fun is morally necessary

I'm reading this book with my friend Bob.

Recently it is socially and morally important to have fun. There is tremendous peer pressure to spend distinct energy and money on this. I personally don't feel like I'm anybody because I haven't been on a cruise.

Why should something so personal become a mandated activity on a society-wide basis?

Short answer: the needs of the service economy.

Longer answer: Morality, like it or not, is about what is good for humanity as a whole. Somehow the zeitgeist, or the collective unconscious, has figured out that in order to keep everybody in a job, people have to spend money on things that previously were considered frivolous. So we have mandated fun from the service industry.