To what extent is affluenza impacting the planet? (Affluenza is impacting the planet.)

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To What Extent Is Affluenza Impacting the Planet
Introduction
In the 19th century, Thorstein Veblen, a sociologist, and economist coined the phrase “conspicuous consumption” to describe the behavior of the newly affluent social class that began in the late 1800s during the second industrial revolution (Archer np). In the United States, conspicuous consumption is related to affluenza: a portmanteau of “affluence” and “influenza” used to describe a psychological state common among young and wealthy people lacking motivation and with feelings of guilt, materialism, and greed. In the book “Affluenza” John de Graaf, David Wann, and Thomas H. Naylor offer a more thorough description of affluenza. The authors define affluenza as hurting and socially transmitted state of waste, overload, anxiety, and debt resulting from the persistent quest of more. The impact of affluenza on the world economy and the environment is phenomenal (de Graaf, Wann, and Naylor 1). According to Edward Hume’s book, “Garbology: Our Dirty Love Affair with Trash”, an average American citizen produces 102 tons of trash across a lifetime and the country loses up to $50 billion annually through consumption and self-indulgence (Hume 5). This makes garbage America’s most remarkable product, export, and legacy. Veblen applied a similar description of the quasi illness to what he termed as “nouveau riche” to refer to families that increasingly spend their massive wealth in flashy manners as a way of showing off their socio-economic superiority. As Americans continue to make more trash compared to anyone else on the planet, it is important to arrest overconsumption to save the planet from negative anthropogenic activities. Although the concept of throwaway society has been supported by some authors such as Vance Packard, the impacts of consumerist pursuit have been witnessed around the globe especially in the United States. The effects of resource degradation, pollution, and species extinction on the planet are all associated with affluenza or overconsumption.
Affluenza results in resource degradation by a throwaway society. Americans would choose to throw away than repair items such as bike lights. The malady of consumerism or affluence is demonstrated by the huge amounts of garbage that Americans generate. There are more than 7 million cars thrown away each year in the United States. An average American spends 20 tons of resources annually. It is estimated that American garbage would fill a convoy of trash trucks half the distance from the earth to the moon. New York alone produces over 14 million tons of garbage every year, making it the leading city in the world in the trash generation (Galka np). This concept of wasteful consumer society has been around since the late 19th century although the term “throwaway society” was not coined until the early 1960s (Hellmann and Luedicke 83). In his 1960 publication, “The Waste Makers”, Vance Oakley Packard sparked enormous discussion among the academia and society in regards to the throwaway society. In his provocative book, “Affluent Soc...