WBUR Podcasts, Boston.

This is on point. I'm Megna Chakra-Bardi.

Americans have a lot of stuff.

Consider toys.

The U.S. is far and away the biggest consumer in the global toy market.

In 2024, Americans spent some $40 billion on toys.

That's almost 40% of all toys sold in the world.

But we've only got 3% of the world's children.

Now, a lot of that mismatch has to do with having the biggest economy in the world,

the spending power of the dollar, and standard of living.

But it also has to do with our deeply ingrained culture of consumption.

It has to do with a uniquely American need for abundance.

Or as Emily Mester writes, quote,

Shopping offers the lulling comfort of permanent volume,

the same bulwark against scarcity that draws us to the all you can eat,

the buy one get one, the unlimited refill,

the endless, the bottomless, the lifetime guarantee.

These promises are not to be underestimated, because their flip side is terrifying.

To want a boundless supply means also to acknowledge a boundless need.

We are inclined to hunger, end quote. Well, that is from Mester's new book,

American Bulk, Essays on Excess. And let me stop you before you presume this is just another snobby,

chiding, cultural critique, tis-tisking the behavior of the mythical average American. It's quite the opposite, in fact.

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