Affluenza Wrap-up & Reminders

Since I did not manage to finish my commentary on "Affluenza" yesterday in class, I will do so now.

Chapter 28: Political prescriptions

A. Michael Jacobsen opens with a simple, but profound, truth -- "Our country is set up structurally to oppose voluntary simplicity." (p. 221) The authors then warn the reader this is going to be a longer chapter, and they acknowledge something that I have stressed all along -- social ills such as affluenza won't be cured by personal action alone.

B. So, let's touch on some of these larger actions they see as necessary to really come to grips with this epidemic.

1. A very important step would be to allow workers to take back some of the TIME they've earned due to increased productivity.

a.) See top p. 224. Juliet Schor describes what has happened since World War II. They go on to discuss some interesting proposals, all of which would necessitate government intervention (as govt. intervened in 1938 and established the 40hr workweek).

b.) It is amazing how far behind the rest of the world we are, and not just other rich countries. See bottom p. 226 "Americans can do better...."

c.) Work-sharing during recessions, and other times, makes sense.

2. One of the big public policy changes that would greatly facilitate these other changes would be adopting a single-payer, universal health care system. See middle paragraph, p. 228.

3. Also, they float some interesting tax proposals.

C. They admit upfront that given all this stress on cutting back, spending less, etc. may cause the economy to collapse. Perhaps, and I would say if it does, then good riddance -- let's build something new based on other principles.

1. Other countries have made peace with slower or no growth -- I like what a former Dutch prime minister said. See bottom, p. 232-233.


Chapter 29: Annual check-ups

A. Back to the medical analogy, just as we could use annual check-ups, so too the community. And of course to do that we have to develop instruments to measure the community's health.

1. Fever Index interesting.

2. Asking ourselves basic questions, as if we only had another year to live -- are you really doing what is important?

3. Community check-up illustrated by Seattle which came up with 40 sustainability indicators. p. 238.

B. National check-up provided by some more realistic measures of health and wealth, rather than the GDP. They make a very good point about all the negative things the GDP counts as positives. See bottom paragraph, p. 240. GPI (or Genuine Progress Indicator) factors out the negative and measures things that should really count.


Chapter 30: Healthy again

A. In this concluding chapter, the authors underscore our need to acknowledge how sick we are.

B. We need to "Dream a New Dream" -- not a dream of more and more, endless economic growth, etc., but a dream of restoring QUALITY to our lives. Really a dream of SIMPLICITY. The authors then quote Betsy Taylor of the Center for a New American Dream. See middle paragraph p. 245.

1. Finally, I like what they have to say in "Moving at the Speed of Quality" --
"In a way, quality is to affluenza what garlic is to vampires. Durability, appropriate materials, and good design eliminate the need for mountains of stuff, without reducing overall value. It's a different kind of math, which asks not how MUCH, but rather how WELL." p. 246.
______________________________

That's it for "Affluenza." We'll be moving on to "Consuming Kids" next week. Read thru Chapter 3 (up to p. 60) for next week.

REMINDERS:

1. I will finish going over the midterm exam tomorrow (Thurs. 4/7).
2. ALL OF YOU NEED TO INDICATE WHAT YOUR TOPIC WILL BE FOR YOUR PAPER. THE DEADLINE IS TOMORROW.
3. We will be seeing another video tomorrow as well, "Advertising and the End of the World," which I plan to post some comments about on this blog following our viewing of this video.
4. Next Tuesday (4/12) I will show another video, "Consuming Kids," and in connection with that one, I will have a family activity posted on this blog by Friday (4/8), so check it out.