“Wealth Porn”. “The media have almost totally overlooked the causal connections between the wealth boom and rising distress among the middle classes. The pieces that do report on middle-class financial distress often quote spokesmen for the personal responsibility movement who condemn financially-strapped middle-class families for their lack of discipline.” But, the author contends, as the rich get richer and are driven to more and more conspicuous consumption, they carry the rest of society along with them, and there are unacceptable costs to failing to spend on a par with others. Columbia Journalism Review