Shiny objects

Americans toss out 140 million cell phones every year. We discard 2 million plastic bottles every five minutes. And our total credit-card debt as of July 2011 is $793 billion. Plus, credit cards can make you fat. The American Dream was founded on the belief that anyone dedicated to thrift and hard work could create opportunities and achieve a better life. Now that dream has been reduced to a hyperquantified desire for fancier clothes, sleeker cars, and larger homes. We've lost our way, but James Roberts argues that it's not too late to find it again. In Shiny Objects, he offers us an…