I concur with the author of this post that affluenza is actually a disease that we need get rid of as a society. I like the manner in which the author quotes George Washington’s relation to modern affluenza. I concur that the founders of our nation set a precedence of affluenza. In my analysis, I find the criticism from Carl Marx on affluenza as a great attempt to tame the habit that many of America’s founders exhibited. Marx asserted that “too many useful goods create too many useless people”. Like the author of this post, I too noticed some instances in my life where I have experienced affluenza. I like sharing because I believe in the value of giving and giving someone something that I too would like to receive in return. I must admit that at times it is hard to part with some things, and I believe this has much to do with our upbringing in which we are taught to develop strong attachments to personal property. We just want more and however much of a good thing we have, we still want more. I concur with the author that the desire to want more and more is usually driven by the desire to show off when a chance arises. I also loved the classic case of affluenza that is presented in the Bible in the Garden of Eden in which Adam and Eve could not get satisfied with the numerous fruits in the Garden of Eden and had to eat the forbidden fruit. I think all problems in the world can be attributed to affluenza since it was at the point that God cast man from the Garden of Aden that suffering and human problems set in. In corroborating with the views of the author of this post I concur that affluenza will almost always leave us in a situation where we are wasteful and can only regret of wasted resources.
Works Cited
De, Graaf J, David Wann, and Thomas H. Naylor. Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2005. Print
Peer Post: Affluenza book - Chapter 8 to 14
