Los Angeles arbitrator Barry Goldman wrote a brilliant piece in today's Los Angeles Times Opinion Section about how our internal "full" switches are broken and we feel the need to buy more stuff, eat more food and in the case of certain wealthy people; risk prison to steal more money. He notes the proliferation of bigger closets, the storage industry, obesity and insider trading. What makes modern men, women and children to feel so insatiable? Goldman hypothesizes that earlier humans were constantly faced with scarcity and may have developed the need to horde during good times in anticipation of it. Seems plausible to me. President Obama's recent comments to foreign leaders suggest he is aware of this cultural phenomenon. He cautioned China, Japan and Europe not to expect American consumers to buy the world out of recession. We're fat enough already.
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