A documentary movie entitled “Affluenza” in 1997 is an innovative film that diagnoses a serious social disease. It is caused by commercialism, consumerism, and rampant materialism that are having a disturbing impact on our families, communities, environment, and even future generations. Affluenza is defined in the film as an unhappy condition of overload, debt, anxiety and waste resulting from the dogged pursuit of more. Affluenza can be cured but the virus is very contagious. There are lots of symptoms in this disease these are swollen expectations, shopping fever, chronic stress, hyper commercialism, social scars, material (girls and boys), rush of bankruptcies, fractured families, and many others
Affluenza: When Too Much is Never Enough is a 2005 book by Professor Clive Hamilton and Richard Denniss. According to the book, Western society is addicted to overconsumption and this situation is unique in human history. Hamilton and Denniss argue that people “aspire to the lifestyles of the rich and famous at the cost of family, friends and personal fulfilment”, and that rates of stress, depression and obesity are high as people try to cope with the emptiness and disappointments of consumer life.
Affluenza says that an increasing number of Australians are ignoring advertisers, reducing their spending, and reprioritizing their time.