US material wealth leads to clutter - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

KellyC · 10-22-2005, 07:27 PM

Link: http://www.boston.com/news/nation/ar...ds_to_clutter/

pic with kid removed...

Aricia LaFrance, right, a psychologist and organizational consultant, advises Elphey Israel, 12, about cleaning and organizing her room at the Boulder Colo., apartment Elphey shares with her mother, Karen Lowe, Aug. 21, 2005. Lowe and her daughterwanted to get organized after years of living with clutter. (AP Photo/Sammy Dallal)

U.S. material wealth leads to clutter

By Joseph B. Verrengia, AP Science Writer | October 22, 2005

BOULDER, Colo. --Karen Lowe looks a little lost, even in her own apartment. Board games and puzzles teeter over the hamster's cage. A green metal desk spills toys and papers like a jackknifed truck in what should be the dining room. Upstairs, a computer shoots wires like kudzu around her bedroom.

Her daughter's room down the hall? Don't go there.

Lowe's home convulses with clutter. The chaotic accumulation of stuff is more than a quirk in her otherwise orderly life as a software engineer.

The mess has become her shameful secret.

Most friends have never visited her apartment and she lives in fear someone might drop by. Worse yet, her daughter Elphey, 12, is developing the same unkempt habits.

Ashamed and seemingly paralyzed, Lowe finally hired experts to help get her unruly habitat under control.

Her story offers hope to the tens of millions of Americans like her who live under the anarchy of their possessions.

To many observers, clutter reflects the mind-set of the modern household -- overburdened, disorganized and compulsive. To others, clutter is a broader symbol of a ravenous culture dependent on easy credit, piling up debt and consuming a lion's share of the world's resources without considering the consequences.

"People's homes are a reflection of their lives," says Los Angeles psychologist and organizational consultant Peter Walsh. "It is no accident that people have a huge weight problem in this country, and clutter is the same thing. Homes are an orgy of consumption."

The obesity analogy isn't a joke. While personal spending drives much of the U.S. economy, the resulting clutter from all that shopping is so pervasive that some researchers wonder if it might have a deeper, biological component, similar to overeating.

Their speculation borrows from evolutionary theory.

Modern humans developed some 100,000 years ago as hunters and gatherers living in fundamentally harsher circumstances. Today, we are surrounded by abundance, but our bodies have remained genetically programmed to eat everything in sight and store calories to survive winter, drought and famine. To some nutrition experts, it's a primary reason two-thirds of Americans are overweight.

Similarly, our forebears saved anything that could be materially useful because they had to make everything from scratch.

Clutter emerged alongside industrial specialization and mass production in the 19th century, and it was then that the biological need to save everything morphed into a desire to acquire.

Suddenly, the rising middle class was buying items once reserved for royalty. Tea sets. Mantelpiece figurines. Forks used only to eat fish.

And the opportunities to acquire have only skyrocketed. The old corner store stocked fewer than 1,000 items. Today, a Wal-Mart SuperCenter covers a quarter-million square feet -- that's nearly six acres -- and carries 130,000 products.

Yet scientists have difficulty quantifying clutter. It is a private problem that most people -- like Lowe -- sweep under the bed and shove behind closed doors.

On cable TV, at least three reality shows are devoted to clutter management. On the Learning Channel, "Clean Sweep" employs psychologist Walsh; it has filmed more than 200 episodes unloading people's junk.

Fifty cities in 17 states have chapters of Clutterers Anonymous, a 12-step recovery program.

For some, clutter results from more than rampant shopping. It suggests widespread social discontent.

"People hold onto stuff like their kids' old clothing as a way of holding onto the past," Walsh says. "Or they keep things they think they might need someday as a way to control the future."

------

"Might need someday" is a common refrain for the 35-year old Lowe.

Paperwork, toys, cookbooks and clothing spread from one room to the next.

"We put off housekeeping to spend time on just about anything that we like better than tidying up," Lowe concedes.

The National Study Group on Chronic Disorganization, an association of professional organizers, has established a household clutter assessment scale.

At Levels 4 and 5, people face eviction for filling their refrigerators with old newspapers and blocking fire exits with rubbish. Often, these hoarders need psychological treatment.

