Maureen Dowd in the NY Times today said that we are currently struggling to get over our “affluenza. That condition, the bane of the middle class, is defined in a book of the same name as ‘a painful, contagious, socially transmitted condition of overload, debt, anxiety and waste resulting from the dogged pursuit of more.'”
As I walked back from dinner a couple nights ago with the ever-refreshing Linda Case, we discussed the need to find satisfaction in simplicity. And I certainly don’t mean to suggest that you should look to the magazine “Real Simple” which suggests that $350 cashmere sweaters represent simplicity. It doesn’t – it’s just “more stuff-porn” intended to convince consumers that they’re living an elegant and simple life by spending more on it.
Last night I was nearly side-swiped by a Black Escalade with tinted windows. The license plate read “Buddha”. Was he Buddha? I doubt it, not unless the reincarnated Buddha suffers from affluenza!
Read the entire column at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/01/opinion/01dowd.html?scp=2&sq=Maureen%20Dowd&st=cse