Affluenza

Affluenza

After considering the symptoms of affluenza, I can easily say that only one is true of me. The only one I agree with is that I am running out of room to store my stuff, so I do not have affluenza. Even though I am not infected with affluenza, there are a large number of people in developed countries who are. It can be a very bad thing to have, though there are some good aspects that should be considered.

Anyone with affluenza, obviously, would have an overabundance of stuff building up. To some that may be bad, an unuseful pile of junk. That is a bad way to look at it. On the occasion that an unimportant pair of clothes is needed for a dirty activity, who would be more likely to have one? The person with affluenza of course. As a result of all their impulsive buying, they would be sure to have clothes in excess, many of which they most likely don't like. Besides using their acquired mass to help themselves, they could also use it to help many others. To start, it would be useful to friends who don't have affluenza and don't like to waste their money. By buying everything they see, the affluent people are in reality just building up a collection of lend able items for their friends' every need. This way, their friends can stick to penny pinching while still having everything they want to use. If friends aren't there to put their stuff to use, anything that is either unwanted or not used could be gotten rid of by donating it to Salvation Army or Red Cross. When all the unwanted things have been donated, it both helps the economy, from buying it all in the first place, as well as helps the less fortunate people. The poor don't have the money to go buy everything at normal prices so affluent people are basically buying it for them. When the affluent people go out and initially buy things, it helps the economy. With a better economy, there will then be more money to spare in cleaning and protecting the environment.

After some thought, there are good sides to most everything. Even something that seems so wasteful as affluenza turns out to have several beneficial aspects to it that may not have been realized without careful consideration.