slightly from its 1999 peak. Meanwhile, tax changes this year raise the limit on annual...
Personally, I think that in a world already infected with affluenza, parents should be very careful about further encouraging their kids to think, talk about or play with money. Investing is a responsibility, profit taking is a privilege, and kids should be expected to set aside money for charity. They should also get the message that even if their portfolio outstrips their parents', they still have to make their beds...