Every civilization is, among other things, an arrangement for domesticating the passions and setting them to do useful work.
Aldous HuxleyArmaments, universal debt, and planned obsolescence - those are the three pillars of Western prosperity. If war, waste, and moneylenders were abolished, you'd collapse. And while you people are overconsuming the rest of the world sinks more and more deeply into chronic disaster.
Aldous Huxley