Akademik

affluenza
(AF.loo.en.zuh)
n.
An extreme form of materialism in which consumers overwork and accumulate high levels of debt to purchase more goods (affluence + influenza).
Example Citation:
Our society is more troubled by problems of overabundance. We are three times richer than in the 1950s, and diseases particular to "affluenza" clog our social and individual arteries. We are more overworked, more stressed, more depressed and much fatter. ...
Critiques of affluenza go deeper than puritanical dismay at the aggressive vulgarity of materialism. The centrepiece of the argument is that we are obsessed privately with more income and better goods, and collectively with "growth" and "progress". Yet all the scholarly work on well-being shows that after passing a benchmark of real deprivation, greater prosperity does not lead to increased happiness.
— Anne Manne, "Sell Your Soul And Spend, Spend, Spend," Syndey Morning Herald, April 14, 2003
Earliest Citation:
Ann [Beattie] gives readings all over the country. Ann's picture was on the cover of the SoHo Weekly News. Ann gets mail from men in prison who have read her stories and fallen in love with her. And a Boston paper even referred to the people she writes about, usually disenchanted orphans of Affluenza, as The Beattie Generation.
— Tom Shales, "Rough Cuts From Ann," The Washington Post, October 25, 1979
Related Words:
afflufemza
barefoot luxury
bling-bling
brand name-dropping
commodified leisure
culture jamming
debt porn
downshifter
expenditure cascade
financial pornography
hedonic treadmill
inconspicuous consumption
investorism
joy-to-stuff ratio
killboard
maffluent
miswanting
nanny bubble
personal shoplifter
personal shopper
spending fast
starter castle
subvertisement
sudden loss of wealth syndrome
sudden wealth syndrome
voluntary simplicity
wealth effect
weisure
work-life balance
work-life overload
worried wealthy
Categories:
Money
Lifestyles
"The best things in life aren't things"
"You don't own things, they own you"
Why is it when we're children, we can amuse ourselves for hours with dirt, rocks and sticks? If we can slow down, walk more, talk with people and enjoy the simple things we have around us, then there is a chance for happiness.

New words. 2013.