Affluenza as Wealth-Insulation Wrong Attractor: A Displacement Framework Analysis

This paper applies the Displacement Framework to affluenza, analysing it as a wrong-attractor state in which extreme wealth systematically buffers against the consequential feedback that ordinarily corrects behaviour. Using displacement cost D(ξ), accumulated displacement Φ, and basin geometry, we formalise three nested insulation mechanisms — material, spatial/social, and institutional — that together create a wrong attractor in which displacement cost is borne by others rather than the actor.

Nine formal propositions characterise empathy calibration degradation, intergenerational entitlement transmission with exponential basin deepening, political capture as attractor maintenance, and return paths through consequential exposure and structural intervention. Published as part of The Phronesis Issues preprint series.