How might Americans get free of the mind-numbing cycle of overwork and overconsumption? Sarah van Gelder invited author Juliet Schor to discuss this question with leaders of the voluntary simplicity and downshifters' movements - Cecile Andrews - John de Graaf - Duane Elgin - Vicki Robin - Betsy Taylor - Wanda Urbanska SARAH: Juliet, why did you write The Overspent American? What was the relationship to your previous book?
JULIET: When
I was traveling around the US after the publication of The Overworked
American, I was struck by how many people asked questions about how to
escape from the work-and-spend cycle. I wrote this book both to explore
the barriers that are keeping people from scaling back on consumption
and to look at the factors that might make it easier to downscale.
SARAH: Most
economists would argue that the work-and-spend cycle is what you want
in a healthy economy. What concerns you about this dynamic?
JULIET:
1. It requires many hours (too many hours) of human labor and undermines the quality of life for that reason.
2. It is ecologically unsustainable.
3. It does not yield happiness.
4. It is changing our culture in undesirable ways.
SARAH:
Your book talks a lot about the ratcheting up of the standard of
necessity; what was once considered a luxury becomes a necessity. What
contributes to this inflation in our definition of necessity?
JULIET:
The key factors, in my mind, have been the worsening of the income
distribution, the growing prominence of television and the resulting
decline of sociability, the increasing pressures of jobs (which make
people spend compensatorily), the ubiquity of shopping opportunities,
and the loss of meaning in Americans' lives.
I think it's also
useful to look at the effects of “reference groups” – those people
(real and fictitious) against whom we consciously and semiconsciously
measure our own consumption levels. They help form our aspirations and
the degree to which we are satisfied with what we have.
Reference
groups used to be mainly composed of people near us in the social
hierarchy. But people now are more likely to take the top 20 percent of
the income distribution as an aspirational target. TV and the media
have been important in this by giving us “TV friends” to compare
ourselves to, who are almost all affluent.
This has created a
strong “aspiration gap” – the gap between what one has and can afford,
and what one aspires to. Being “middle class” is no longer enough.
SARAH:
You talk a lot about denial in your book – denial that the US is a
class society and becoming more so all the time. Denial about the role
of debt and status in our life. Juliet, could you say more about the
nature of this denial and its impacts? Then I'd like to open this to
others in the roundtable.
JULIET: I believe Americans
continue to overspend in part because it allows us to paper over
conflicts, to avoid dealing with ugly status and class issues and many
of the dysfunctional aspects of our financial lives. Sixty percent of
the families in America can maintain their standards of living for only
one month if their income disappears. The next 20 percent can maintain
it for only three months. That means that 80 percent of the population
is living at an incredibly high level of economic insecurity every day,
whether or not they're consciously aware of it.
BETSY:
It's interesting that the biggest blockbuster movie we have at the
moment is Titanic. On some level, I think it captures the story of our
times: High living in the moment. Tremendous faith in technological
fixes. Denial of warnings. Repeated avoidance of signs of trouble. A
final catastrophe. This seems to be a story that deeply resonates with
people in the late 20th century.
VICKI: A recent feature on NBC Nightly News cited the following statistics:
• We have $1.24 trillion in consumer debt – an all time high.
• personal bankruptcy is up over 400 percent since 1980 (1.3 million people declared bankruptcy in 1997)
•
1.02 million Americans are behind in their mortgage payments. These are
hard numbers that reflect the kind of denial Juliet is citing.
I
would add that the advent of “unsecured debt” in the form of credit
cards has fed this cycle. If you pay at the minimum rate of 3 percent,
a $2,000 purchase at 18.5 percent interest will take 14 years to pay
off and cost an extra $1,900.
DUANE: Someone once
observed that people live by stories, including nations, and that if
you can control people's stories, you don't need to control their
armies or legislatures, because you already control their minds and
hearts.
In the US, television tells most of the people most of
the stories about most of the world most of the time. It's not just the
thousands of ads for products; they are more fundamentally watching
thousands of ads for a “work-and-spend lifestyle.” Never do we see ads
for simple living, or for future generations, other species, the rain
forest, the ozone layer.
It is not enough to turn off the TV.
This medium is far too powerful in shaping our collective consciousness
to ignore. The one-dimensional mindset of the mass media is diverting
our cultural attention, dumbing-down our potential, and holding back
our evolution.
SARAH: Let's talk more about future
generations. Children have an interesting role in our reactions to
consumerism. Juliet points out that many parents are most concerned
about “keeping up with the Jones” in areas affecting their kids. On the
other hand, many adults are turned off by kids' materialism. Is there a
backlash against consumerism on the part of kids or their parents?
