Rating: 
Summary: From the Overspent American -NOT
Review: As a newcomer to this country, I find books like these fascinating, as they give me glimpses into the thought process of my fellow citizens (not all, of course). I enjoyed the book for answering the questions of "why", but found many ideas on coping with consumerism quite hard to swallow. (Sharing the lawnmower with my neighbors? I don't even know their names! (Nor do I want to know them! For that matter, I don't wish to mow my own lawn at all! )And no, the TV show "Friends" have not replaced real people in my life yet. Downshifting and spirituality are great, but seeing the Great Wall of China, the Pyramids, and the Red Square are also quite an experience. As long as one does not deplete their life's savings to do it, why deliberately deprive yourself? ) If you are looking for the book on "how to", this is not the one. Instead, a good starting point is "A Millionaire Next Door" coupled with "One up on Wall Street". If you wish a peek at our "class-less" society and their spending/living patterns, read Paul Fussell's "Class". If you are looking for a book on why you may be making a six-digits salary and living in debt, read "The Overspent American". (...)
Rating: 
Summary: Didn't leave an impact
Review: I didn't feel like a learned a whole lot from this book. There were a lot of criticisms, but few solutions that people could actually put into use. On a side note, I was very annoyed by how Schor kept referring to air conditioning as a "luxury item." No one would refer to heating fuel as a luxury.
Rating:
Summary: Good book on consumerism, but lacks viable solutions
Review: I dove into Mrs. Schor's book already having read other books on the topic. Perhaps that's why I was a little diappointed by her suggestions in the last 2 chapters for some fixes to this problem. To sum up her solutions to these issues, she advocates making laws against consumeristic practices, rather then encouraging consumers to act differently by way of making consumerism more expensive, or more risky. It felt like she was simply "blowing through" the chapters on how to fix these ills, while elsewhere taking her time to carefully chastise those who are caught in "work-and-spend."
She spends a lot of time focusing on consumerism's impact on the ecosystem. I was amused at her suggestion that downshifters eat only organic foods (pg. 112). Realistically, any prudent downshifter isn't going to be able to afford to eat only organic due to its much higher price. Such is the focus of this book.
What I did appreciate was her focus on the lifestyles of downshifters before and after downshifting. She also makes apparent the ridiculousness of today's advertising schemes-- something that should be brought to light more often nowadays.
A great book for those who already believe, but not a book that will "reach out" to most people.
Rating: 
Summary: generally worth reading, but Schor lives in a bubble
Review: I liked this book a lot, for the reasons stated in most of the favorable reviews - so I won't repeat their remarks.I also thought the social democratic solutions were questionable, for the reasons stated in Jeffrey Sauro's review (plus, Schor hasn't confronted the failure of social democracy in Europe- skyrocketing unemployment in some countries, nosediving birth rates, etc.) Another criticism: In some ways, Schor seems unaware of what's going on with people outside her own northeastern liberal urban little world. Specifically: *She thinks private school enrollment is skyrocketing due to conspicious consumption (p. 86) - an understandable view of most of your friends live in cities where private schooling is common. But in fact, private school enrollment has stagnated in recent decades because most middle class people prefer to avoid both private school tuition and urban diversity by moving to suburban public schools. If Schor hung around with more suburbanites maybe she would know this. *Gratuitious liberal corporate bashing. She asserts that virtually everything is environmentally unfriendly (p. 156), and how Nikes are made in sweatshops and how awful that is - a point which (1) is inconsistent with her message because if Nikes were made by unionized workers making $20 an hour they would cost even more and (2) is a distraction from her main message that a good editor would have cut, since it doesn't add anything and really ticks off readers to the right of Ralph Nader. *She seems to think that status is unrelated to safety (p. 95). Probably true in Boston; for whatever reason, the crime rates in high-status and low-status suburbs are pretty similar, and the city's crime rate is lower than that of most other American cities. But in relatively high-crime metro areas like Miami, Atlanta and DC, picking the right neighborhood can be a life and death matter. Which illustrates another problem with Schor's book: because (like many leftists) she ignores crime except as evidence that our welfare state is too small, she doesn't realize that crime really is a major driver of consumption: to avoid crime, Americans in high crime metros are forced to (1) live a zillion miles out in suburbs, creating lots of auto-related expenses or (2) live in the small number of safe close in areas, which are expensive due to their rarity and intrinsic desirability. *Schor writes: "The South has not been known for being a particularly status-oriented area." (p. 78). Schor's view of "the South" must have been formed by Mayberry RFD rather than by reality. If she knew more about, say, Atlanta, she would know that status is as important there as anyplace (especially since the urban South has high crime, and high crime means high housing and commuting costs). This book is a good book - but had it been carefully edited by someone with a radically different background from Schor's (preferably a suburban Sunbelt conservative) it could have been a flawless book.
Rating:
Summary: Seemingly Good Data; Sketchy Conclusions
Review: I think we all anecdotally know that we are overspent Americans. And in that, this book simply gives the data to suppport what most of us already know from experience and observation. Americans (as a whole) tend not to practice much restraint when it comes to buying. We save less than we should, buy more than we should, and go into debt sooner than we should. Via surveys, analysis of consumer habits, and observation of America at work, Juliet Schorr demonstrates how and conjectures as to why all of this occurs.
