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Summary: DESERVES FIVE START PLUS - A FANTASTIC BOOK!
Review: To quote words from the book, "The urge to splurge continues to surge." All one has to do is take a look around us and evidence of that statement is clear. We live in a "plastic society;" credit cards and debit cards are abundant, bankruptcies are on the rise, and our greed for "the wants of life," opposed to the necessities, is proliferus. All the toys for big boys (and girls) and living with what we think we need, often means living beyond our means. To support this, the book points out that consumers spend in excess of $21,000 a year on consumer goods, more people are filing for bankruptcy each year than are graduating from college, credit card indebtedness increased tripled in the 1990's, and we spend more for trash bags than 90 of the world's 210 countries! At the same time, the average person wonders why they have no money left on payday! In my client files these days, financial problems rank number one in the list of maladies. Second is unemployment, followed closely by relationship breakdown, which is often a result of the first two issues.This is a fantastic, well-written book which paints a realistic picture of "Affluenza" and its effects - overload, debt, anxiety and the continuous pursuit for more. I highly recommend this excellent book. It contains some alarming statistics and information that may really cause the reader to stop and contemplate their own lifestyle...and where the hard-earned dollars are actually going.
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Summary: Truly phenomenal book
Review: Affluenza is a trenchant and insightful examination of an extremely important social, economic, and environmental issue: America's epidemic of overconsumption and its many impacts. Delivered with humor and considerable imagination, this book is one of those rare, intelligent works from a team of gifted writers. Cartoons by Pulizer prize winner David Horsey add immeasurably to this phenomenal book. If you're suffering from nagging discontent with life, depression over your personal welfare and the rapid pace of life, and want a way out, this is a book to read. It's message is powerful, but hopeful.
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Summary: Time Starved and Ready for a Cure
Review: I don't know how many other women (or men for that matter) can relate to the feeling of living life in a blender, the pace of their lives spinning out of control, whirling between conflicting demands of work, family, etc. This book proposes both possible causes and cures for this time famine. It often seems that the more outwardly "successful" we appear, the more stressed out and exhausted we feel. We have all the "stuff" that's supposed to make us happy, but we have no time to keep in touch with family and friends, to rest or reflect, or engage in activities that are truly "re-creating" for us. We have no time to consider how our actions effect other people and the planet. The "bug" that keeps us moving at this feverish pace, vaporizing our relationships and our happiness, also heats up the planet and destroys the very systems that support life and provide joy in the first place. I think it's high time for a cure and personally, I am starting "treatment" immediately.
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Summary: A word for poetry
Review: People who like this book may well want to spend an afternoon at the library reviewing the latest in poetry--which has far more to offer than religious consumerism--namely fashions, lessons and passions that never go out of style. Start with Stanley Kunitz, Seamus Heaney, Gwendolyn Brooks, Lucie Brock Broido and Philip Levine, for a cross-section of the last 50 years. If you like one or more of those, try others. Reading poetry will enrich your life in ways that forever buying things (other than books) cannot. Alyssa A. Lappen
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Summary: A Book to Read Again and Again
Review: It's hard sometimes to live a simple life surrounded by "affluenza" and its effects. So for me, the book "Affluenza" has been really helpful in reminding me what's important in my life - it's not the "stuff." It's my life that I value. It's not all that's advertised to make me hungry for what I don't want. It's remembering what I do want in my life, and prioritizing that above those tantalizing baubles that are offered over and over again to deplete my bank account - to put me in debt - to put me in slavery to my possessions. So, thank the authors for writing this important book that reminds me again and again who I am and why I have chosen to step back from all the glitter and acquisition. It reminds me why I work a 30 hour week, instead of a 40 hour week, and why I even hope to pare that down to a 25 hour week - so that the rest of my time can be spent on my life! I like it that "Affluenza" isn't preachy or grim. It's light and humorous. It's fast-paced, like a television program - only without commercials. It's stock full of information about how we got to this place where money and things outweigh time with our families and time volunteering to make our communities stronger. And it gives examples and ideas about how to move forward into a place where each of us can get out of debt, and shift our priorities to what we truly value in this life that we only get to live one time. David Horsey's cartoons are right on the money. They're witty and apt. The writing is visual and well-paced. Can you tell - I like this book! And it couldn't have come at a better time. A lot of us need to see its message. As for me, it's one of those books that I'll keep around to refer to when I feel particularly plagued by the lure of keeping up with any Joneses.
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Summary: There is a Cure!
Review: What I like best about Affluenza is its' groundedness in the familiar icons and rites of American culture. It critiques and lampoons many of our foibles,frustrations, flaws, and white-hot flashes of brilliance. With great, often humorous bedside manner and expert grasp of its' subject over consumption -- it takes the temperature and pulse of our daily lives to make a troubling diagnosis: individually and collectively, our culture is plugged into life support systems that are out of control! Yikes! With structure and content that flow accessibly, the authors move us beyond a stupefied state of denial, forcing us to admit that changes are necessary. The reader is reassured that affluenza is curable -- that millions have already kicked the addictive virus. I learned 81% of the worlds population would qualify for Americas food stamp program, and that America spends more just on garbage bags than 110 countries spend for everything! Isnt there something a little perverse about our economic dominance and our environmental obliviousness? A sentence from the books cures section really made sense to me: 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 we can cure by spending less money, not more. Affluenza's story-told reminders about other kinds of wealth besides money make it an important book for our distracted, obsessed society. I hope this book is widely read in America and overseas, where international media routinely peddle the glitz of American culture without sufficient mention of the real costs. I watched the PBS program Affluenza several years ago, and found it to be one of the most effective programs on this topic I'd seen. I wasn't disappointed to discover that the book version is even more comprehensive, accessible, and compelling. ***** Claire Lanier, Taos, New Mexico
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Summary: Great book, important message
Review: This book, which builds on the 1996 PBS documentary AFFLUENZA! and its 1998 sequel ESCAPE FROM AFFLUENZA, provides an easy-to-read, yet hard-hitting look at the plague of over-consumption sweeping America and the rest of the world. The authors provide examples of the vicious cycle of emptiness, greed, and destruction of community and social bonds created by the American obsession with unrestrained economic growth. Non-partisan in outlook, the book makes you think about the drawbacks of unrestrained capitalism and provides possible solutions for people to simplify and improve their lives.
