we have been conditioned
Social media kicked our consumption into the stratosphere. Kids as young as two years old using a smartphone as their nanny is utterly absurd but it's happening and those parents think that it is normal!
Definitions of poverty in the west are a million miles from real poverty.
Almost every home has fresh water and sanitation, 3 flat screen colour TV's etc.
I remember when I saw the first 40" colour TV. It was quite frankly shocking! It dominated the room and felt incredibly intrusive. Now everyone has a smartphone (or 4) tracking our every move.
We may have gained a lot of 'stuff' but we have lost so much more. Our humanity has been eroded by our desire for the next shiny trinket.
Unfortunately the people that really need to see this message will never understand the implications. It's their normal and anything that challenges their paradigm is unseeable from their world view.
Times sure have changed.
I know a guy who bought a 60" "backlit" TV that had to be angled and the space behind in the corner could have housed a small family... Flat screen Plasmas came out not too long after :D
I am sure I am not the only one, but I am painfully aware of the erosion. I feel it daily.