--- --- # Why American Consumption Is Out of Step With Our Anxiety by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Jul 25, 2016 4:00 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Jul 25, 2016 4:00 PM UTC **1\.** [**Here’s how Americans can consume so much but still be nervous about their economic hopes.**](http://qz.com/716339/do-we-consume-too-much/) By Allison Schrager in Quartz **2\.** [**How to understand why our creative geniuses are so sad.**](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/07/25/why-happiness-might-be-getting-in-the-way-of-your-artistic-brilliance/) By Ana Swanson in the Washington Post **3\.** [**Brain training probably doesn’t make you smarter, but it might prevent dementia.**](http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/could-brain-training-prevent-dementia) By Dan Hurley in the New Yorker **4\.** [**American philanthropy doesn’t merely change lives. It humanizes capitalism.**](http://city-journal.org/html/philanthropy-american-difference-14625.html) By Karl Zinsmeister in City Journal **5\.** [**The way the EPA tests fuel efficiency is broken. Here’s how to fix it.**](https://www.wired.com/2016/07/epa-testing-broken-heres-fix/) By Alex Davies in Wired  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ Why American Consumption Is Out of Step With Our Anxiety ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4421737/why-american-consumption-is-out-of-step-with-our-anxiety/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4421737/why-american-consumption-is-out-of-step-with-our-anxiety/"},"headline":"Why American Consumption Is Out of Step With Our Anxiety","datePublished":"2016-07-25T16:00:33.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:59:42.296Z","description":"There are today's best ideas","url":"https://time.com/4421737/why-american-consumption-is-out-of-step-with-our-anxiety/","keywords":["Innovation","Dementia","EPA","philanthropy","waste"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/innovation/","name":"Innovation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4421737/why-american-consumption-is-out-of-step-with-our-anxiety/","name":"Why American Consumption Is Out of Step With Our Anxiety"}}]}] ```