Akademik

n.

The movement of money away from purchasing goods and services ("consumerism") towards investing in mutual funds, stocks, and other financial assets.

"In 'The Overspent American,' Juliet B. Schor...has identified a more recent variation of our materialism, an insidiously ruinous form of 'competitive spending' and 'competitive acquisition' that she calls 'the new consumerism.'...[However,] Schor's new consumerism may soon become subsumed by a new investorism. The big baby boom generation, of which Schor takes little account, has spurred much of the rise in spending by simply acting its age. For two decades baby boomers have been starting families and buying and furnishing homes. Now they're...investing for retirement."

— Peter T. Kilborn, "Splurge," The New York Times