Of course there"s always Thorstein Veblen"s explanation: "conspicuous consumption". It held that the rich don"t accumulate wealth in order to 1 it. Rather they accumulate wealth in order to 2 it, and their happiness is 3 by their neighbors" envy. As a result, the country finds itself in the 4 of "luxury fever". That is, families with 5 incomes of $50,000 try to emulate the consumption of those with $70,000, who in 6 try to emulate those with $140,000, and so on.
Simply put, when we see something we like that someone else has, we want it, too. "It"s just plain common 7 to the average American. It"s 8 impossible for a piece of paper like money to make you happy. Instead, what makes people happy is the feeling of security or power money brings. Anybody with half a brain can figure this 9 ," said Catherine Enright, an executive vice president at the Coastal Group, a marketing and advertising company in New York City. "A recent survey indicates that those from the Forbes list of the 400 richest Americans and the Maasai of East Africa are almost equally satisfied. The Maasai are a 10 herding people who have no electricity or running water and live in huts made of mud."
A. display
B. consume
C. fueled
D. saying
E. annual
F. whatever
G. somewhat
H. turn
I. out
J. modern
K. says
L. sense
M. traditional
N. grips
O. physically