![Galactic Free Press's picture Galactic Free Press's picture](http://soundofheart.org/galacticfreepress/./sites/default/files/NewGFPUser.jpg)
S. Grant, Listverse
Waking Times
Consumerism and the practice of flaunting one’s status through clothes, jewelry, and other things has existed since the dawn of civilization. Yet, the endless cycle of working to buy has never been more rampant than it is now. How did the United States, a nation founded on Puritan, non-materialistic tenants become filled with the biggest shoppers on the planet and end up occupying 29% of the World’s consumer market? As it turns out, Americans were carefully and systematically manipulated into becoming insatiable shoppers.