In a book by Oliver James called Affluenza: How to be Successful and Stay Sane, the author
says that people in the English-speaking world have a psychic void that they fill with material goods.  He calls this Affluenza, a virus-like condition that encourages  people to define themselves by how much money they make.  We have moved from a state of being into a state of having.  False needs, promoted by advertising, have made every generation more anxious and depressed.  Previously we bought goods because we needed them; now we buy them to enhance our status.  Without them we feel ugly and alone.  Everything consumers buy that they don’t really need makes them want to buy more, but nothing seems to give them pleasure or happiness.  The very rich can buy anything they want, but nothing satisfies them.  Their answer is to make even more money that they cannot even spend. Meanwhile, people are more depressed the greater the gap between rich and poor.  “Just as AIDS is stalking the planet, so is Affluenza.”

Epicureans should naturally ignore the affliction, if not the topic.