Possession.

• Author: Prugh, Thomas
• Position: Editorial

The United States leads (if that's the word) the world in consuming things, and certain related factoids have become legendary: that the U.S. population, though only 4 percent of the global total, consumes 25 percent of the energy, for instance. No other nation has so fetishized consumption, nor worked harder to forget that consumption ought to serve life, not the reverse.

As evidence, consider a hilarious recent Harper's profile (by Frederick Kaufman) of eating contests and a champion "gurgitator," a descendant of frontiersman Daniel Boone named Dale. Dale Boone ranks ninth among gurgitators worldwide, and once downed 20 hotdogs, with buns, in 12 minutes. Dale's dream, Kaufman writes, is "the dream of endless, involuntary process. When he eats, he touches the infinite." Boone faces off against opponents with names like Chew Chew Phillips (aka The Locust) and caps his victories with an ear-splitting "Yeeeeee-haw!"

Taken as a metaphor for the U.S. way of life--consumption elevated to teleology--this is simply irresistible. Americans seem not so much obsessed with consumption, as possessed by it. The dirty secret, however, is that this immoderation not only disappoints--Americans' reported happiness has not improved in decades, despite vast increases in consumer spending--but also sickens and kills. Consider obesity, which results from several factors but especially inactivity and overeating of the wrong things. U.S. adults are often overweight, and the prevalence of obese U.S. children has more than doubled in the last 40 years, according to the World Health...