There's A Staggering Conspiracy Behind The Rise Of Consumer Culture

Americans weren't always addicted to buying things. Long before U.S. consumers racked up $11.3 trillion in aggregate debt, people used to save money for things they actually needed. But in the age of plenty that followed World War I, corporations countered the threat of overproduction with a manipulative psychological strategy. "We must shift America from a needs, to a desires culture,"...