affluenza

— The tension heightens when speaking about "affluenza" from within the economic cultures of Western countries and in particular our North American society. We do live quite privileged lives. Our privileges have clearly become expectations. […] Affluenza has been defined as a cultural disease of excess—an excess that seldom satiates the desire for more. The virus is identified by its symptoms: the feverish pursuit of products, possessions, and privileged passions, which might be outpaced only by a market-driven economy, ravenous consumption, an increasing anxiety over exponential debt, and the yield of excessive waste. Affluenza has also been more personally identified by unmanageable stress and pervasive feelings of emptiness.