Catching affluenza

Catching affluenza ... listen, read the transcript. Timely warnings about what lifestyles in English-speaking countries (not the West as a whole) are doing to the mental health of the people.

Oliver James, British author of the bestseller, Affluenza, is interviewed. James says in his book that no television channel should be permitted to broadcast more than one American originated program a day.

He says in this program, inter alia:

"... nobody goes on their deathbed, nobody says I wish I'd spent more time in the office, and Australia has the highest working hours anywhere in the developed world ...

"I would just say to people in Sydney, do you actually need a bigger house now that you're having another child? Couldn't two of your children share a bedroom? In Shanghai I met people who had been brought up with ten other people in one room -- you know, think about that. Do you need a new kitchen? In fact, for a kitchen you just need a fridge, you need a cooker, you need flat clean surfaces -- and you need it to cook food, you don't need it to show off.

"There was one guy in the book who describes turning down the offer of a friend to come and see his new bathroom and his friend reacted as if he had been slapped in the face. That's how bad it's got and please, don't get me wrong, it's bad here, too."