Many people don't know that this goes all the way back to the invention of Consumerism as an economic methodology. During WWII, the full employment and higher pay of factories churning out weapons became an addiction. Instead of slowing 'Progress', our Greatest Generation's 'leaders' decided that to keep employment high and avoid recession, they would either have to create assembly lines that dumped products directly into the oceans, or they would have to convince people to buy all of those products.

Now, we see that they chose "both".