Un-Jobbing: The Adult Liberation Handbook

Rating:
Summary: un-jobbing
Review: ... It takes a lot of guts to "drop out" in the 2000's and there is a lack of support toward doing it effectively. Fogler's book is in my library and I revisit it periodically for the support he gives toward "adult liberation."

The book is very different from Your Money or Your Life which advocates making the most money possible in the shortest amt. of time in order to retire early. If you have ever sold your soul in a mind-numbing capacity and felt like you wanted to die-- big bucks notwithstanding--Fogler's book is for you. He offers a gentler approach. Who cares about retirement if your life is pleasant enough and your p/t work keeps you vital? And in our get-ahead, consume-the-world culture, Fogler's advocacy of home-based-living is refreshing AND sustainable!

Specifics are absent because it is incumbent on each of us in our distinct circumstances to write our own script. Yes, this requires some thought! I left professional work behind for 20-hour a week employment in a food co-op and I turned my garage into a studio rental. Yes, I am fortunate enough to have a house in the first place, and a mortgage... . There *are* ways to accomplish the same lifestyle: roomates, caregiving in exchange for housing, an inexpensive community. There is no widespread prescription for how we individually accomplish Un-Jobbing, but Fogler's book gives us the nudge to do it.

If more people in the states adopted a lower-impact, simpler lifestyle, there would be plenty of p/t work for all of us, sustainable agriculture and production here at home, and fewer cars and airplanes [messing] up the environment.

Make fun if you want to, but I think Fogler is a visionary who generously offers his insights and support in his book.

Rating:
Summary: Empowering!
Review: ... It takes a lot of guts to "drop out" in the 2000's and there is a lack of support toward doing it effectively. Fogler's book is in my library and I revisit it periodically for the support he gives toward "adult liberation."

The book is very different from Your Money or Your Life which advocates making the most money possible in the shortest amt. of time in order to retire early. If you have ever sold your soul in a mind-numbing capacity and felt like you wanted to die-- big bucks notwithstanding--Fogler's book is for you. He offers a gentler approach. Who cares about retirement if your life is pleasant enough and your p/t work keeps you vital? And in our get-ahead, consume-the-world culture, Fogler's advocacy of home-based-living is refreshing AND sustainable!

Specifics are absent because it is incumbent on each of us in our distinct circumstances to write our own script. Yes, this requires some thought! I left professional work behind for 20-hour a week employment in a food co-op and I turned my garage into a studio rental. Yes, I am fortunate enough to have a house in the first place, and a mortgage... . There *are* ways to accomplish the same lifestyle: roomates, caregiving in exchange for housing, an inexpensive community. There is no widespread prescription for how we individually accomplish Un-Jobbing, but Fogler's book gives us the nudge to do it.

If more people in the states adopted a lower-impact, simpler lifestyle, there would be plenty of p/t work for all of us, sustainable agriculture and production here at home, and fewer cars and airplanes [messing] up the environment.

Make fun if you want to, but I think Fogler is a visionary who generously offers his insights and support in his book.

Rating:
Summary: Good book but rather hard to follow as a family of 3
Review: A good book that gives you a totally new view on the importance of paid work and of the ratrace we all live in. Yet, it is not as simple to follow if you are living in a family of three with only one income. Like most of todays simplicity guides it is more of a guide for survival fitted to the single person houshold.

Rating:
Summary: Not really worth the"life essence" to purchase and read.
Review: An infrequently interesting and short read.

Not much more than a single case history of the authors experiences and exposition of social values. The book has many disclaimers to glom over the fact that the book has no real broad application to the many different situations that the reader may be in.

A lot of the book is just an undetailed "Cliff Notes" verison of the book: "Your Money or Your Life". There isn't really enough information and even less new information to warrant the publication in book form.

I'd be very interested to read about the success of the author 20 years from now following this financial methodolgy.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting but Not Realistic
Review: Fogler begins his book by making statements such as, "This is a book with different ideas about how one 'pays the bills'...Our cultural obsession with jobs and consumption/production is literally consuming our lives, our relationships, our communities, and our larger societies...We as a society are suffering from terminal professionalism."

To all the people out there who hate their "9 to 5 to 65" jobs these words resonate for the same reason the country song "Take this job and shove it" became a top 40 hit. So how does he recommend solving the dilemma of needing to pay the bills and getting burned out on the job at the same time?

In a nutshell he recommends economizing your lifestyle so that you are not so dependent on or even independent from your job salary, i.e. have lower expenses instead of a higher income.

Sounds interesting right? Well, don't expect any practical specifics on how to do this. The author lists some books to read in the appendix to cover what he didn't. Fogler justifies this by saying he doesn't want to get specific because everyone's situation is different. So what does the book cover?

