by Brenda Bowers

Created on: May 31, 2008

Our English speaking world, and especially we in the United States are suffering from a killer disease. A killer disease that I will call Affluenza because it came about when the general population became affluent and increases as affluence increases. ( I did not coin this term but adopted it from another blogger * Oliver James http://www.alternet.org/workplace/72496 )

Mr. James' definition of Affluenza is the "placing a high value on money, possessions, appearances and fame when you already have enough income to meet your fundamental psychological needs." It is addictive and almost incurable as the primary symptom escalates causing the victim to want more and more and more money and possessions far beyond his needs.

We in the United States are suffering an epidemic of this highly contagious disease. It has only infected the general population in any numbers during the past half century as incomes have risen allowing these symptoms to be indulged. The next most influential mechanism helping to spread the disease is television, or television advertising, which coincidentally coincided with the rise in income.

This disease has infected every level of society, but only the rich have the power to indulge their greed and thus leaving the rest of society to suffer the most disabling symptom which is mental anguish. Mental anguish is the result of not being able to feed the desperate need for more and more and more money and possessions. There are several ways that people tend to deal with and/or alleviate this mental anguish which I will try to explain.

First, when the symptoms of Affluenza become acute and people are unable to feed their own needs for more they look for outside sources of funding. The governmental bodies are the most promising outside source of funding. People begin calling on the government to pay for a basic needs therefore leaving their own resources for indulging in the "wants" rather than the "needs". We are seeing this today in the call for Universal Health Care by young workers, in older Americans wanting more and more financial support from the young workers even when they have but do not wish to use personal savings set aside for their old age, and in children out of control with their demands and parents who feel compelled to fulfill these demands. It is killing Western society as we know it. It is killing the American spirit of self reliance and independence.

Years ago my husband and I sat down and discussed what we felt was more important

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