But economists like Schor argue that a voracious advertising industry creates shiny new wants and that insatiable consumer spending now powers 70 percent of the U.S. economy. The astonishing rise in the cost of medical care, the cost of living, and ever-steeper housing prices for ever-larger homes have outstripped stagnant earnings. As a result, household debt has reached historic highs,39 and people are drowning in stuff—caught up in what she calls a vicious cycle of “work and spend.”
