The Culture of Consumption

You don't have to believe in God to understand social psychology, and how important it is for people who don't have much of anything to live by a code that encourages thrift, modesty and self-restraint -- because they have so very much to lose if they don't. We have created a society in which it's hard for people to develop the habits of the heart that help them achieve -- well, if you don't like the word goodness, how about health, or sustainability? Put another way, the way we're living, and the culture of consumption we've created, both are unsustainable, because they depend on a distortion of human nature.

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