The Afflictions Of Affluence; What do obesity, the 'time crunch' and buyer's remorse all have in common? Well, they're problems of wealthier societies.

Publication: Newsweek

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Byline: Robert J. Samuelson, Correction: In my last column, I misspelled the name of economist Bart van Ark. Apologies to him and readers.

It may seem a bit unnatural, but more and more of our social problems and complaints stem from our affluence, not our poverty. Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson made that point last week--unintentionally, to be sure--when he announced that obesity now rivals smoking as the largest cause of premature death. The Centers for Disease Control reckons that obesity contributes to about 400,000 deaths annually, just behind tobacco (435,000) and ahead of alcohol (85,000), car accidents (43,000) and guns (29,000). Obesity and its complications--more diabetes and heart disease, for instance--now account for an estimated 9 percent of U.S. health spending. When we...

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