by John de Graaf; David Wann; Thomas H Naylor; David Horsey; Vicki Robin
“People assume that a so-called sustainable economy means we have to make sacrifices and give up ‘the good life,’” says Taylor. “But look what we’re already giving up in our current dream: we’re losing cultural traditions, indigenous wisdom, species, languages, relationships, trust, community, and health—all things that are precious beyond money.” In Taylor’s new dream, the word simplicity means far more than cutting back on consumption. It means cutting back on unwanted thoughts, waste, and stress—scrapping the artificial and superficial in favor of the authentic. It’s not just simplicity of stuff, but also simplicity of purpose, and clarity of mind. It’s about being content and connected, rather than confused.
The emerging dream she describes is not meager and sparse, but precise, elegant, and full of quality. When we wake up from our troubled sleep, we won’t be wearing burlap bags—we’ll be meeting needs well, without having to lug extraneous, expensive baggage. We’ll still have the same or better value, but it will be redistributed to more productive ends. Taylor cites the emerging generation of cleaner, leaner vehicles; “green power” like space-age wind turbines; clothing made without petroleum fibers; organic food, grown locally; and buildings that don’t make us sick (especially when we open the utility bills). “Look what’s happening in the corporate culture, as companies promote green product lines, like Philips’ more efficient computer chips, which may eliminate the need for a half-dozen huge power plants. Or look at a city like Santa Monica, California, which has solar-heated public buildings and organic salad bars in public schools.
“Much of what is being marketed is not tied to quality of life, but status and image. We can change that, with the help of better role models,” Taylor says. “When growing numbers of people act on their convictions, and those convictions are based on positive values, we’ll be dreaming a new dream.”
MOVING AT THE SPEED OF QUALITY
The people we interviewed agree that our current repertoire of assumptions is out of date. One of the most time-worn slogans is “the show must go on.” But those who have successfully kicked affluenza ask, “Why?” If the buyer must always beware, and if our economy seems to resemble a pyramid scheme in which risks are pushed onto the poor and the environment, why don’t we change the script? they ask. Why don’t we announce a new mission, much bigger than going to the moon, or even stopping the Nazis? Why don’t we move (quickly!) toward a new Renaissance, in which quality, ecology, equity, diversity, flexibility, and democracy blend together in a sustainable economy? It’s clear that by redistributing the unprecedented wealth of this generation, we can make historic improvements in our own lives as well as those of our great-great-grandchildren. Why settle for junk when we can have quality?
In a way, quality is to affluenza what garlic is to vampires. Durability, appropriate materials, and good design eliminate the need for mountains of stuff, without reducing overall value. It’s a different kind of math, which asks not how much, but rather how well.
Throughout this book, we’ve talked about hidden costs in an economy that tolerates waste, the loss of natural capital, and a decline in social participation. On the other hand, there are many hidden benefits in an economy designed for sustainability. For example, eating organic produce has the hidden benefits of preventing soil erosion from farmland and protecting algal blooms in lakes from wasted, runaway nutrients. Healthy food generally comes from healthy farms. Similarly, buying recycled paper has the hidden benefit of helping to create a viable recycling industry, complete with products made solely from recycled material. We’re talking about very productive yet relatively effortless changes in the way we live our lives. Though it sometimes seems overwhelming to think about changing something as huge as a “worldview,” Macy’s Great Turning and Taylor’s New Dream are really just part of our everyday lives, as Paul Hawken sees it:
Join a diverse group of people in a room—different genders, races, ages, occupations, and levels of education—and ask them to describe a world they want to live in 50 years from now. Do we want to drive two hours to work? No. Do we want to be healthy? Yes. Do we want to live in places that are safe? Do we want our children to grow up in a world where they are hopeful? Do we want to be able to worship without fear of persecution? Do we want to live in a world where nature is rebounding and not receding? No one disagrees; our vision is the same. What we need to do is identify, together, the design criteria for how we get there.4
With inspired design, we can have architecture that lasts a thousand years (instead of eight, like many Wal-Mart buildings). With maturing knowledge about ecology, we can have waste treatment that mimics nature, like John Todd’s “living machines,” which use diverse, efficient biosystems to purify water, aesthetically. We can have energy that comes directly from income (the sun) rather than savings (fossil fuels). We can support local banks that in turn support local needs. We can have less stressful lifestyles and more time with family and friends, as advocated by members of the “slow food” movement, for whom fast food is synonymous with anxiety. Chances are we can have what we want, if we recycle our worn-out paradigm into a new one, in which our decisions and our policies are driven more by our hopes than by our fears. We know what a dysfunctional future would feel like: an endless string of bad-news days that deplete our energy and strip away our sense of balance. If we continue on the same path, our economy will ultimately crash like the Titanic, and the waters will be icy.
