American consumers spend enormous amounts of money on nonessentials. The following statistics (which were gathered from various websites; see the links below) represent annual spending:

• $604 billion (2011 estimate) on going out to eat
• $48.35 billion (2010) on pet industry expenditures (pet food, supplies, medicine, vet care, live animal purchases)
• $20.2 billion (2009) for video and computer games
• $18.8 billion (2010) on home entertainment products (DVD's, Blue-ray discs, movie downloads, etc.)
• $10.5 billion (2009) on self-help products and services
• $7 billion (2010) on virtual goods (which Wikipedia defines as "non-physical objects purchased for use in online communities or online games. They have no intrinsic value and, by definition, are intangible")
• $5.9 billion (2009) on weight loss products and programs
• $1 billion (2009) on fees paid for the top 5,000 U.S. motivational speakers
• $315 million (2009) on stress-management programs