Prosperity Paradox

When will Americans stop loving stuff?

Topics

Consumerism

Can you guess what industry is among the fastest-growing in the U.S.? Self-storage. A self-storage industry newsletter reported in March 2018 that self-storage boasts an annual industry revenue of $38 billion. American storage facilities number between 44,000 and 52,000, offering around 2.3 billion square feet of rentable space.

And when we are no longer able to store all our stuff, we simply throw it out. Treehugger.com reports that every American generates 4.4 pounds of trash daily. In fact, we spend more on trash bags than scores of other countries spend on everything!

Richard M. DellOrfano spent ten years on a cross-country pilgrimage following Christ’s instruction to minister without possessions. He is completing his autobiography: Path Perilous, My Search for God and the Miraculous.

From The Narthex

Fake Flowers

On a warm, sunny spring morning, I passed a rose bush blooming in its full…

Italian Bishops' Synodal Document Opens to LGBT

The Third Synodal Assembly of the Church in Italy marked a historic turning point in…

For Every Idle Word

When I was a kid in the 1950s, a uniformed policeman with white gloves would…