Gluttony

The obscenely wealthy have many rationales and excuses. We are aware of them all because they can afford the best publicists. 

We are informed that in a democratic capitalist society cream rises. The best and the brightest make fortunes and in so doing enrich everyone. They invest wisely to benefit society by increasing productivity and channeling wealth to where it is most useful for all.

An honest look around may contradict a lot of that _ I read media devoted to the upper layers of the economy where ads for half-million-dollar cars and remote multi-million dollar dwellings proliferate. Unique experiences for tourists, costing decades of normal salary. But I need not go on. More is virtuous, more is better, more can do no wrong. Somehow, some way, all this spending actually benefits peons like you and me. Or so the publicists tell us.

The old word for this was “gluttony.” Never having enough, never being satisfied, stuffing oneself with momentary, passing, uninhibited extravagance simply to show off because one is bored. At least in the recent past gluttony was not considered a social virtue.

But these are modern times