Reminders & Some Lecture Notes

First, let me remind you that tomorrow I want to hear (briefly) from each of the families regarding what you concluded was the symptom of "affluenza" from the video program we saw that has the worst consequences for our health and well-being. Also, do not forget to post your conclusions on the blog where I first described this exercise.
Second, given the fact that I did not make much progress in the book, "Affluenza," last time, and because the convocation tomorrow will cut short our class by ten minutes or so, I am going to post some lecture notes (as I did with my remarks on what constitutes a healthy or well-ordered society). MAKE SURE TO COPY OR PRINT OUT THESE NOTES AND PUT THEM ALONG WITH YOUR OTHER NOTES.
Finally, I have put together a topic for our first out-of-class essay exercise. I will hand that out tomorrow and you will have a week to complete it.
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LECTURE NOTES: We left off last Thursday, having just gotten into the Introduction and defined "affluenza," commented on Al Gore's 1992 book, and the fact that he does not appear to have come out in favor of scaling back economic growth. Then --

C. The authors then go on to outline the rest of the book, which treats affluenza as a real disease focusing on symptoms and cures.

1. In speaking of cures, the authors note a fairly recent poll in which significant percentages of individual Americans appear to be taking steps to cure themselves and they appear to recognize a need to. (Yet there clearly seems to be a disconnect between such awareness -- high percentages who see a problem -- and our willingness to DO something about it. To me, this underscores the need to address this problem at the broader INSTITUTIONAL level, rather than to merely preach to individuals about changing their lifesyles.) See top, p.6.

D. They want to start a genuine dialogue about this, not just brainwash people to their way of thinking. In this context, they make a valuable point about information and our "Information Age." Basically, the problem is not new information or more information, but "how to make sense of what we already know." (p. 8)


PART ONE: SYMPTOMS

Chapter 1: Shopping fever

A. The chapter opens with fictional 8-yr.-old Jason Jones making out his Christmas list and then being taken to the mall the day after Thanksgiving, which is a scenario that is quite common, not at all far-fetched. Shopping has become a common family activity -- the mall represents a safe, protected, climate-controlled environment compared to the neighborhood playground (if there is one at all).

B. The authors note (again) how some 70% of Americans say they want less emphasis on holiday spending, yet don't follow through.

C. They present some incredible figures on how much we spend on consumer goods compared to other important things like education. Eg. "...we spend more on shoes, jewelry and watches ($100 billion) than on higher education ($99 billion)." p. 13

1. Or, there are twice as many shopping centers as high schools.

2. "One poll found that 93 percent of teenage girls rate shopping as their favorite activity." p. 15

D. Some malls have become huge, like theme parks: The Mall of America in Bloomington, MN covers 100 acres (size of 7 Yankee Stadiums). (And I understand there a couple malls in China that are even bigger.)

E. Of course, more recently we've seen significant growth in home shopping and cybershopping (ebay).

F. Finally, in an ad for Potomac Mills Mall (shown in the video), talks about shopping as therapy (for boredom or depression, I assume). Also, the ad proclaims that the more you buy, the more you can save -- called "SPAVING" -- spend and save which is impossible. (although it is not completely illogical because in order to save on certain products you do have to buy them -- of course, you'd save a lot more by not buying them at all.)


Chapter 2: A rash of bankruptcies

A. We are indeed a "plastic nation" these days, and many Americans get into financial trouble because of it, because as one credit counselor observed, "The whole availability and ease of credit makes it hard for people to remember that they're dealing with real money." (p. 19)

1. Average American possesses 6.5 credit cards, for a nationwide total of some 1.2 billion! According to the "Guiness Book of World Records," one American now has a whopping 1,497 credit cards!

B. Credit card companies push INSTANT GRATIFICATION: buy now; don't worry, you can pay it off later, although if you make minimum payments you may end up paying double or more the price of the thing you bought.

1. Average American household carries $9,000 in credit card debt (2002). Credit card debt tripled during the 90s.

C. This has led to a lot of bankuptcies, current rates of bankruptcy exceeding those experienced during the Great Depression (AND THIS WAS BEFORE THE SUB-PRIME MORTGAGE & FINANCIAL CRISIS OF THE LAST TWO YEARS).

1. And it is not the poor, but middle class Americans who make up the vast majority of those filing for bankruptcy (92%). In addition to reckless spending, sudden and expensive medical bills due to lack of health insurance or job loss are also big culprits.

D. Even as incomes went up during the 90s, the savings rate went down. In 1977, Americans were saving around 4% of their income, now (early 2000s) the national savings rate is near zero. Europeans around 12%; Japanese 16%, and even poor Chinese, Indians, around 25% (of course, that is based on very small incomes, but still it is significant).

So why all this spending?
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That leaves us at the beginning of Chapter 3, where I will pick up in class tomorrow.