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Summary: "Fast Food Nation" for the shop-'til-you-drop set
Review: Although it's been some months since I finished "Affluenza," the book has stayed with me (and hasn't at the same time: I've loaned it to many appreciative friends). One of its most significant effects was helping me achieve what no financial planning book before it had: for the first time in the decade since leaving college, I've completely paid off my credit card debt. How did "Affluenza" help me do that? Well, if you read "Fast Food Nation" and thought you'd never want another to eat another Quarter Pounder again, you'll be able to relate; what Schlosser does for McDonald's, De Graff and Co. do for the mall. In a clear, straightforward fashion, "Affluenza" looks at the paralyzing effects the fever to consume brings upon us and offers simple strategies to start curbing the disease at its core -- even if that's just by forcing you to ask yourself, "Do I really need this?" before your next purchase. Contrary to some of the reviews, I didn't find the book to be preachy or pedantic; actually, it was the book's common sense approach to the suffocating realities of our consumer society that made it so easy, in the months that followed finishing the book, to start spending sensibly, when at all. Armed with a new skepticism as to whether happiness was just one more swipe of the credit card away, I was able to put items back, turn deals down, and walk away with my money still in my pocket -- never once regretting the decision NOT to buy, in marked contrast to the many times I felt a hollow dread after dragging home another piece of crap to take its place atop the heap of crap bought before it (just like the book's cover). If you're a person for whom happiness is carrying a plethora of brightly-colored shopping bags to your car on a Saturday afternoon, this may not be the book for you. If, however, you've noticed that you're drowning in stuff but no closer to the shore of contentment, this book can inject a little sanity into our otherwise credit-crazy world. I'm not promising it will get you out of credit card debt -- but it just might attack your drive to spend at its roots and give you a little more breathing room -- which, for less than $13, is a bargain you just can't pass up, don't you think?
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Summary: Enough is enough!
Review: To consume: to exhaust, to pillage, to lay waste, to destroy. This is how Samuel Johnson defined the word so many years ago in his dictionary. And here we are - a nation of the most "consuming" people in the world. The government, the corporations, the advertisers and the media seldom even bother to call us "citizens" anymore. We are now just "consumers".
And all of our purchases have made us the happiest people on earth, right?
This book addresses the symptoms, the causes and the treatment for AFFLUENZA - a "disease" resulting from overconsumption. It takes a good, hard look at what our addiction to "things" is doing to our lives and the lives of our families; to our culture and our communities, and to our planet. The authors provide some good suggestions at the end of the book for overcoming AFFLUENZA - or if not overcoming - at least for beginning the process of healing. Some ideas such as simplifying our lifestyles and starting community groups to share ideas and assist one another are within our reach. Other ideas though, such as flexible work reduction and work sharing, while honorable goals will take more time. When people are working two or three jobs just to survive, and under the current political leadership, the dream of more leisure time is still a long way off.
There is a lot to this book. It could change your life. I should also add that I enjoyed the illustrations by David Horsey.
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Summary: Why Is Anyone Surprised At This?
Review: It doesn't surprise me at all that this once mighty country of freedom and liberty has turned into a cesspool of crime, corruption, greed, debt and materialism. One should truly be ashamed of themselves, but like blind sheep being led to the slaughter, we continue to bury our heads in the sand and turn a blind-eye, hoping that all these problems will somehow take care of themselves. Problems that only WE brought on ourselves! We are so self-centered and egocentric that we don't even think about the consequences of our actions anymore. Don't worry. Let someone else "take care of it".
Take a look at the youth of today as an example... We are raising an entire generation of kids who can't read or write, can't spell, are totally unathletic, and who view Nintendo and MTV as quality entertainment. They stuff themselves with McDonald's and Taco Bell and blow their money on CD's, clothes and the latest fad. With both parents working now, our schools have become nothing more than drop-off centers where kids learn to become like those around them. No more time for family anymore, no more eating together, talking together and caring for each other. We are a nation in trouble folks. And then we scratch our heads and wonder why things only seem to get worse with each passing generation? Call it the dumbing down of society.
Just take a walk through any high school. You'll see kids in designer clothes, sporting $100 shoes, wearing expensive jewelry and talking on their cell-phones. (which is totally unecessary IMO). I honestly don't know why 12-14 yr olds need a cell phone for. Just another bill for mommy and daddy, since they know all too well that they'll get what they want. Can we stop this insanity before we all go broke, or have we all ready sealed our fate? Read the book and find out for yourself.
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