“It can’t happen,” we tell each other, “our economy is now unsinkable.” But it can—and will—happen, unless we get busy. We need to convert convictions into public policy, and ideas about sustainability into reality.
THE LAST PICTURE SHOW
As individuals, we don’t need to be millionaires to eat well, sleep soundly, or get to know our neighbors. Without any doubt, we do need to consume less, because we’re running out of affordable resources as well as tolerable places to dump our wastes. But the core issue of this book goes beyond consuming less to wanting less and needing less. From Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous we can progress to the more rewarding Lifestyles of the Content and Healthy.
Think about all the money we spend to fight various diseases, many of which (like allergies, cancer, diabetes, and stroke) are caused or aggravated by affluent lifestyles. Then remember that affluenza is one disease that we can cure by spending less money, not more.
The bottom line is this: When your time comes and your whole life flashes before you, will it hold your interest? How much of the story will be about moments of clarity and grace, kindness and caring? Will the main character—you—appear as large and noble as life itself, or as tiny and absurd as a cartoon figure, darting frantically among mountains of stuff? It’s up to you, and indeed, it’s up to all of us!
NOTES
INTRODUCTION
1. Al Gore, Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1992), 221.
2. Richard Harwood in discussion with John de Graaf, April 1996.
3. Gerald Celente in discussion with John de Graaf, October 1996.
CHAPTER 1
1. U.S. Census Bureau, Statistical Abstract of the United States (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2004-5).
2. All-Consuming Passion: Waking Up from the American Dream, a pamphlet produced by the New Road Map Foundation and Northwest Environment Watch (Seattle, 1998), 6.
3. Pamela Rands interview with Don Buckloh of the American Farmlands Trust, May 3, 2005.
4. KCTS Television interviews, October 1995.
5. All-Consuming Passion, 7.
6. Michael Jacobson, in discussion with John de Graaf, April 1996.
7. All-Consuming Passion, 6.
8. Bob Walker, “Mall Mania,” The Sacramento Bee, October 19, 1998.
9.Ibid.
10. David Sharp, “Online Sales Fail to Slow Onslaught of Catalog Mailings,” Associated Press, December 25, 2004, http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20041225/news_1b25catalogs.html.
/> 11. IT Facts, http://www.itfacts.biz/index.php?id=P2118.
12. IT Facts, "http://www.itfacts.biz/index.php?id=P779.
13. Kevin Maney, “The Economy According to eBay,” USA Today, December 29, 2003. http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/retail/2003-12-29-ebay-cover_x.htm.
CHAPTER 2
1. Marielle Oetjen, in discussion with John de Graaf, May 1996.
2.“Card Questions,” cardweb.com/cardlearn/faqs/2001/nov/20.amp. Accessed December 6, 2004.
3. Robert Frank, Luxury Fever (New York: Free Press, 1999), 46.
4.U.S. Census Bureau, Usage of General Purpose Credit Cards by Families, 1992-2001, www.census.gov/prod/2004pubs/04statab/banking.pdf.
5.U.S. Census Bureau, Statistical Abstract (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office), 2004-5.
6. Keaton Adams in discussion with John de Graaf, May 1996.
7. Leslie Earnest, “Household Debt Grows Precarious as Rates Increase,” Los Angeles Times, May 13, 2000.
8. Elizabeth Warren in an interview with Bill Moyers, February 6, 2004, “Now with Bill Moyers,” Public Broadcasting Service, http://www.pbs.org/now/transcript/transcript306_full.html.
9. Elizabeth Warren, “Bankruptcy Borne of Misfortune, Not Excess,” The New York Times, September 3, 2000.
10.Earnest, “Household Debt Grows Precarious.”
