Why are people in Western countries buying less? Is it a cultural shift influenced by Buddhism?

I have a different theory: so many people have reduced incomes, or live in a very small space, that they simply can't buy a lot of stuff.

A thug working as a security guard at Walmart accused Tyrone Carnegay of stealing a tomato. Rather than allow Carnegay to show the receipt, the thug broke his bones with a stick, then arrested him.

This thug should spend 200 times as long in jail as Carnegay had to spend.

Many US companies overstate their profits by using misleading accounting.

Bruno Kramm of the German Pirate Party was arrested for quoting part of the famous poem that insults Erdoğan.

Some towns in Australia find some slogans on the sides of vans offensive and want to institute a regime of public censorship against offending anyone.

Arizona has earmarked 5 million dollars for the Koch brothers' right-wing propaganda institutes. That's because many politicians there are already their henchmen.

Don't the Koch brothers have enough money to fund their own propaganda?