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

Reflections on "Paradise Road"

I recently watched the 1997 Bruce Beresford film Paradise Road at home on DVD. As…

Civil Disobedience

The phrase civil disobedience stirs up a whole range of reactions. We might think of…

The Sacred Heart at Notre Dame

In Part 1, I described the evidence of the importance of the Sacred Heart to…