Affluenza

Affluenza

Jennifer Ingles
Instructor Wilson
English 101 Section 901
October 4, 2008
Affluenza and the Fall of Capitalism
The authors of the book Affluenza, John De Graaf, David Wann and Thomas H. Naylor, have defined the term as “a painful, contagious, socially transmitted condition of overload, debt, anxiety, and waste resulting from the dogged pursuit of more” (2).   According to De Graaf et al, this disease has many symptoms; including, but not limited to: the stress of excess, community chills, resource exhaustion and industrial diarrhea.   I believe that these symptoms not only describe affluenza but also the fall of capitalism.
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, capitalism is defined as “an economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined by private decision, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are determined mainly by competition in a free market.”   However, more importantly, capitalism is defined by three basic principals – profit, reinvestment and growth.   In order to be succeeding in a capitalist society, you need to be constantly growing and making a profit.
The first symptom of affluenza, that we will look at, is the stress of excess.   The stress of excess describes the fact that because we own so many things, our lives are being taken up “by maintaining and caring for things instead of people” (39).   Instead of life getting easier with more leisure time, we have to work harder and longer in order to care for all of our possessions.   This leads to people feeling alienated and unhappy with society and history teaches us that when enough people become unhappy, society is forced to change.
Industrial diarrhea is another example of a symptom of affluenza.   In the chapter that focuses on this particular symptom, the authors talk about the byproducts of industry and their negative effect on the health of the world.   The authors go on to say, “We typically...