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Summary: Why the American society is the way it is
Review: Written in connection with a two part PBS series with the same name, Affluenza documents the falling into, and recovering from, consumerism. On the way it documents the effect of this state relating to the environment, the human psyche and relationships with family and others. It walks us through, step by step, how we are trained to be consumers. All the targeting of children with cold-hearted and violent advertisements, all the lures and come-ons pouring from the media, all the 'scientific discoveries' between psychology and marketing, and all the 'free money' ploys around credit cards. After 10-20 years of this it's so hard not to go with the game, especially when so many others around us do the same. If I was born and raised in the USA, I would be long lost to all that. But this book also shows a wide set of tools to help us swim against the flow. I have gotten all the information I need on how to withdraw my support from the all-overtaking megacorps, how to stand my ground nonmanipulated, and most importantly how to spend my time living my live instead of owned by my things. And this leads to free time, to personal power to figure out and follow my mission and to political power to make this a better place through making my voice heard. All that left is walking the talk. And Affluenza, thoroughly researched (and on the border of being occasionally repetitive, can provide part of the hammering-in it takes to change a habit, the habit of buying (and 'saving') instead of not spending and simplifying. What long-needed information!
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Summary: so true it's painful!
Review: This is a hard-hitting, well-researched book thatis enjoyable to read, due to the authors' writing style, without making light of the seriousness of the subject matter. Affluenza -- the drive to consume vast quantities of more and new goods --- is killing us. In fact, if everyone on the planet consumed at the rate that Americans and other Westernized countries do, we would need 5 more planets to accomodate all the stuff. But it is more than the money spent. Polls show less job satisfaction and longer hours today than ever before. The square footage of new homes built keeps increasing -- to the point that a new garage today is the same size as a family home in the 1950s. Each product consumes -- including a cup of coffee or a pound of meat -- has a direct impact on our water streams and environment (in fact, apparently there are a lot of water streams with caffeine in them!) Not to mention our personl health in terms of stroke and heart disease ..... the list of negative impact goes on and on. So why do we do it if we know it makes us so unhappy (because many people will recognize themselves in this book -- in fact, it's like the thoughts that always ran through your head being verbalized to you.) Media is, of course, one thing to blame. Particularly horrifying is reading one ad CEO talking about "capturing, owning and branding children" as a target audience .. which they have been since 1912 when Cracker Jack started putting a little prize in each box. this is a great book, full of facts and tests to help you determine your own level of affluenza and how you can start curing yourself.
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Summary: My neighbor has one, so I want one too!
Review: Keeping up with the Jones' is a dangerous game! I read this book about a year ago and went back to it after reading "The Two Income Trap" by Warren & Tyagi. Affluenza is a book to be taken seriously... Why do we have to have a 100inch television when the old 27inch-er works just fine? Why do we need a 3,500 square foot McMansion in middle-class suburbia when a 1,500 square foot house will provide adequate shelter for our family? It is a sickness, and easy credit helps fuel desire to catch it. Would we really buy all this "STUFF" if stores only accepted cold hard cash? The authors also bring up another great point. What is all this consuming doing to the environment? More "stuff" requires more resources. And since "stuff" doesn't last forever, it has to be thrown away somewhere. Where is all of it going? So in conclusion, I think the book gives us more to think about than why are we all trying to buy big screen TVs and gas guzzling SUVs... What is it doing to our water, land, air and trees?
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Summary: Decent book, but the yeoman farmer is dead. Get over it.
Review: This book is less of a sociological study but more of a rant. While some points are valid, I could not help but think the authors just have grudges against certain things. In the latter half of this book, statistics, surveys and valid studies dominate, making it informative, but the beginning is littered with gripes and anecdotal evidence which I feel hurts the credibility of the whole book. The books deals with how American society is on a consuming rampage that is controlling our lives. Somehow, though, they concentrate of the extremes, insert wild exaggerations, and seem oblivious to the fact that the two major factors that take away the most money are taxes and housing. What little meaning they attach to a house is meaningless rants again McMansions, and somehow support the hypocrisy of cheaper housing and more open space. Yes, they bring up some valid points. The environmental information they provide is excellent and an eye-opener. The advertising section was also informative and made think a little harder. All in all, it's good, but in the end it made me that the only way to satisfy the authors of this book would be for everyone to go back in time and become Yeoman farmers, in a magical world where land is cheap and plentiful and government is an efficient system that can solve all of societies woes. It ain't going to happen.
