Affluenza

affluenza, n. – a painful, contagious, socially transmitted condition of overload, debt, anxiety, and waste resulting from the dogged pursuit of more

Reviews

Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic has easily passed the test of time and become an American classic, the book that raised our crisis of consumption to national awareness. ~ Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature

The authors have packed their book with stunning facts, searing insights – and they point out a path forward. ~ Fast Company Magazine

Excerpts

In 1951, Americans sat together with their neighbors, laughing at Red Skelton. In 1985, we still watched Family Ties as a family. But by 1995, each member of a family often watched his or her own TV, as isolation and passivity became a way of life. What began as a quest for the good life in the suburbs degenerated into private consumption splurges that separated one neighbor from another, and one family member from another. We began to feel lost in our own neighborhoods—it wasn’t just the Desperate Housewives who were ill at ease. Huge retailers took advantage of the confusion, expanding to meet our demand for cheap underwear, hardware, and software.

The more we chased bargains and the paychecks that bought them, the more vitality slipped away from our towns. Now, if we want to experience Main Street—the way it was in the good old days—we travel to Disney World, to a faux community where smiling shopkeepers, the slow pace, and the quaintness remind us that our real communities were once close-knit and friendly.

How will Disney portray the good old days of the suburbs, in future exhibits? Will it orchestrate background ambience—highway traffic, leaf blowers, and beeping garbage trucks—to make it more realistic? Will it recreate gridlock as bumper-to-bumper cars, complete with cell phones to tell our families we’ll be late for the next ride? Will our tour of the “gated community” require more tickets than rides through the “inner city” do? Will Disney hire extras to play the roles of other suburbanites who can’t drive—elderly, disabled, and low-income residents, peeking out from behind living-room curtains?

From the Chapter “Cultural Prosperity”

The heart and soul of a culture are its values, and how it meets them. Core values — expressed in words like diversity, moderation, responsibility, respect, durability, equality, quality, trust, prevention, care, and regeneration — translate directly into tangible goals like “clean energy,” “great neighborhoods” and “wellness.” In turn, these goals can drive specific policies and actions like “expand the use of public transit,” or “reduce the consumption of cigarettes, gasoline, and saturated fats.”

When we ask ourselves if we’re meeting our real needs with a given product, we start to understand that it’s not the stuff we want, but the values the stuff is trying to satisfy. We buy a sporty car to attract a partner so we won’t feel lonely. We eat a quart of ice cream in one sitting, but the real hunger is for something worthwhile to be doing.

The secret of success at the national and global scale is not really a secret; it’s in plain sight, and it’s called moderation. We’ll get more value from less stuff and better stuff, by tapping into riches like quality products; brilliant design and redesign of cities and towns; cultural and aesthetic greatness; curiosity and fascination about how nature really works; cooperation with co-workers and neighbors; and generosity, just because it feels right. We’ve always loved the idea of rising to the occasion, of being heroes in the last minutes of a game. We’ve practiced heroism for many thousand years in our myths and scriptures. We’re ready, in these most critical times, to continue the transition — individually and culturally — from the “love of consumption” to the “love of life.”

17 Powerful Assets Based on Real Wealth

  • Taking Stock: How Foresight Can Cut Our Losses
  • Evolutionary Income: An Instinct for Happiness
  • Personal Growth: Creating a Rich Life Story
  • Mindful Money: More Value from Better Stuff
  • The Bonds of Social Capital: The More We Spend, the More We Have
  • Time Affluence: How to Save It and Savor It
  • Stocks of Wellness: Preventive Pathways to Health
  • The Currency of Nature: A Living Endowment
  • Precious Work and Play: Going With the Flow
  • The Real Wealth of Neighborhoods: Designing for People, Not Cars
  • Higher Returns on Investment: Twice the Satisfaction for Half the Resources
  • Energy Savings: Finessing the Carbon Conundrum
  • The Benefits of Right-Sizing: Better Than Better Homes and Gardens
  • Trimming the Fat: Farewell to Fossil Food
  • Infinite Information: How to Channel its Flow
  • Historical Dividends: New Rules for An Old Game
  • Cultural Prosperity: The Earth as a Sacred Garden

Study and Discussion Guide for Simple Prosperity

  1. What are the most significant environmental effects of over-consumption?
  2. Using tools such as government policies, green design, and changes in cultural direction, how can Americans achieve greater satisfaction but use fewer resources and generate fewer environmental impacts?
  3. As ingenious and economically successful as the free market is and has been, it has inherent, critical weaknesses, some of which have were exposed in the economic recession that began in 2008. Name three shortcomings of the free market as currently practiced. Why is the Gross Domestic Product a poor measurement of progress and success? Explain what can be done to give the free market a conscience.
  4. What “story” does mainstream America follow? How can we quickly revise the story to provide a happy ending by directly providing the things we need most: trust, security, social standing/social connections, a sense of meaning, nutritious food, clean water, and a stable climate? Is there another way to define the “success?”
  5. What are some measurable health and environmental benefits of having strong relationships and more discretionary time? Name three tangible benefits of social connections and three benefits of “time affluence.”
  6. Drawing from your own experience and the material in Simple Prosperity, what kind of activities provide the greatest sense of engagement and “flow” for you? Explain how being active rather than passive in your life can reduce your ecological footprint.
  7. What kind of jobs will help steer the economy towards sustainability? What kind of investments?
  8. What makes a great neighborhood, and how can a great neighborhood meet human and environmental needs directly? List five tangible benefits of living in a sustainable community.
  9. What five changes in the way you eat have the highest potential for reducing greenhouse gases? How can policy innovations help individuals have a healthier, less expensive diet that also requires less fossil fuel than the average American currently uses?
  10. What are the key characteristics of the “cultural creatives” discussed in the final chapter of Simple Prosperity? How is life in Western Europe different from life in America? Do you think U.S. policies and cultural trends will become more like those in Europe? If so, how could these changes reduce both consumption and environmental impacts?
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