I somehow stumbled across an excellent article describing how hard Westerners (in particular) work to just spend more of what they earn on things that don’t really matter.

Oh, crap, that’s a horrible simplification.

Perhaps a quote:

Here in the West, a lifestyle of unnecessary spending has been deliberately cultivated and nurtured in the public by big business. Companies in all kinds of industries have a huge stake in the public’s penchant to be careless with their money. They will seek to encourage the public’s habit of casual or non-essential spending whenever they can.

It makes for very interesting reading and I knew if I didn’t write something about it I would lose the link in a fit of internet ADD. Here’s the article. The comments are pretty interesting, too.