Harried represents the work of a Swedish intellect who set out to observe a technologically advanced society (us) and the ramifications our evolution had on our lifestyle. The assumed postulate has always been "technology evolves culture" providing benefits and amenities not available to primitive peoples. Done. So what happened? Why so many abject and woeful people? According to Linder, too many goods and not enough time to play with all the toys. In a society with a lot of product, before you may consume, you must produce and in order to produce, others must consume. We have us a vicious little circle here. But, ultimately the lesson smacks of high school grammar, we all know how it works, we just don't know the rules.