I thought it was incredibly telling that after the events of Sept.11, one of the first messages to reach the American public was to keep consumer confidence, and continue spending so as to not let the economy slip. I have done some research into just how ingrained the consumer mentality is in the US public, and the dangerous effect this has had on people, and have found some very compelling statistics. These make very interesting reading: Americans make up 5% of the world's population, yet are responsible for 25% of all the world's energy demand, and for 30% of deadly greenhouse emissions.

Life and spending are so synonymous to the public that the result has been "institutionalized overconsumption". The percentage of all economic activity generated in the US from personal spending is 70%, far higher than any other country in the world, and between 50-90% higher than major European countries.

Result: 25% of Americans are affected by "pathological spending" and up to 6% have developed full-blown compulsive spending disorders.

Virtually all the shame has been erased from indebtedness: over the last 5 years savings in the US have fallen into the negative - Americans now spend billions more than they earn. In 1999 alone, they racked up credit card debts of $1.5 trillion, while total consumer debt reached $6 trillion. Over one million people file for bankruptcy each year.

The US is largely responsible for the energy crisis. Per-person, the US consumes 26.4 barrels of oil per year. The world average is 3.2. (Japan: 17.9; Germany: 13.7, New Zealand: 12.1; Britain: 10.2) Since 1991 US oil imports have increased 60%. If all other countries in the world consumed oil at the rate of the US (i.e. per person), the known oil reserves would be dry in less than seven years. No new major oil finds have been made since the early 70s.

The US is piling up far more solid waste than any other nation. From '97-'99, annual municipal solid waste (MSD) in the US increased by approximately 50 million tonnes to 390 million tonnes. An average of 1524 kg per-person of MSD is generated annually by Americans. (This means that a typical American family of four amasses a seemingly impossible 13kg of solid waste every day). NZers can only manage to average 710kg per-person each year (46% of the American standard).

This over-consumption attitude has had a profound effect on the mentality of the public. In 1970 a large-scale survey of US university students showed that 80% of them had as a goal "the development of a meaningful philosophy of life". By 1989 that had fallen to 41%. In the same period, the number of those aiming "to be very well off financially" increased from 39% to 75%. This has seen a wholesale shift to studying marketable subjects at tertiary institutions.

Social analysts now speak of things such as "consumer trance", "ecological dissociation", and "environmental insanity". eg America's collective fetish for sports utility vehicles (SUVs). These make up 43% of all passanger car sales, consume 1/3 more fuel than ordinary cars, and create 75% more pollution. The average fuel efficiency of US cars in 2001 is less than those in the 1950s and '60s. 87% of SUVs in America have never been off-road, and environmentalists have calculated that SUVs have caused Americans to waste 70 billion gallons of petrol (sorry, "gas") in the past ten years. All for the outdoors image.

The effect that this materialism has on people is profound. Hyper-materialism features prominently in the emerging plague of existential disorders: chronic boredom, jadedness, purposelessness, meaninglessness and alienation etc. 40% of psychotherapy patients today suffer from these symptoms, and 81% of University students in the US reported feeling they were in an existential vacuum.

Children have been transformed into ardent consumers. An average American 8 year-old can list over 30 popular brand names. More than 90% of 13 year old girls in a recent survey listed shopping as their favourite past-time, followed by watching TV. In 1968 American children from 4 to 12 spent the equivalent of $2 billion dollars (adjusted for inflation) whilst today they spend $35 billion annually.

Now that certainly makes for interesting reading. What is worse, however, is that this rampantly rapacious consumerism is supposedly the future of the world - it is being exported all over the world in the name of globalization, and is homogenizing what once were incredibly diverse cultural distinctions. Is this the future for every "free market" around the world, or will all the resources be used up before they even get the chance?