John de Graaf, David Wann, and Thomas Naylor thought otherwise. Critically looking into the seemingly affluent and ideal social order of American society in the book, "Affluenza," the authors presented an insightful interpretation of the 'social diseases' that plague America. Collectively categorized under the epidemic termed as "affluenza," the authors discussed how affluent American society was far from perfect: it has 'social diseases' that were created from indulging in too much material accumulation, which were over-consumption, social disintegration, and environmental degradation. Centering on these social diseases, "Affluenza" brought into fore the detrimental effects that capitalism and its comforts had on American society.

Another important effect that affluenza had on American society was the blatant disregard for the physical environment-that is, a rapid increase in environmental degradation. The lifestyle of the affluent American had also produced more waste than ever in the history of human society. The proliferation of plastic-made, particularly disposable, and other non-biodegradable materials became pollutants and hazardous waste materials to the already polluted and dying state of the physical environment. The need to create more consumable materials arose from the demand of these consumables; thus, manufacturing companies develop merchandise that would benefit the individual, but not the environment. Energy consumption increased due to an increase in car and electric home appliance production; water supply depleted as a result of too much exposure to hazardous waste materials; and lands were no longer habitable for they were eroded, unsafe to live in, or simply not available. These were the irreversible effects of affluenza. As American society increasingly sought to live a comfortable and individualist life, the physical environment suffered from the effects of humanity's unilateral preoccupation to make their life as affluent as or more affluent in the society.

In illustrating how the epidemic spread and developed to give rise to the concept of "affluenza," the authors first illustrated how over-consumption had become one of its 'symptoms,'-that is, Americans are now experiencing the need to accumulate more material wealth, in an effort to win the race towards achieving affluence. This was explicated in chapter 5, "The stress of excess." In it, the authors discussed the emergence of "possession overload" and "time famine," concepts which were interrelated and effectively illustrated how Americans learned to buy more than what they need in the soonest time possible.

Socially sanctioned addiction reflected the money-centric American family, wherein unity was determined on the amount of money that it has in order to spend on "bonding activities" and other preoccupations that the family thinks would lead to a stronger family relationship. Thus, a strong and good family relationship, as reflected in the book, was determined through the family's capability to spend money which the family members thought would be beneficial to their relationship. Lack of money as a result of over-spending

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1622
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)