Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic
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In chapters with titles like “Inflated Expectations” and “A Rash of Bankruptcies,” Affluenza, from the producer of the award-winning TV specials Affluenza and Escape from Affluenza, uses the whimsical metaphor of a disease to tackle a very serious theme: the hurt done — to our health, our families, our communities, and our environment — by the obsessive quest for material gain. The authors examine the origins, evolution, and symptoms of the affluenza epidemic. But more importantly, they explore cures and suggest strategies for rebuilding families and communities and for restoring and respecting the planet. “A fantastic book, very amusing yet deeply serious.” — Peter Barnes, cofounder, Effective AssetsAmazon.com Review
In their eye-opening, soul-prodding look at the excess of American society, the authors of Affluenza include two quotations that encapsulate much of the book: T.S. Eliot’s line “We are the hollow men / We are the stuffed men,” which opens one of this book’s chapters, and a quote from a newspaper article that notes “We are a nation that shouts at a microwave oven to hasten up.” If these observations make you grimace at your own ruthless consumption or sigh at the rushed pace of your life, you may already be ill. Read on.
The definition of affluenza, according to de Graaf, Wann, and Naylor, is something akin to “a painful, contagious, socially-transmitted condition of overload, debt, anxiety and waste resulting from the persistent pursuit of more.” It’s a powerful virus running rampant in our society, infecting our souls, distressing our wallets and financial well-being, and threatening to ruin not only the environment but also our families and communities. Having begun life as two PBS programs coproduced by de Graaf, this book takes a hard look at the symptoms of affluenza, the history of its development into an epidemic, and the options for treatment. In examining this enveloping disease in an age when “the urge to splurge continues to surge,” the first section is the book’s most provocative. According to facts the authors quote and expound upon, Americans each spend more than $21,000 per year on consumer goods, our average rate of saving has fallen from about 10 percent of our income in 1980 to zero in 2000, our credit card indebtedness tripled in the 1990s, more people are filing for bankruptcy each year than graduate from college, and we spend more for trash bags than 90 of the world’s 210 countries spend for everything. “To live, we buy,” clarify the authors–everything from food and excellent sex to religion and recreation–all the while squelching our intrinsic curiosity, self-motivation, and creativity. They offer past, political, and socioeconomic reasons that affluenza has taken such strong root in our society, and in the final section, offer practical thoughts for change. These use the intriguing tales of persons who have already opted for simpler living and who are creatively struggle the disease, from building simple habit alterations to taking more in-depth environmental considerations, and from living lightly to managing wealth responsibly.
Many books make you reflect the leader has jam-packed everything he or she knows into it. The feeling you get reading Affluenza is reasonably different; the authors appear well-read, well-rounded, and intelligent, knowledgeable beyond the content of their book but smart enough to realize that we need a fleeting, sharp jolt to admit our current ailment. It’s a well-worn cliché that money can’t buy happiness, but this book will strike a chord with anyone who realizes that more time is more valuable than toys, and that our relentless quest for the latest stuff is breeding sick individuals and sick societies. Affluenza is, in fact, a clarion call for persons interested in being part of the solution. –S. Ketchum
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Maybe I’m just too far right on the political spectrum to continue reading this book, but the clock radio bells ongoing ringing when the leader said this book appealed to all political persuasions.
I brushed it off and nonstop reading. My interpretation of the leader’s premise that we are going to consume so much that we are going to strip the planet bare if we don’t stop was this book was an indictment of our capitalist system and our insatiable desire to consume everything in sight.
There is zero consideration agreed to the concept of economic productivity: doing more with the same or less and/or it costing less to do. To wit: cars on average have become more fuel well-organized; loggers have developed computer programs and special blades to get more wood from the same tree; computer spreadsheets have allowed people to perform thousands of calculations in a second…this core thought of economic progress in my mind renders ineffective the authors essentially Luddite view of the world we live in.
Is rampant consumerism a problem in this country? You bet. Do Americans buy crap they don’t need? Yes. Are Americans wasteful? Yes. Are Americans financially worse off in terms of bankruptcy? Generally, yes.
Does that mean we need to cut the workweek? Stop eating red meat? Sounds like a socialist/environmentalist agenda to me.