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Summary: The Throw-Away Generation
Review: Affluenza is a smart and witty book that allows every reader to authenticate why they feel guilty and make other people around them feel bad with fun facts such as, "More people are filing for bankruptcy each year than graduate from college." YAY! Doesn't that sting America? None the less full of great facts, easy reading and comprehensive writing. Don't blame me, just read it. Blame yourself. =D
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Summary: Should be Required Reading in Our Schools
Review: Since brevity is a virtue, I will keep it short. This book is a dead on accurate assesment of the costs of materialism. It is slightly Leftist in tone, but many Conservatives such as myself practice the pursuit of Voluntary Simplicity, so don't let any of that discourage you. Excessive materialism can drive you into debt, break up your family, ruin your life, and make you as unhappy and empty as any drug addiction. Read this book.
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Summary: Why do simplicity books rip out the voluntary part?
Review: OK, here's the problem with this book and similar tomes recommended within: they take the concept of voluntary simplicity and want to force it on their neighbors. What could be a useful guide to a less-stressful, more nature-loving lifestyle becomes the same shrill USA-destroyed-the-planet chant. The economics quoted are bogus, they lack realistic historical perspective, and they make crazy generalizations about US society in the context of the planet. First of all, we are not [ending life by] over-consumption. The number one killer in the world is starvation. The number one US societal problem is poverty, not my neighbor's SUV. Second, the US is not responsible for all the ills of the third world. Third world people would not live in idyllic Edens had we not persuaded them to farm our raw materials and glue our sneakers. They may have had pollution-free hammocks by the ocean, but they would still have had a miserable, diseased life expectancy of only 30 years. You see, what this book fails to point out is that while yes, we have polluted and eroded and junked up much of the planet, those were costs incurred so that we get to live to age 72 instead of 30. Because we have fast cars and designer medicines and [sterile] food we survive. People without those things still [end life] in childbirth or from the excrement in their lettuce. So yes, the way we [end life] today may be due more to pollutants, and that's a really good way to scare up support for technophobia, but we live twice as long before succumbing. So be afraid of cancer agents in the environment, but don't discard the benefits of our modern lifestyle as a result. Here's the contradiction: wealth is relative. I benefit from simple living because my neighbor doesn't. Because, if he lives simpler than me, I'm still the greater resource-hog. So while this book and others are extremely useful at getting you to lay off the credit card, their primary flaw is in evangelizing the rest of the US to do so too. And, if they don't comply with voluntary simplicity on their own, why lets...LEGISLATE IT!! YES!!...You won't stop buying SUV's? Well, we'll tax ... you! Want a greener lawn? Let's tax that bad boy too! Yes, your government, ..., will fix this! The book states that government regulation is a totally pain-free means to achieve green objectives! Tip to the authors... hire an economist! Someone with more energy than me could go to the chapters on the "cures" and tabulate how many times the words "should" and "tax" come up. Do you get it? I mean, if you take the voluntary out of voluntary simplicity, you become the third world you so recently exploited.
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Summary: Should be required reading for all American citizens.
Review: nothing needs to be said that hasn't, this book will really make you think about the ways we view money and matieral posessions.
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Summary: A timely book
Review: We live in an age that is hyper-commercialized, the age of Affluenza. Everything seems to be for sale these days and we are encouraged to consume more and more. The corporate message is that if we stop consuming, the economy will come to a standstill, and our lives as we know them will be ruined. Therefore, you have to "shop till you drop." The end-result is that people are working longer and longer hours in order to maintain a bloated lifestyle that is essentially devoid of any meaning. Our involvement in civic affairs and community acitivities is almost non-exisitent because of this consumer culture. But things don't have to be this way, and many people are indeed escaping this mode of life. In this book you will learn how to determine if you suffer from affluenza and it will show you how you can treat this "illness." The book is divided into three parts: a) symptoms of affluenza, b) causes, and c) treatment. The book is clear and well written. The text is interspersed with very cunning cartoons by David Horsey. I definitely recommend this book if you suspect you are suffering from affluenza or even if you are not.
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Summary: Amen.
Review: He who dies with the most toys doesn't necessarily win... Money can't buy happiness... Americans are carefully manipulated by the stuff-producing powers-that-be to patriotically assume our unflattering role as gluttonous junk pigs... These core messages resonate clearly throughout this wonderful book, leading readers down a road well-signed with relevant quotes, pertinent examples, and directions to countless invaluable references. This book encourages you to be appalled with our obsessive drive for more, while simultaneously forcing introspection. In this manner, Affluenza has helped to facilitate more critical scrutiny of my own personal wants and needs. It has me looking at the crap in my house in a bright, new light. While I have always considered myself an environmentalist (recycling everything, trying to minimize driving, etc.), this book has encouraged me to be more aware of my own frivolous consumption patterns, and to rebel against the external forces out there that are working overtime to ensure that I consume as much plastic, gas, hardwood, and fast-food as possible. Two thumbs up.
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