The Curse of Affluence Mankind has existed as a species for more than a million years. For most of this time, finding enough to eat was the dominant preoccupation. It still is for a substantial portion of humanity in developing countries. But as memories of food deprivation during the Great Depression and two World Wars fade into the past, the developed world has become largely populated by people who have never known food shortages and starvation.
Food comes from grocery stores and the shelves are always full.
North American society really did not even know food shortages during the Second World War. Granted, there were rations on some imported items such as sugar, but there was always enough food for the middle class to eat. North Americans last knew real food deprivation during the dirty thirties. Even then, the problem was not supply, but unemployment and the ability to buy. It has been a little different in Europe, where memories of severe food shortages and starvation during WW II are more recent.