Psychologists estimate that 3 million Americans never throw anything out -- even old newspapers and yogurt cups -- in a twisted logic of perfectionism and fear. These hoarders have a form of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Too often, they wind up entrapped and injured by their own junk.

Hoarding research focuses on changes to a region of the brain connected with decision-making, problem-solving and anticipating rewards.

At UCLA, patients receive a radioactive form of the sugar glucose before being examined by positron emission tomography. The PET scanner's color-coded images show which brain areas use the most glucose and are working hardest.

In this small experiment, the hoarders have lower activity in a certain part of the brain when compared to other patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder. They also had lower activity in a related region of the brain when compared to healthy volunteers.

But how does the brain react at the moment of truth, when a person must decide whether to throw something away?

At Connecticut's Hartford Hospital, patients reclined in a magnetic resonance imaging scanner, which images brain function by tracking blood flow.

On a video link, psychologist David Tolin held up their junk mail and asked whether to save it or run it through a document shredder. The hoarders' brains showed activity spikes in one part of the brain.

"Their brains screamed that they were making an error," Tolin said. "So they put down the mail and clutter builds up."

------

Not everyone who lives in a cluttered home is a compulsive hoarder and people who are messy might not need a brain scan. But increasingly they are seeking professional help.

Lowe contracted with Aricia LaFrance, a suburban Denver psychologist and organizational consultant. She describes Lowe as a Level 2 on the household clutter scale, but warns she could get worse.

"She says her mother is this way and now her daughter is this way. So there is a cycle that we need to break," LaFrance says.

The purge requires three consecutive August weekends with Lowe doing "homework" on closets and junk piles during the week.

An entire afternoon is reserved for Elphey's room. At 12, her Lil' Bratz dolls mingle with teenage hip-hugger fashions that cascade in knee-deep waves from her bunk bed across the floor.

Elphey retreats to her top bunk and pulls a leopard-print blanket over her head. Her mother stands on the bottom bunk and, resting her chin on the top mattress, speaks quietly to the curled shape.

After several minutes, Lowe starts back downstairs. Elphey slams her bedroom door with such force that the bannister shivers. Her mother winces.

"She's going to work on her closet," Lowe explains. "But she doesn't want anyone to watch."

Social forces contribute to clutter, too.

The chief culprit: Easy money. Americans use 1.2 billion credit cards and carry an average total of $8,562 in consumer debt.

A surprising villain: Technology. Just consider how the entertainment industry has lurched from record players to 8-tracks, cassette tapes, CDs, VCRS, DVDs and now digital downloads.

One area where technology should reduce clutter is documents, but the paperless office has not materialized. Lowe and LaFrance agree to combine file boxes and digital storage, and they banish the file cabinet to the alley along with the desk.

Cooking trends spawn drawerfuls of specialized gizmos. Does anybody really need both a tomato corer and a tomato slicer?

Lowe balks at discarding several bottles of fruit-flavored syrup -- mango, kiwi, raspberry -- that cost $10 apiece.

"I MIGHT make an Italian soda," she protests.

"Or," LaFrance counters, "you COULD just go to Starbucks and buy one."

By September, Lowe's apartment is ready for company. The brown floral print sofa sports a snappy denim blue slipcover. The hamster has been moved. Monopoly and Clue rest neatly on the living room shelves. Instead of the monster desk, a blonde wood table and chairs gleam beneath the dining room chandelier.

Elphey has donated three huge trash bags of clothing. Together, she and her mother have hauled out dozens of bags and boxes.

They admire the front closet as if it was an oil painting. The coats hang straight. Snowboots are matched on a rack, ready for winter.

Suddenly, the gnarly mountain biker in Apartment 17 staggers past Lowe's open front door, wrestling the hideous file cabinet with the faux oak veneer.

"Hey, look what I found out in the alley," he announces. "Got to get organized."[/quote]

I wonder if this article has any credibility. I personally think it's full of bullocks. I think it's really an issue of self-control and discipline or the lack thereof. It seems to me like people don't like to take responsibility for their own flaws/fault and would jump at any chance to blame it on something else. Why can't they just admit, "My house is a mess 'cause I'm lazy and don't bother tidying it?"

