Curing Affluenza: How to Buy Less Stuff and Save the World

In the tradition of Paul Mason's Postcapitalism: A Guide to Our Future and Rutger Bregman's Utopia for Realists: And How We Can Get There

Affluenza is the empty sense we feel when our wasteful consumerist lifestyle leaves us dissatisfied and unfulfilled. How can we cureourselves of this strikingly modern affliction? According to Richard Denniss, we must distinguish between consumerism, the love of buying things, which is undeniably harmful to us and to the planet, and materialism, the love of things, which can in fact be beneficial. In this sparkling book of ideas, he shows why we must cherish the things that we own – preserve them, maintain them, and then gift them or sell them when we no longer have a need for them. If we as a society do not cure ourselves of affluenza, we make it impossible for all the people of our planet to enjoy a higher standard of living, and we condemn our environment to a polluted and unsustainable future.