She offers good data as to the 'how' part, but I'm not sure i liked her conclusions on the 'why.' She makes much of the magnetizing effect of advertising. While I don't doubt that this is a big factor, it seems overly simplistic. After all, if advertisements do not appeal to something consumers REALLY DO want, they wouldn't buy. (There are many companies who advertise and don't get buyers because their products were contra what consumers at large wanted to spend money on!)
She also explains that 'keeping up with the Jones's' is a more-and-more prevalent phenomenon. But she inexplicably tells us that this phenomenon doesn't apply much to the poor and lower class. She never (a) gives us evidence of this; or (b) explains why in the world the poor would be somewhat immune from a phenomenon that the middle class is apperently so susceptable to.
Of course, instead of simply writing a diatribe against corporatism and crass consumerism, Mrs. Schorr offers usable tips on how to individually restrain ourselves so that we, too, don't become overspent Americans. While other reviewers have suggested that many of the tips are not practical or usable (and some are a bit strange), quite a few of them (for instance, simply being cognizant of of exuberant consumer desire) are immenseley practiceable. Similarly, the chapter profiling downshifters was helpful in the sense that we can see how they make more out of less.
All of this is to say that while Schorr has written a good and prescient book, it seems incomplete at best and is, in my estimation, worth 3 stars.
Rating:
Summary: Engaging and Informative
Review: Juliet Schor provides Americans, in this engaging book, the knowledge of what their overspending can and probably is costing themselves, their families and their community. The data and research allow readers to look at themselves and what they consume to determine who they are and how they can make their lives happier. Schor's pioneering ideas that consumption can make people less happy need to be looked at by many families in America, so that they may be more conscious of advertising and television. Debt in America is becoming a problem, and this book promotes a higher rate of savings by families and spending less for their well-being and happiness.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointed..thank goodness for the library
Review: Let's be frank: what this book describes is a real problem in America--rampant consumerism. However, after this point is beaten like the dead horse it is, the author degrades into slamming "polluting, congestion-oriented, etc." sport-utility vehicles and encouraging us to join some "downshifting" clubs. These clubs sound suspiciously like hippie communes. I should have expected more from a professor. But the rants go on and on, so my interest dwindled. Also, don't be fooled about the page count; almost 1/3 of the pages are references. If you want a good book about consumer habits, read "The millionare next door."
Rating:
Summary: Makes You Think About Your Way of Life
Review: Mrs. Schor brings up so many great points that hit so close to home, several times during my reading, I had to put the book down, and simply think for a moment about the sociological points on consumerism she brought up. Something she said, either applied to me, someone in my family, or a friend, or my neighborhood. This book really caused me to think about reevaluating my priorities. It made me think about whether buying my "things" really gives me satisfaction, or temporarily satisfies a void in my life. However, this is one of many books that deals with extreme consumption, and simple living as a way to combat it. As with all these books, whenever the issue of "simple living" is discussed, there will be mentions of caring for the environment, and living with less. Any mention of caring for the environment suggests liberalism, which may annoy some readers. If you bother to read this book, be prepared for that angle, though the entire book is NOT liberal. If you want to handle a book that was good, even though it is HIGHLY LIBERAL, read "Your Money or Your Life", by Dominguez and Robin. This book is familiar to whomever is reading this review. I'm sure of it.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent research, and beautifully written
Review: Other reviewers have complained about the section of the book that advises the reader to 'down-shift' and join what amount to anti-consumerist clubs. I agree that these passages are not particularly interesting. However, the research that preceeds it is first rate, and amply rewards the reader for taking the time to read this book.
Schor's goal is to define the variables that predict overspeading among Americans, and thereby to illuminate why the trend to live beyond our means has increased so rapidly in recent years. Her examinations also suggest a variety of steps we can take to make ourselves happier (since, make no mistake, people who make more money and buy more things are no happier than people of more modest desires). She illustrates the patterns revealed by her studies with a number of anecdotal discussions with Americans of different backgrounds.
Though some of her conclusions may seem like common sense, they represent a great deal of scholarly labor. Schor catalogs research by her colleagues and her students, as well as studies she has completed herself.
Almost any reader would benefit from the time spent with this book.
Rating:
Summary: A perspective on Consumerism
Review: The statistical data presented in this book may now be outdated but it still is very insightful as it is. While there is personal accountability, many people may neither be quite aware nor they have realized the reasons why they are in debt very consciously. Some people lack financial goals or money management skills (even if they are considered high salary earners) fueled by lack of values and especially the seductions and 'pressures' to acquire more - that is to keep up, to give or please, to show, to belong, to be seen as. This may not be the first book written about frugality, I believe that this is a good read. It could make a person more aware of what consumerism is for. I suspect the reason why some readers weren't so pleased with this book was because it is more of 'whats and whys' written in an academic context ( a thesis) with so many lists of bibliography, notes and works cited that maybe others found irrelevant. But we need to understand the whys and whats in order to do the now what and how to...practically. In terms of downshifting that is earning less and working less or leaving a 9-to-5 job, it may not be possible for others to do. The truth is its not for everyone. A reviewer said that downshifters look suspicious to him or her, well, I could understand the point too since there are many dishonest people everywhere and there will always be. Nonetheless, there are people who have done it with honesty and dignity. I am merely a student of frugality and I have readt few books about the subject. For people who are interested about the idea of downshifting, I would like to recommend the book below:
"How to Survive Without a Salary: Learning how to live The Conserver Lifestyle" by Charles Long. Reviewers of this book seemed to be very pleased with the way it was written, including myself.
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