Affluenza, used as a legal defense, has provoked strong reactions. But is affluenza something more than a legal excuse? Is it a societal challenge, a global malaise and life-threatening disease of epidemic proportions?
A decade before its use as a legal defense, FamVin reported on this phenomenon in 2002 .
What Is Affluenza?
A 1997 documentary drew attention to affluenza—consumerism and materialism in modern society.
Affluenza is a dysfunctional relationship with money/wealth, or the pursuit of it.
Individual and cultural symptoms are: an inability to delay gratification and tolerate frustration; a false sense of entitlement; loss of future motivation; low self-esteem; loss of self-confidence; low self-worth; preoccupation with externals.Affluenza is not simply “a rich person’s disease.” Because affluenza separates us from one another — and from ourselves — both our personal and professional productivity decreases and all of society suffers. Read more at the Affluenza Project
Escape from Affluenza is a 1998 PBS 56-minute documentary film produced as a sequel to the 1997 documentary Affluenza. While the original concentrates on affluenza—consumerism and materialism in modern society, the sequel focuses on how to avoid this.[1] It looks at stories of how to reduce debt, stress, time-pressure and possession-overload.[2]
Even financial planners have taken note of this communicable disease.
And once again ’tis the season for affluenza. Have you gotten your flu shot?
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