Affluenza: the new illness in australia In ‘Affluenza: The new illness in Australia?’, Hamilton elaborates on the sense of insufficiency and discontent prevalent in the Australians, irrespective of the fact that not only Australia happens to be one of the richest countries in the world, but the citizens of Australia enjoy incomes and a life style that is far more sumptuous as compared to the people residing in other nations. In the start, Hamilton takes on the fact that the modern Australians tend to associate happiness with material attributes. Still, they happen to be generally discontented in a scenario in which all the available historical and international facts indicate that they are richer then their predecessors. The author then argues that unlike the days of the yore when material possessions were associated with basic needs and requirements, the contemporary Australians endow material entities like gadgets and cars with personal status and well-being. The appliances and gadgets are getting ultra-savvy and the sellers are taking advantage of the innate shortcomings and needs of the people to encourage them to buy latest goods. Hamilton emphatically deplores the fact that this craze for affluence and material goods is eating into the vital Australian attributes like a fundamental sense of equality, community spirit and general gregariousness.