Comment on Everyday Sociology Blog

The post I chose to read from the Everyday Sociology Blog is called, "Affluenza, Privilege and Justice" written by Karen Sternheimer. I thought this would be an interesting blog since it had the word "afflluenza" in the title and we have discussed affluenza numerous times in class. This post, though, took a different spin on what we as a class discussed regarding affluenza. Sternheimer wrote about a 16 year old boy, named Ethan Couch, who drove drunk and got into a car accident, killing four people in the other vehicle. The reason that this particular drunk driving story made the news was because at this boy's sentencing, his legal team stated that he "suffered from affluenza". This boy was then sent to a treatment facility, which was funded by his wealthy parents, instead of facing many years in prison like most people in his situation would've had to do. This raises so many red flags in my mind. First off, a person is driving under the influence of alcohol, and there is no reason why he should've been doing that. Second, he killed people. And third, he didn't even pay the necessary consequences because mommy and daddy were rich enough to basically pay his way out of it. He had lived a privileged life for 16 years so when his actions caused him to face serious consequences, he was told it wasn't his fault that he had grown up with everything handed to him on a silver platter, and therefore wouldn't have to go to prison. Instead, he would try to "treat" his "issue" of not understanding that there are consequences for people's actions, no matter how rich they are. This case really got people talking about how "socioeconomic status" can and does influence court cases. If this exact situation had happened to a 16 year old of middle to lower class status, would he/she have received the same sentence as Ethan Couch? One has to question how that can be considered justice.

I found an article online that I thought did a great job of describing affluenza in America and also stressed how serious it actually is. The article was entitled "Affluenza- A Modern Epidemic". This particular article attributed the rise of this "virus" to generations of parents wanting better lives for their children than they had. That is exactly what Jack said the other day in class is considered the American Dream. Parents who grew up in the Great Depression obviously weren't surrounded by a plethora of material goods. They didn't want that to be the case for their children, though. So when the economy started to improve, children of those Great Depression Era parents were given much more than their parents were ever used to. This cycle has continued since then and that is a main cause of why many children in America today are living in an age of entitlement. Moreover, this explains why Ethan Couch, and his parents, had the idea that he didn't need to go to jail because he was above "regular people".
What I really liked about this article is how it describes affluenza as extremely addictive. Buying more things will never satisfy you. It will only make you want more, bigger and better things. I relate it to me eating ice cream. I love ice cream more than almost any other food. I can eat it and am known for eating it in large quantities. Do I need to have huge bowls of ice cream? No, of course not. But if I only dish myself up one scoop, I just end up going back to the container and dishing myself up more. I am rarely satisfied with the amount of ice cream I eat, even if I am full. That is both poor self-control and also a poor health habit. Affluenza works the same way in a sense. American people are no longer satisfied with buying what they need and what they can afford. They are obsessed with getting new, bigger and better things and the sad part is there isn't an easy way to fix it. People need to realize that money cannot buy happiness. It only leads to bad things like greed, envy, stress, and not to mention how it can harm relationships with others. I wish I could say that this "epidemic" could be cured in my lifetime, but unfortunately, I think it will take people a very long time to get over this sickness.

http://www.everydaysociologyblog.com/2014/02/affluenza-privilege-and-justice.html#more

http://realtruth.org/articles/090806-004-middle.html