11. Michael Mantel, “Commentary: What Bush vs. Gore Means for Empty Piggy Banks,” Business Week, September 11, 2000, http://www.businessweek.com/archives/2000/b3698106.arc.htm.
12. Steve Lohr, “Maybe It’s Not All Your Fault,”New York Times, December 5, 2004, http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/05/weekinreview/05lohr.html?ex=1114488000&en=fb64db7b97922844&ei=5070.
13. USA Weekend magazine, May 12-14, 2000.
14. All-Consuming Passion, 11.
CHAPTER 3
1. David Myers, The American Paradox (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2000),136.
2. Paul Wachtel in discussion with John de Graaf, April 1996.
3. LaNita Wacker in discussion with John de Graaf, September 1996.
4. Mike Sillivan in discussion with John de Graaf, September 1996.
5. Keith Bradshear, “GM Has High Hopes for Road Warriors,” New York Times, August 6, 2000.
6. All Things Considered, National Public Radio, April 30, 2002.
7. Day to Day, National Public Radio, June 21, 2004.
8. See the wealth of information on changing expectations in Richard McKenzie, The Paradox of Progress: Can Americans Regain Their Confidence in a Prosperous Future? (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997).
9.U.S. Census Bureau, Statistical Abstract, 2004-5.
10. Paul Andrews, “Compaq’s New iPaq May Be the PC for Your Pocket,”Seattle Times, November 5, 2000.
11. All-Consuming Passion, 4.
12. Patch Adams in discussion with John de Graaf, October 1987.
13. Juliet Schor in discussion with John de Graaf, May 1997.
14. James Lardner, “The Urge to Splurge,” U.S. News and World Report, May 24, 1998.
CHAPTER 4
1. Michael Kidd, white paper on self-storage (Springfield, Va.: Self-Storage Association, March 2000).
2. Beth Johnson in discussion with David Wann, January 2000.
3. John Fetto, “Time for the Traffic,” American Demographics, January 2000, http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m4021/is_2000_Jan/ai_59172246.
4. Steven Ashley, “Smart Cars and Automated Highways,” Mechanical Engineering online, May 1998, http://www.memagazine.org/backissues/may98/features/smarter/smarter.html.
5. Stephanie Simon, “Scientists Inspect Humdrum American Lives,”Los Angeles Times, October 28, 1999.
6. Ellen Goodman, as quoted in All-Consuming Passion.
7. Erich Fromm, To Have or to Be? (New York: Harper&Row, 1975), 5.
8. Quoted in Stephanie Simon, “A Life More Ordinary, All the Better, for These Anthropologists,” Los Angeles Times, A-5, http://www-personal.umich.edu/%7Ebhoey/Press/Publications/press_article_latimes1.html.
9. William Rathje in discussion with David Wann, September 2000.
10. John Naisbitt, High Tech/High Touch: Technology and Our Accelerated Search for Meaning (London: Nicholas Brealey Publishing, 2001), 102.
CHAPTER 5
1. Richard Swenson in discussion with John de Graaf, September 1996.
2. Barbara Neely in discussion with John de Graaf, October 1992.
3. From the film Running Out of Time, 1994.
4. Staffan Linder, The Harried Leisure Class (New York: Columbia University Press, 1970), 4.
5.Linder, The Harried Leisure Class, 40.
6. Rodney Clapp, “Why the Devil Takes Plastic,” The Lutheran, March 1999.
7.Linder, The Harried Leisure Class, 71.
8. Juliet Schor in discussion with John de Graaf, October 1992.
9. Karen Nussbaum in discussion with John de Graaf, September 1993.
10. Juliet Schor in discussion with John de Graaf, October 1992.
11.Author’s tabulations based on data from the International Labour Organization, the Economist, and other sources.
12.Dr. Stephen Bezruchka, University of Washington School of Public Health, in discussion with John de Graaf, October 2004.
13. John Robinson in discussion with John de Graaf, May 1993.
14. See for instance, Martin Moore-Ede, The Twenty-Four Hour Society: Understanding Human Limits in a World That Never Stops (Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1993).
