Coincident indicator

The personal savings rate as a percentage of disposable personal income in the United States is 0%. An ad for Bayer birth control pills boasts it is "enabling women to help fulfill their lives." The ad also claims their pills are "science for a better life," that aid in "planning families" and "empowering women." Obviously, hedonism working hard in America (and in developed countries around the world) has become the coincident indicator of modern living. Spend it all, plan it all, control it all, have it all, all the while playing at God or Goddess who never needs to worry about the future while indulging in the present. Hedonism, the new wave religion, is not a healthy, life-affirming religion that philosopher William James recommended, rather it is, in James’s analysis, the religion of the sick-souled.