Are we too greedy?

After conducting a similar study in Australia, Dr Hamilton worked with British Market Research Bureau (BMRB) to measure attitudes to consumption and found items once considered luxuries are now seen as essential. The proportion of 'suffering rich' in Britain appears to be even higher than in the USA, widely regarded as the nation most obsessed with money.

Nearly half (46 per cent) of the richest group of households in Britain (with incomes over £35,000 a year) say they cannot afford to buy everything they really need; even amongst those with incomes in excess of £50,000, 40 per cent hold this belief.

The sense of deprivation felt by most Britons is closely related to the phenomenon of 'luxury fever'. The desire to emulate the lifestyles of the very rich has led to booming sales of trophy homes, luxury cars, professional quality home equipment and cosmetic surgery. The scaling up of 'needs' generally outpaces the growth of incomes so that many people who are wealthy by any historical or international standard actually feel poor. There is a 'relentless ratcheting up of standards' and increasing pressure to consume at higher and higher levels.

But the study says that 'needs' come with a cost. Apart from the constant inflation of desire, and the inability of consumption to satisfy that desire, Britons are racking up unprecedented debts of money, time and environmental quality.

Credit card debt has trebled in the last seven years and this has been accompanied by a sharp rise in personal bankruptcies. The national savings rate has fallen by half since 1993. The middle classes today are no longer delaying their gratification. They appear to want it all now and are willing to go into debt to get it.

Britons are sacrificing time spent with their families and at leisure to work longer hours in order to fund increasingly ambitious lifestyle goals, the study argues. Full-time employees in the UK work longer hours than their European counterparts, an average of 43.5 hours per week compared to the European average of 40.1. The time parents spend earning money to provide luxurious surroundings for their children often comes at the cost of their children's emotional well-being.

Increased resource use and waste associated with overconsumption are adding to Britain's environmental problems. The volume of municipal waste has been growing at 3.4 per cent per annum since 1996, substantially faster than the growth of final consumption in the economy. Bigger houses, more and bigger appliances and the growth of two-car households are driving up Britain's energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Government attempts to reduce emissions are constantly undermined by the relentless effects of higher consumption.

Dr Hamilton, visiting scholar in the Department of Land Economy and author of the study said:

"The real concerns of yesterday's poor have become the imagined concerns of today's rich. This 'deprivation syndrome' induces politicians to distort policy to 'reduce the burden of taxation' and increase public payments to wealthy households. This emphasis on the tribulations of the middle classes not only validates the preoccupation of wealthy people with their own financial circumstances, but crowds out sympathy for those who are genuinely struggling. It is hard to avoid the conclusion that the political system actively foments dissatisfaction amongst the middle classes, a process that has spawned a culture of middle-class complaint."