15. From the film Running Out of Time, 1994.
16. Bart Sparagon in discussion with John de Graaf, October 1993.
17. Meyer Friedman in discussion with John de Graaf, October 1993.
CHAPTER 6
1. From the documentary Running Out of Time, 1994.
2. William Bennett, The Index of Leading Cultural Indicators (New York: Touchstone, 1994), 68.
3. Keaton Adams in discussion with John de Graaf, May 1996.
4. Mike Pauly in discussion with John de Graaf, May 1996.
5. Terri Pauly in discussion with John de Graaf, May 1996.
6. Ted Haggard in discussion with John de Graaf, May 1996.
7. Arlie Russell Hochschild, The Time Bind (New York: Metropolitan, 1997), back cover.
8. Glenn Stanton in discussion with John de Graaf, May 1996.
9. Edward Luttwak in discussion with John de Graaf, October 1996.
CHAPTER 7
1. John de Graaf, “Childhood Affluenza.” In About Children, by Arthur Cosby et al. (Washington D.C.: American Academy of Pediatrics Press, 2005), 10-13.
2. Joan Chiaramonte in discussion with Vivian Boe, April 1996.
3.See, for example, James McNeal, Kids as Customers: A Handbook of Marketing to Children (New York: Lexington Books, 1992).
4. Susan Linn, Consuming Kids: The Hostile Takeover of Childhood (New York: New Press, 2004).
5. Yearning for Balance: Views of Americans on Consumption, Materialism, and the Environment, a report prepared by the Harwood Group for the Merck Family Fund (Bethesda, Md., 1995), quoted in “CNAD Asks America:‘How Much Is Enough?’” Center for a New American Dream, September 1, 2004, http://www.newdream.org/newsletter/kickoff.php.
6. David Walsh in discussion with John de Graaf, October 1999.
7. Geoffrey Cowley and Sharon Begley, “Fat for Life,” Newsweek, July 3, 2000: 40-47.
8. As seen in the TV program Affluenza, 1997.
9. Caroline Sawe in discussion with John de Graaf, October 1999.
10. Laurie Mazur in discussion with John de Graaf, April 1996.
11. Kenneth Burnley in discussion with John de Graaf, May 1996.
12. Alex Molnar in discussion with John de Graaf, April 1996.
13. Interview with psychologist David Elkind, October 1993.
14. David Korten, The Post-Corporate World: Life after Capitalism (San Francisco: Kumarian/Berrett-Koehler, 2000), 33.
15. Jennifer Gailus in discussion with John de Gra
af, May 1996.
CHAPTER 8
1. Ray Oldenburg, The Great Good Place: Cafes, Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons, and Other Hangouts at the Heart of a Community (New York: Paragon House, 1989), xv.
2. James Kuntsler in discussion with David Wann, March 1997.
3. Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000), 49.
4. Eileen Daspin, “Volunteering on the Run,” Wall Street Journal, November 15, 1999, W1.
5.“Our Separate Ways,” People, September 25, 1995, 125.
6. Dan Cullen, “Independents Hold Market Share for 2001; Market Share by Dollar Grows,” Bookselling This Week, April 18, 2002.
7.“2003 Market Measure,” Do-It-Yourself Retailing, November 2002.
8. Todd Dankmyer, communications director, National Community Pharmacists Association, July 2001, quoted in Stacy Mitchell, Institute for Local Self-Reliance, 10 Reasons Why Vermont’s Homegrown Economy Matters and 50 Proven Ways to Revive It (Burlington, Vt.: Preservation Trust of Vermont, 2003). http://www.ptvermont.org/publications/HomegrownEconomy/sprawl_book.htm.
9.“Video Stores Seek Class Action in Suit against Blockbuster,” The Home Town Advantage Bulletin, Institute for Local Self-Reliance, November 2000.
10. Mary Hendrickson, et al., “Consolidation in Food Retailing and Dairy: Implications for Farmers and Consumers in a Global Food System,” National Farmers Union, January 8, 2001.
11.“Top 100,” Nation’s Restaurant News, June 24, 2002.
12. Irish Independent, September 26, 2003, as quoted in Richard Freeman and Arthur Ticknor, “Wal-Mart Is Not a Business, It’s an Economic Disease,” Executive Intelligence Review, November 14, 2003.
