QuickRead.com presents a summary of Affluenza: How Overconsumption Is Killing Us - and How to Fight Back by John de Graaf and David Wann

Part self-help guide and part social commentary, this witty expose takes a hard look at America’s obsession with consumerism, how it’s ruining our lives, and how we can eradicate this toxic behavior in ourselves.

You know those people who always have to have the latest model of everything? Whether it’s the newest iPhone, the hottest TV on the market, or the latest trend in this season’s fashions, it seems like they’re always trading what they have for something newer with the assumption that “new” automatically implies “better”. Theorizing that as the world’s ability to mass produce goods has increased, our obsession with consumerism has risen in response, Affluenza explores this trend in detail by analyzing American life and overconsumption in the post-industrial age.

Employing the term “affluenza” to define our current state of obsession with materialism and the pursuit of wealth, de Graaf and Wann demonstrate how this form of cultural extremism is detrimental not only to our wallets, but to our hearts, relationships, and minds.

Please note that this summary is NOT the original book and is meant to be listened to as a supplement to the original.