Affluenza is an hour-long PBS documentary about consumerism and its harmful effects on the family, the community, and the environment.

The clip begins with a look at car commercials from the 1950s. The narrator says, "Are you old enough to remember the '50's—that golden age of prosperity following the Second World War?" Scenes of a prosperous family in the 1950s are shown as the narrator continues: "We felt richer then than we do now. The famous book at the time was America: The Affluent Society." New York psychologist Paul Wachtel comments: "[That book's] title would be laughable today. People would reject it. Even though we have actually in terms of gross national product more than twice as much. Everybody's home has got twice as much stuff in it."

A number of scenes compare homes from the 1950s with modern homes. The narrator says, "Back in 1958, only 4 percent of American homes had dishwashers. Now more than half do. Less than 1 percent had color television. Now it's 97 percent. There were no microwaves, VCRs, or personal computers."

The owner of a big house with a four-car garage comments: "A four-car garage is [for] storage. We never have enough storage. You never have enough garages."

The narrator continues: "Never enough. So much stuff. So little space, even though the average new house has grown larger every decade. Now many new homes have three-car garages. Nearly 900 square feet of garage space alone, which is about the size of an entire home in the 1950s."

Ford commercials from the 1950s are compared with footage of modern cars. The narrator says, "In that gilded new world, hardly any new cars had air conditioning. Today more than 90 percent do. Economy cars offer more features now than luxury cars did then." Modern sport utility vehicles are shown. "Today's hottest selling cars are gas hungry, expensive sport utility vehicles." A car salesman says, "To a lot of people, it's a status symbol."

A 1950s Chevrolet commercial is shown while the narrator says, "Just as they did in the '50's, new cars help us keep up with the Joneses. But these days we find it more appealing to fly. We fly 25 times as much as we did then."

DVD Scene 3, 00:03:44–00:06:38