" Consumption kept the workers working, which kept the paychecks coming, which kept the people spending, which kept the investors investing, which meant there was more to consume. The system, properly understood, was independent of values and needed no philosophy to prop it up. It was a perfect circle, complete in itself - and empty in the middle. "

― Laurence Shames , The Hunger for More: Searching for Values in an Age of Greed