BETSY:
Many people are opting to work and earn less primarily to gain more
time with their children. As boomers begin to downshift and cut back,
advertisers are turning more intensively to children. A recent report
documented efforts to gain brand name identification among children
starting at age two.
I am a mother of a seven- and a nine-year-old, and they heavily influence my perspective on life.
I
think parents are buying things for their kids in part out of a sense
of fear about the future. Even my educated and affluent peers seem to
feel they have minimal control over anything except their immediate
family situations, and they are determined to give their children the
maximum advantages possible. This involves the over-programming of
children in an endless array of enrichment and sports programs along
with the tendency to buy kids the latest technology, toys, and
educational tools, all to give your child the competitive edge.
This
same fear drives parents to stay in the high-earning careers that
guarantee financial security for children, even when these careers
often rob children of precious time with their parents.
JULIET: What
a crazy system it is in which huge numbers of people are so fearful
about failure and do so many crazy things on this account. I already
see it in my son's first grade; the intense pressures on children and
young teens to do well in school is pretty frightening.
I think
one of the key things is to ask ourselves what kind of structure we are
creating that allows only a few to succeed – and in which those that do
“succeed” are likely to be overworked and miserable? It's important to
fight the trends in the global economy that are creating this kind of
insecurity, rather than looking to this privatized solution of cramming
kids full of computers and extra-curriculars – basically starting a
productivity drive with kids at the age of two!
JOHN:
There does seem to be a race to provide “enriching” experiences for
kids. Some child psychologists, such as David Elkind, author of the
Hurried Child, suggest we're doing a lot of damage to kids by
overcrowding them with structured, adult-supervised activities. Kids'
sports, for example, have become so over-organized.
When I was
a kid, my buddies and I met at the park, picked teams, made our own
ground rules and played baseball and football and other sports
informally. I think it provided good lessons in organizing activities,
taking leadership, and getting along with each other. Now, the sports
are all controlled by adults.
WANDA: I do think kids are
receptive to the message of frugality; they're aware that they have too
much. John and I certainly saw this when we filmed sixth-graders at
Jones Elementary School here in Mount Airy, North Carolina, last year,
for Escape From Affluenza.
We were astounded at the level of
interest in simple living among the kids. They knew they had too many
clothes while their counterparts in the Third World had too few. They
could get rid of 80 percent of what was in their closet and not notice
the difference. The students were attracted to the “old ways” and
recounted with pride how much food their grandparents grew in their
summer gardens.
SARAH: More and more stuff, and less
and less security! It's ironic that fear of the future would cause us
to overspend, work hard to project an image of success, and live on the
edge financially – thereby in fact making us less secure.
CECILE: When
I quit my job as a community college administrator, one of my first
thoughts was, “I won't have a title! Who will I be?” A few months after
quitting, I attended a very expensive wedding, and I had real
difficulty knowing how to answer the question, “What do you do?”
Juliet
talks in her book of the necessity to maintain an image of success
(which requires consumerism), because we fear that we could so easily
become unemployed. Of course we feel insecure! We just have to look at
the homeless to remind us of what could happen to us.
People's
concern for projecting an image represents an underlying insecurity – a
feeling that we are alone in a universe that doesn't care about us. So
consumerism is, in some sense, a substitute for being cared for.
In
a way, it's like the early Puritan idea that being “successful” proved
that someone was “saved.” “Success” meant God must have smiled on them
– they were safe and saved. So to reduce consumerism, we need to deal
with the insecurity and the pressure to project an image of success.
JULIET:
I think that a lot of the symbolic power of consumption is perpetuated
through the requirements not to talk about these things. These symbols
of success are transmitted nonverbally – the designer logo, the right
cosmetics, or the choice of a vacation send certain signals. These are
always a little bit under the surface. So I think bringing these
associations out into the open, making them visible and verbalizing the
symbols, is crucial to giving individuals more freedom to choose not to
buy into these symbols.
The anxiety many people feel about their
financial future is very paralyzing; it makes people feel out of
control. There are some things individuals can do: reduce or eliminate
debt, increase savings, gain marketable skills, and learn to provide
for a higher fraction of your total consumption expenditures yourself.
You can get your own financial situation and lifestyle into a place
where you can weather things like the loss of a job.
WANDA: Many
people assume that when Frank and I left our fast-lane life in Los
Angeles, we came home to run this orchard with a sizable nest egg – as
if people in their right minds could never take such a significant risk
without one.
Actually, we didn't have money in the bank – just a
strong sense that our lives were out of whack and needed an overhaul.