Reader’s Rating: 2 / 5
I dont know how many times I have read this same book: It rehashes the same ancient stale opinion heard over and over. The material world is terrible, spending is terrible, consumption is terrible… yap yap yappity yap.
Nobody denies that there is something incorrect with our economy and culture, and we need to fix that, but the dull and unoriginal rant that Simon offers does nothing for our understanding of the dynamics or scenery of consumerism.
In the end, this book is nothing but a empty status symbol for the kind of consumerist yuppies that Simon seems to abhor. If you want to show people that you are a concerned pseudo-intellectual, who is all concerned about the future of our planet and society, you buy this book and have it lying around your house.
What a load of pretentious crap.
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
unfortuanately if you are this interested in this book, you are the choir. and its sermon is long and reads like a broken record. we get that you stole a clever title “affluenza” and made it into a book. every additional word is some sort of reference back to that thought. it is like ADD in book format. clever titles aside, this book is full of unsupported facts that wreak of seemingly skewed information and is full of thoughts you already belive in (malls suck, american personal debt is out of control thanks to credit cards, and SUVs are inefficient). this book reads like an extended college paper – a long long list of vague facts that all center around the thought that we’re all ears too much on money and products, but never present a clear message.
i swear this book is written on a 6th grade reading level – with simple soundbyte facts, a repetitve overall analogy to the point where i feel dumbed down every time i see the thromometer at each neew chapter, and a all-purpose lack of depth further than any cursory internet search would yield.
they say the book is permanently better than the movie. well this book proves that a book based on a TV show is exponentially worse.
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
This book is a fantastic collection of the effects and symptoms of greed and materialism. It fails to take up why these fundamentals exist in the first place, it fails to take up how the liberal ideology of the Left in America are hypocrites by promoting this rampant materialism, and hypocritically denouncing it.
Another coined the term “leer jet environmentalists” to illustrate the absolutely criminal hypocricy of John Kerry, and most of the so called hollywood “concerned”.
I agree with everything this book says. Except it forgot to take up the two root causes – self centered greed, and our own media.
Reflect about a society that has people who can denounce materialism and rain forest destruction and out of the same mouth advocate killing an unborn child if they pose a personal inconvenience. It is simply astounding.
Read this book, and contrary to what some blind reviewers here are adage, pay special attention to persons supposedly “against” materialism and greed from their mansions, and millions made by promoting the very same attitudes that give rise to this in the first place.
Want to help limit the hurt of greed? Boycott Hollywood and everyone linked with it. Denounce “special interest” groups, and additional “perpetual victims”, and everything to do with the political Left and what used to be the Democratic Party. There is more danger from within than posed from the obvious corporate issues.
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
The fleeting tale:
IF you’re looking for a excellent overview to the modern leftist set of ideals, this is it. It’s a fantastic introduction to the entire way of thinking.
IF you are NOT new to the Simple Living / Natural Living / Slow Food… don’t bother reading this book.
The long tale:
I was looking forwards to reading this, because it was recommended to me by just about every hardcore liberal / leftist “educated” type I know. Sorry to say, I can’t say it really delivers.
Even in the first chapter / section, the authors say that there will be no new information open — just linkages to the information that is already there. So I tried to keep that in mind as I read it.
Ultimately, this book really does come off as just a bunch of preachy propaganda. This might be a excellent book for people who are new to the thought of natural living, or are still relatively unfamiliar with the lifestyle choices that one needs to make to Live Simply… but for a name who already lives as planet-friendly a life as they can, who is already socially aware and connected to their community and their family tree — this book is useless.
Further, there is some blatant twisting of information, simply to suit the authors’ agenda. An example of this is when the authors say that the video game industry is building ads about killing cats that are aimed at children; but they’re NOT. The authors mention that one woman was letting her 8 year ancient son read a video gaming magazine *proposed for teens and adults* and after the son saw an ad about killing cats, he felt disturbed. They tried to use it as an example of the media targeting children… but they should have left the entire tale out, because it’s beside the point. The magazine they named isn’t aimed at 8 year olds. There are copious additional places in the book where the authors twist information simply to suit their own biases.
I’m disappointed.
Reader’s Rating: 3 / 5