The bolded part--again--is another bunch of bullocks to me. Gluttony and little exercise is what will make a person overweight. We are surrounded by abundance alright, and we've become lazier because of that, which contributes to this overweight problem. When I read that part, I'm thinking, bears????? I'd like to think we've passed that primitive stage in evolution. But then again, I know next to nothing about the subject so I could be wayyyy off.

Rodney · 10-22-2005, 08:05 PM

I think there are a lot of different reasons. My wife, for example, for years was really good at starting a craft or sewing or knitting project, putting it aside, and never getting back to it. The piles grew. And grew. She met other women who did the same thing. Then she read a self-help book by Barbara Sheer who equated the not-letting-go of the clutter to the not-letting-go of the dream behind the projects that my wife would never, in reality, get back to. Sheer said, pick two or three things that are most important to you, and junk the rest. If you haven't done it, you aren't going to. My wife took it to heart and cleared out the piles of might-have-beens. Now she does a lot of short projects that can be done in one or two sittings, and has one huge and important craft project which she works on assiduously. And our house is in pretty good shape.

So it's not just laziness. It can be that the letting go of an object means the letting go of a dream. And people are often loathe to do that, even if realistically it's never going to happen.

guthmund · 10-22-2005, 08:51 PM

I guess I could see it both ways. I mean, I've certainly seen evidence to support both camps.

Wow...what a wishy-washy answer..../shakes head

Lebell · 10-22-2005, 08:56 PM

I don't see how love of material things could happen in the People's Republic of Boulder.

Now Douglas County I would believe...

Grasshopper Green · 10-22-2005, 09:11 PM

I think this is probably a mixture of several things, not just being affluent. My mom is a packrat, and I think the reason is because she grew up dirt poor and the idea of throwing something perfectly good away is wasteful to her. My husband is a packrat, and I think most of it for him is sentimental reasons..at least it seems to be. As for me, I hate "stuff". I've given most of my son's baby stuff away, save for a small box of sentimental clothing and whatnot. I go through my closet regularly and get rid of things I just don't wear. I keep things like seasonal decorations, craft supplies, and the like boxed up in closets for when I need them later. I think the desire to save some things is ingrained in us to a degree...I think some people can just control it better than others. Wealth may have something to do with this, but it's not the only reason.

KellyC · 10-22-2005, 09:30 PM

Sentimental things are ok, but when your home is loaded with junk every where (as depicted in the picture of that little girl's room), there's a problem.

flat5 · 10-23-2005, 02:39 AM

I'm a collector of specific junk. Electronic/old computer parts mostly.
The artical has given me insight into the problem.
It was just what I needed to read :-)

Poppinjay · 10-23-2005, 05:03 AM

We've had to do a major declutterization a few times in our lives. First, after we got married combining two independent households into one, second, moving to the Univeristy area, third, buying a home, and now fourth, selling our spacious home for a shoebox in DC.

Every time I think the next move will be a snap. Every time I am wrong.

Marvelous Marv · 10-23-2005, 09:16 AM

Growing up without a great deal of "extras" has never left me.

My wife is worse. I can assure you that in the garage somewhere is my son's Superman suit from when he was three.

I keep trying to get her to take a picture of things like that, and then throw the item away, but no dice.

So basically, our garage and one room of our house are pigpens.

politicophile · 10-23-2005, 09:21 AM

There's one thing that all people with houses filled with clutter have in common: they all have enough material wealth to buy that clutter. The headline of this article might as well be "Some Fraction of People Who Can Afford to Buy Too Much Stuff Actually Do So". It seems rather foolish to say that material wealth is the cause of clutter: 'tis far more accurate to treat wealth as a enabler of hoarding tendencies.

