A situation of great material prosperity, but only for superfluous consumer goods and
entertainment content that do not bring happiness or meaning to one's life.
More specifically, it refers to the post-covid American economy–wherein real incomes are the highest they've ever been, food and material goods are available in incredible abundance and are unimaginaby cheap by the standards of any other time in human history, there is utterly limitless choice in immediately-accessible
entertainment for free or very low cost, travel to nearly anywhere in the world is possible with for only a few days' pay, all the world's knowledge is accessible at one's fingertips, algorithms can instantaneously produce entire books, videos, games, programs, etc....but all the most truly meaningful and significant aspects of life (housing, healthcare, education, childcare) are unprecedentedly unaffordable.
Despite incredible prosperity in vapid material goods, society suffers from widespread unhappiness and perceptions of unbearable indigence due to the inaccessibility of the core
building blocks of life. We possess opulence, but only for slop.
Slopulence.
Tubi, Xbox Game Pass, Spotify, particleboard
furniture,
disposable fast-fashion clothing, $1 Tortino's pizzas–all are peak
examples of slopulence