But after 12 years of hard work and simple living, we're on much more
solid financial footing than we ever were in with our high-paying jobs.
I've found that being less consumed with earning money gives me
more time for building security through “human infrastructure.” It
takes time to build and maintain friendships, but I believe that people
provide the best kind of security.
Let me give an example. I
have a friend Marion who had been a high school English teacher in
Virginia for many years when she got into a difficult political
situation. I could see she was miserable, but she was reluctant to
leave. I urged her to apply at the schools here in Mount Airy and made
some calls on her behalf. She was offered a job, made the move, and has
been much happier for it. She has also acted on my behalf when I needed
help. That kind of caring, hands-on interaction doesn't happen when
your daily schedule is overloaded, when there's no time for reflection
or action.
SARAH: What would you say is the biggest,
not-to-be missed opportunity for moving to a more sustaining way of
life? What one factor have you seen that gives you the most hope that
this is possible? DUANE: I think it is transformative
to simply withdraw from the preoccupations with the rat race of
accumulation. It is radical simplicity to affirm that our happiness
cannot be purchased, and that we can accept ourselves as we are. We can
affirm that each of us is endowed with a dignity, beauty, and character
whose natural expression is infinitely more interesting and engaging
than any identity we might construct with stylish clothes and cosmetics.
BETSY:
I believe living a life that involves meditation, reflection, and/or
prayer is the single greatest factor in moving to more balanced
sustainable lifestyles. I think quiet retreat from the dominant culture
is vital. I also think that individuals are incapable of staying the
course alone, so I think supportive communities and groups are vital.
CECILE: I
think the “not-to-be-missed” opportunity is involvement! We must have
personal change, yes, but the simplicity movement must go beyond that
to working toward something larger. It might be co-housing,
eco-villages, “time-dollar”/bartering groups, neighborhood
organizations, environmental organizations, churches. Some group that
keeps your spirit alive and makes a difference.
My solution,
of course, is simplicity circles – a place were people can make real
contact with others and gain the courage to express their real selves
in the rest of their lives. Then they have a better chance of resisting
the forces of our consumer society.
WANDA: A friend of
mine from L.A. refuses to ever wear anything with brand labeling or
identification on the outside, not a logoed T-shirt or a brand-name
pair of shoes. And that might be an idea worth bandying about. Try
asking a bunch of teenagers to dress for a week without showing a
single label. That would be a challenge!
JOHN: Not to
be missed opportunities: Talk about the big picture – the connections
between our purchases and the workers who produce them, the
environment, our own personal stress, our family relations, and the
community.
Use humor, and realize that this issue speaks to
Left and Right alike. I do think we're having an impact, so keep up the
great work, everyone!
VICKI: At the New Road Map Foundation, we are shaping our message currently around stress and savings (which are linked).
Money not spent equals resources conserved, both human hours at work and the natural environment. Savings equals peace of mind and strength, both personal and national (less dependence on foreign investment).
Energy
devoted to a full spectrum of meaningful activities – work, family,
friends, community, worship – makes for human well-being.
The
amazing part of this work on consumption is that, since it is the
centerpiece of our culture and economy, it is also a powerful place to
work for systemic change. You can press anywhere and move the mountain.
Juliet Schor is the author of the new book The Overspent American: Upscaling, Downshifting, and the New Consumerand The Overworked American: The Unexpected Decline of Leisurealong with other books and papers on policies for a changing world economy. She is a senior lecturer at Harvard University.
Cecile Andrews is the author of The Circle of Simplicity: Return to the Good Lifeand
has spread the word about simplicity circles through her column in The
Seattle Times and her radio show on a local NPR affiliate.
John de Graaf is the co-producer of the television special Affluenza, which aired last fall on PBS stations around the country. The follow-up program, Escape from Affluenza, will air nationwide on July 7 (see page 56).
Duane Elgin is the author of Voluntary Simplicityand Awakening Earth. He has also recently published two important reports: Collective Consciousnessand Cultural Healing and Global Consciousness Change.
Vicki Robin is the co-author of the bestselling book Your Money or Your Life.
She is also the president of the New Road Map Foundation, and an
international speaker on financial integrity and sustainability.
Betsy Taylor is
founder and executive director of the Center for a New American Dream.
She was previously the executive director of the Merck Family, which
sponsored the study on American values regarding consumption that
resulted in the report, Yearning for Balance (see YES! Beta 1).
Wanda Urbanska is co-author with Frank Levering of Simple Living: One Couple's Search For A Better Lifeand Moving To A Small Town: A Guidebook For Moving From Urban to Rural America. She is also host of the upcoming PBS blockbuster, Escape from Affluenza.
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