10-22-2005, 07:27 PM	#1 (permalink)
KellyC Comment or else!! Location: Home sweet home	US material wealth leads to clutter Link: http://www.boston.com/news/nation/ar...ds_to_clutter/ pic with kid removed... Aricia LaFrance, right, a psychologist and organizational consultant, advises Elphey Israel, 12, about cleaning and organizing her room at the Boulder Colo., apartment Elphey shares with her mother, Karen Lowe, Aug. 21, 2005. Lowe and her daughterwanted to get organized after years of living with clutter. (AP Photo/Sammy Dallal) U.S. material wealth leads to clutter By Joseph B. Verrengia, AP Science Writer \| October 22, 2005 BOULDER, Colo. --Karen Lowe looks a little lost, even in her own apartment. Board games and puzzles teeter over the hamster's cage. A green metal desk spills toys and papers like a jackknifed truck in what should be the dining room. Upstairs, a computer shoots wires like kudzu around her bedroom. Her daughter's room down the hall? Don't go there. Lowe's home convulses with clutter. The chaotic accumulation of stuff is more than a quirk in her otherwise orderly life as a software engineer. The mess has become her shameful secret. Most friends have never visited her apartment and she lives in fear someone might drop by. Worse yet, her daughter Elphey, 12, is developing the same unkempt habits. Ashamed and seemingly paralyzed, Lowe finally hired experts to help get her unruly habitat under control. Her story offers hope to the tens of millions of Americans like her who live under the anarchy of their possessions. To many observers, clutter reflects the mind-set of the modern household -- overburdened, disorganized and compulsive. To others, clutter is a broader symbol of a ravenous culture dependent on easy credit, piling up debt and consuming a lion's share of the world's resources without considering the consequences. "People's homes are a reflection of their lives," says Los Angeles psychologist and organizational consultant Peter Walsh. "It is no accident that people have a huge weight problem in this country, and clutter is the same thing. Homes are an orgy of consumption." The obesity analogy isn't a joke. While personal spending drives much of the U.S. economy, the resulting clutter from all that shopping is so pervasive that some researchers wonder if it might have a deeper, biological component, similar to overeating. Their speculation borrows from evolutionary theory. Modern humans developed some 100,000 years ago as hunters and gatherers living in fundamentally harsher circumstances. Today, we are surrounded by abundance, but our bodies have remained genetically programmed to eat everything in sight and store calories to survive winter, drought and famine. To some nutrition experts, it's a primary reason two-thirds of Americans are overweight. Similarly, our forebears saved anything that could be materially useful because they had to make everything from scratch. Clutter emerged alongside industrial specialization and mass production in the 19th century, and it was then that the biological need to save everything morphed into a desire to acquire. Suddenly, the rising middle class was buying items once reserved for royalty. Tea sets. Mantelpiece figurines. Forks used only to eat fish. And the opportunities to acquire have only skyrocketed. The old corner store stocked fewer than 1,000 items. Today, a Wal-Mart SuperCenter covers a quarter-million square feet -- that's nearly six acres -- and carries 130,000 products. Yet scientists have difficulty quantifying clutter. It is a private problem that most people -- like Lowe -- sweep under the bed and shove behind closed doors. On cable TV, at least three reality shows are devoted to clutter management. On the Learning Channel, "Clean Sweep" employs psychologist Walsh; it has filmed more than 200 episodes unloading people's junk. Fifty cities in 17 states have chapters of Clutterers Anonymous, a 12-step recovery program. For some, clutter results from more than rampant shopping. It suggests widespread social discontent. "People hold onto stuff like their kids' old clothing as a way of holding onto the past," Walsh says. "Or they keep things they think they might need someday as a way to control the future." ------ "Might need someday" is a common refrain for the 35-year old Lowe. Paperwork, toys, cookbooks and clothing spread from one room to the next. "We put off housekeeping to spend time on just about anything that we like better than tidying up," Lowe concedes. The National Study Group on Chronic Disorganization, an association of professional organizers, has established a household clutter assessment scale. At Levels 4 and 5, people face eviction for filling their refrigerators with old newspapers and blocking fire exits with rubbish. Often, these hoarders need psychological treatment. Psychologists estimate that 3 million Americans never throw anything out -- even old newspapers and yogurt cups -- in a twisted logic of perfectionism and fear. These hoarders have a form of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Too often, they wind up entrapped and injured by their own junk. Hoarding research