Fogler covers how terrible modern industrial work and consumerism is and how we're consuming our lives and our planet at an alarming rate. He goes into detail on the evils of taxes and how they are mostly (50%) used to support the military and how insurance companies are getting rich on our insecurities.

Fogler's ideas have a lot of holes in them. For example, he wants freedom to do as he pleases but then he (peace activitist) wants nothing to do with the military and paying any taxes to support war or the preparation for war. This sounds great except for the fact that in a democracy freedom comes at a cost and one of those costs is having the ability to protect our country and its' interests from the evil that men perpetuate. Idealism aside this is reality.

The real problem I have with this book is not the inconsistent idealogy. What really bothered me was Fogler's personal story. After all his trials and tribulations and then the realization that he didn't really need a regular job to be a self sufficient man it turns out that his wife has a retirement annuity that is sufficient to cover their mortgage. Of course his wife's professional full time job was the only reason Fogler was able to afford a nice home to begin with.

So sure, quit your job or don't worry yourself about finding one and live simply off of a part time income but make sure you have a house, and then make sure it's paid for or the mortgage is covered. Fogler has finally caught on to something that women have known since the beginning of time. If you are able to marry someone who can pay the bills then this job thing is not really necessary.

There is a real touch of irony in this book. Fogler's second wife, Suzanne McIntosh, quit a job as a full professor of music at a university, which is exactly the type of career that Fogler had hoped to achieve but never could obtain.

I think this book would have been far more interesting if we were at least given some idea as to why a university professor decides to un-job herself from a guaranteed lifetime income (aside from the retirement annuity) in a position that most people would not seriously consider as real work to begin with.

This book does present a much needed perspective on our consumer driven society. Can rampant capitalism go on forever? Probably not. Therefore some of us have to start being concerned about the long term consequences of our actions rather than the all consuming drive to make a profit. We might find that we're even happier in the process and this is the underlying message presented in the book.

I'll give the author credit for his enthusiasm and honesty. I liked hearing his personal story and I admire him for self publishing his book.

Rating:
Summary: Un-jobbing is a must-read for alternative thinkers.
Review: It's been over a year since I read Un-Jobbing and thanks to author Michael Fogler, I've made many improvements in my life. Fogler's ideas got me thinking about new ways to conserve my time, energy and material goods. He presented his ideas in a straightforward, nonjudgemental manner. My eyes were opened up to a new way of thinking and I was excited because I knew I wanted to make changes he so easily talked about. One part in particular has kept me thinking: Is it really healthy that our economy is "thriving" because of a high degree of consumer spending? In the past, I would have said, yes. More jobs, more new home and automobile purchases meant national prosperity. Now I believe that "less is best" and that all of the spending we Americans are accustomed to is not for the greater good of our communities. A valuable section of his book was the resources he cited. I read at least three of them and have been incorporating more vegetarian and healthy eating habits in my (and my family's) life. Un-Jobbing was well written and thought-provoking, with a touch of humor. The world certainly would be a much better place if people put into action his suggestions. Un-jobbing was one of my most important investments of the year. I'm looking forward to the next edition!

Rating:
Summary: un-jobbing
Review: The author mentions he has never had a career.
If you have spent part of your life in the 'rat race' you are already organized and self displined enough to create your path out. You know what to do. The frugal-cheapskate series has more helpful information about reducing your expenses, and books like living green and cheap are inspiring, when it seems daunting.

Rating:
Summary: There are better voluntary simplicity books out there
Review: This is an okay book. If you're just getting started on the notions of voluntary simplicity as a way of life, you'll probably find it very helpful; however, it often borrows concepts from the book Your Money or Your Life, in places not even giving credit to the authors of YMOYL. The beginning starts off like a one-man manifesto on why the rules of our society are not healthy, but if you can tough it out, it gets better a few chapters in.

Rating:
Summary: Okay but...
Review: UN-JOBBING: THE ADULT LIBERATION HANDBOOK (Second Edition) acknowledges that, in many ways, jobs are literally robbing people of their true lives. "Making a Living" can turn out to be a long, quiet, debilitating death of the soul -- and even the body.

UN-JOBBING gives explanations about better understanding money and materialism, about focusing activities on returning one's gifts to the community, about orienting one's life around cooperation rather than competition, and about living more lightly on the planet. Among the topics covered are taxes, insurance, conscious personal financial organization, and the problem of thinking that economic "growth" is desirable.

UN-JOBBING contains a philosophical context, numerous practical suggestions, thumbnail sketches of people making un-jobbing work, and an annotated Appendix of helpful organizations and other books for further exploration.