Affluenza Sparknotes

Affluenza Sparknotes

Introduction I. We're a nation of consumers exploited by deceptive marketing ploys that compete for our every dollar. a. According to the MAGNA 'US Forecast Update March 2017' the advertising industry spent 180 billion dollars marketing everything from presidential candidates to cars and beauty products. b. Companies mass produce products overseas which using cheap parts that often don't last very long, causing us to have to purchase a replacement, creating a perpetual cycle known as planned obsolescence. II. In the book 'Affluenza: How Overconsumption Is Killing Us and How to Fight Back' Affluenza is defined as a painful, contagious, socially transmitted condition of overload, debt, anxiety, and waste resulting from the dogged pursuit of more. a. As a society, we're consumed with wanting more whether it's the latest model or the newest hot item. b. Our consumerism leads to pollution, depletion of our resources, and mass quantities of waste. III. We have become a very wasteful society where it seems as if everything is disposable; as a society, we need to be conscious of just how much waste we produce and what we are able to do to reduce that amount to protect our environment.
Body I. The Environmental Protection Agency released the 'Advancing Sustaining Materials Management: 2014 Fact Sheet' in November of 2016 and Americans produce 4.4 pounds of trash every single day. a. After recycling, composting and combustion with energy recovery, only 2.3 pounds of our daily trash ends up as waste in a landfill. b. Nevertheless in 2014, 136 million tons of waste still ended up in a landfill. II. We all hear we need to recycle. We see labels with the iconic recycling symbol, but if that's all we do we're missing a huge portion of being ethically conscious consumers. a. The EPA has a 'Waste Management Hierarchy' and it begins with reducing and reusing what we consume in order to reduce waste. b. Source reduction not only reduces pollution but saves our natural resources and your money! c. It goes against American culture to want less, where there's always an ad for the latest gadget or a sale at just about any store. III. However, we need to change and there's so much we can do to reduce our consumption. a. I'm

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