focuses on changes to a region of the brain connected with decision-making, problem-solving and anticipating rewards. At UCLA, patients receive a radioactive form of the sugar glucose before being examined by positron emission tomography. The PET scanner's color-coded images show which brain areas use the most glucose and are working hardest. In this small experiment, the hoarders have lower activity in a certain part of the brain when compared to other patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder. They also had lower activity in a related region of the brain when compared to healthy volunteers. But how does the brain react at the moment of truth, when a person must decide whether to throw something away? At Connecticut's Hartford Hospital, patients reclined in a magnetic resonance imaging scanner, which images brain function by tracking blood flow. On a video link, psychologist David Tolin held up their junk mail and asked whether to save it or run it through a document shredder. The hoarders' brains showed activity spikes in one part of the brain. "Their brains screamed that they were making an error," Tolin said. "So they put down the mail and clutter builds up." ------ Not everyone who lives in a cluttered home is a compulsive hoarder and people who are messy might not need a brain scan. But increasingly they are seeking professional help. Lowe contracted with Aricia LaFrance, a suburban Denver psychologist and organizational consultant. She describes Lowe as a Level 2 on the household clutter scale, but warns she could get worse. "She says her mother is this way and now her daughter is this way. So there is a cycle that we need to break," LaFrance says. The purge requires three consecutive August weekends with Lowe doing "homework" on closets and junk piles during the week. An entire afternoon is reserved for Elphey's room. At 12, her Lil' Bratz dolls mingle with teenage hip-hugger fashions that cascade in knee-deep waves from her bunk bed across the floor. Elphey retreats to her top bunk and pulls a leopard-print blanket over her head. Her mother stands on the bottom bunk and, resting her chin on the top mattress, speaks quietly to the curled shape. After several minutes, Lowe starts back downstairs. Elphey slams her bedroom door with such force that the bannister shivers. Her mother winces. "She's going to work on her closet," Lowe explains. "But she doesn't want anyone to watch." Social forces contribute to clutter, too. The chief culprit: Easy money. Americans use 1.2 billion credit cards and carry an average total of $8,562 in consumer debt. A surprising villain: Technology. Just consider how the entertainment industry has lurched from record players to 8-tracks, cassette tapes, CDs, VCRS, DVDs and now digital downloads. One area where technology should reduce clutter is documents, but the paperless office has not materialized. Lowe and LaFrance agree to combine file boxes and digital storage, and they banish the file cabinet to the alley along with the desk. Cooking trends spawn drawerfuls of specialized gizmos. Does anybody really need both a tomato corer and a tomato slicer? Lowe balks at discarding several bottles of fruit-flavored syrup -- mango, kiwi, raspberry -- that cost $10 apiece. "I MIGHT make an Italian soda," she protests. "Or," LaFrance counters, "you COULD just go to Starbucks and buy one." By September, Lowe's apartment is ready for company. The brown floral print sofa sports a snappy denim blue slipcover. The hamster has been moved. Monopoly and Clue rest neatly on the living room shelves. Instead of the monster desk, a blonde wood table and chairs gleam beneath the dining room chandelier. Elphey has donated three huge trash bags of clothing. Together, she and her mother have hauled out dozens of bags and boxes. They admire the front closet as if it was an oil painting. The coats hang straight. Snowboots are matched on a rack, ready for winter. Suddenly, the gnarly mountain biker in Apartment 17 staggers past Lowe's open front door, wrestling the hideous file cabinet with the faux oak veneer. "Hey, look what I found out in the alley," he announces. "Got to get organized."[/quote] I wonder if this article has any credibility. I personally think it's full of bullocks. I think it's really an issue of self-control and discipline or the lack thereof. It seems to me like people don't like to take responsibility for their own flaws/fault and would jump at any chance to blame it on something else. Why can't they just admit, "My house is a mess 'cause I'm lazy and don't bother tidying it?" The bolded part--again--is another bunch of bullocks to me. Gluttony and little exercise is what will make a person overweight. We are surrounded by abundance alright, and we've become lazier because of that, which contributes to this overweight problem. When I read that part, I'm thinking, bears????? I'd like to think we've passed that primitive stage in evolution. But then again, I know next to nothing about the subject so I could be wayyyy off. __________________ Him: Ok, I have to ask, what do you believe? Me: Shit happens. Last edited by Lebell; 10-22-2005 at 08:55 PM..

