Under the Radar DVD of the Week: 'Affluenza'

This week, the oddest DVD to appear on release lists is:

“Affluenza”

What better way to strike back against the rampant consumerism and materialism that afflicts the American soul than to rush out and purchase an updated version of the 1997 documentary “Affluenza,” due out on DVD Tuesday?

Hailed as a “groundbreaking film that diagnoses a serious social disease – caused by consumerism, commercialism and materialism – that is having a devastating impact on our families, communities and the environment,” the documentary originally aired over public broadcast stations and coined a new pop-culture word (affluence plus influenza) to describe American’s unbridled obsession with, as comic George Carlin would say, “our stuff.”

As we accumulate more stuff, the great paradox of American consumerism is that we seem to have less free time and the overall quality of our lives seems to be deteriorating. It’s as if we are indeed learning the hard way that money cannot buy happiness.