Meaning of affluenza | Babel Free

Definitions

A feeling of dissatisfaction, anxiety, etc., caused by the dogged and ongoing pursuit of more goods and possessions.

uncountable, usually

Equivalents

Examples

“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.”

“I think⟳ that all moms, no matter⟳ what their faith, struggle⟳ with the expectations of Affluenza Season, especially with the rosy Norman-Rockwell-type images of happy families shown in commercials starting at 12:01 a.m. the day after Halloween (didn't it use⟳ to be the day after Thanksgiving?).”

“Many contemporary industrial societies are characterized by the condition some writers call⟳ "affluenza". In the affluenzic society, the continuous growth in material wealth and consumption of material goods sits at the centre of human life and aspirations, rapidly reducing and replacing other goals and values of human fulfilment[…]. Constituted by a set⟳ of robust positive feedback mechanisms, affluenza is the larger system under which many local and global economies now operate⟳, and which shapes the personal values of many individuals and the social priorities of many nations and governments.”

“This minor epidemic of affluenzas does not signal a politics that is, in analytical terms, creative. Rather, it signals a type⟳ of commentary that has reached an impasse, uncertain of how to further develop⟳ an interpretation of and response to the exigencies of global consumption. Even more damagingly, talk⟳ of ‘affluenza’ has become⟳ a dead end⟳ in a time beyond the millennial boom; an era that requires a far more nuanced understanding of why and how the West consumes than is evident in a trite, if pithy, labelling of the western individual as manic shopper.”

CEFR level