10-22-2005, 08:51 PM	#3 (permalink)
guthmund big damn hero	I guess I could see it both ways. I mean, I've certainly seen evidence to support both camps. Wow...what a wishy-washy answer..../shakes head __________________ No signature. None. Seriously. Last edited by guthmund; 10-22-2005 at 09:03 PM..

10-22-2005, 08:56 PM	#4 (permalink)
Lebell Cracking the Whip Location: Sexymama's arms...	I don't see how love of material things could happen in the People's Republic of Boulder. Now Douglas County I would believe... __________________ "Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." – C. S. Lewis The ONLY sponsors we have are YOU! Please Donate!

10-22-2005, 09:11 PM	#5 (permalink)
Grasshopper Green ...is a comical chap Location: Where morons reign supreme	I think this is probably a mixture of several things, not just being affluent. My mom is a packrat, and I think the reason is because she grew up dirt poor and the idea of throwing something perfectly good away is wasteful to her. My husband is a packrat, and I think most of it for him is sentimental reasons..at least it seems to be. As for me, I hate "stuff". I've given most of my son's baby stuff away, save for a small box of sentimental clothing and whatnot. I go through my closet regularly and get rid of things I just don't wear. I keep things like seasonal decorations, craft supplies, and the like boxed up in closets for when I need them later. I think the desire to save some things is ingrained in us to a degree...I think some people can just control it better than others. Wealth may have something to do with this, but it's not the only reason. __________________ "They say that patriotism is the last refuge to which a scoundrel clings; steal a little and they throw you in jail, steal a lot and they make you king" Formerly Medusa

10-22-2005, 09:30 PM	#6 (permalink)
KellyC Comment or else!! Location: Home sweet home	Sentimental things are ok, but when your home is loaded with junk every where (as depicted in the picture of that little girl's room), there's a problem. __________________ Him: Ok, I have to ask, what do you believe? Me: Shit happens.

10-22-2005, 08:05 PM	#2 (permalink)
Rodney Observant Ruminant Location: Rich Wannabe Hippie Town	I think there are a lot of different reasons. My wife, for example, for years was really good at starting a craft or sewing or knitting project, putting it aside, and never getting back to it. The piles grew. And grew. She met other women who did the same thing. Then she read a self-help book by Barbara Sheer who equated the not-letting-go of the clutter to the not-letting-go of the dream behind the projects that my wife would never, in reality, get back to. Sheer said, pick two or three things that are most important to you, and junk the rest. If you haven't done it, you aren't going to. My wife took it to heart and cleared out the piles of might-have-beens. Now she does a lot of short projects that can be done in one or two sittings, and has one huge and important craft project which she works on assiduously. And our house is in pretty good shape. So it's not just laziness. It can be that the letting go of an object means the letting go of a dream. And people are often loathe to do that, even if realistically it's never going to happen.

10-23-2005, 02:39 AM	#7 (permalink)
flat5 Very Insignificant Pawn Location: Amsterdam, NL	I'm a collector of specific junk. Electronic/old computer parts mostly. The artical has given me insight into the problem. It was just what I needed to read :-)

10-23-2005, 05:03 AM	#8 (permalink)
Poppinjay You had me at hello Location: DC/Coastal VA	We've had to do a major declutterization a few times in our lives. First, after we got married combining two independent households into one, second, moving to the Univeristy area, third, buying a home, and now fourth, selling our spacious home for a shoebox in DC. Every time I think the next move will be a snap. Every time I am wrong. __________________ I think the Apocalypse is happening all around us. We go on eating desserts and watching TV. I know I do. I wish we were more capable of sustained passion and sustained resistance. We should be screaming and what we do is gossip. -Lydia Millet

10-23-2005, 09:16 AM	#9 (permalink)
Marvelous Marv Cunning Runt Location: Taking a mulligan	Growing up without a great deal of "extras" has never left me. My wife is worse. I can assure you that in the garage somewhere is my son's Superman suit from when he was three. I keep trying to get her to take a picture of things like that, and then throw the item away, but no dice. So basically, our garage and one room of our house are pigpens. __________________ "The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money." Margaret Thatcher

10-23-2005, 09:21 AM	#10 (permalink)
politicophile Addict	There's one thing that all people with houses filled with clutter have in common: they all have enough material wealth to buy that clutter. The headline of this article might as well be "Some Fraction of People Who Can Afford to Buy Too Much Stuff Actually Do So". It seems rather foolish to say that material wealth is the cause of clutter: 'tis far more accurate to treat wealth as a enabler of hoarding tendencies. __________________ The peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error. ~John Stuart Mill, On Liberty