Affluenza

You're doing really good money ammo and even why in the form of a complete you know loan coming up next. Affluence is the you have it. The following program was made possible by a grant from the Pew Charitable Trusts at a minimum I'm going to do a PR 20 25 percent of the 300. Think about it a great minimum but if you're going to be going to be more detailed I'll print it. There is nothing physically wrong with you. I feel so awful so bloated and sluggish. Nothing gets me joy anymore not the house the car the clothes the rain nothing Doctor. Do something can't you give me a pill. There is no pill for what's wrong. I'm afraid you're suffering from. Me It's fatal it's catastrophic.

There is a curious possibly a major disease there's no question about it. Many people suffer from it but very few people are aware that that's what they're suffering from. Listen to me. Count all you. Want to be my day. You better get us three times shot me man. Yeah I buy things that don't land and I could get for free. I'll do it till I die. Figured out the lie this is the one big shopping spree man. There's a whole lot of God I'm going to get that money out of your savings account in a coma. There's a whole lot of stuff I'm going. To or

were we. Hi I'm Scott Simon. Are you spending more now but enjoying it less. Millions of Americans apparently are. We're filling our lives with things and then telling public opinion pollsters and clergy and psychiatry and friends that we feel empty inside or never before it seems has so much meant so little to so many. There is a universal feeling in this nation that we've become too materialistic too greedy too selfish too self-absorbed and that we need to bring back into balance the enduring values that have guided this country over generations. Some call the affliction affluenza untreated it can cause permanent discontent. After wins its costs and consequences for us our families and communities for future

generations and the earth itself are immense. The often conceal we human beings especially in this century have been producing and consuming at a rate that far exceeds the ability of the planet to either absorb our pollution or replenish the stock. It's going to hurt a bit. Afterwards it can be cured. The virus is very contagious. And it's been spreading. For quite a while. I was. Want to load them by acting like you were old enough to remember the fifties at golden age of prosperity following the Second World War. Great life will be better for you I'm. Sure.

We felt richer then than we do now famous book at the time called America the affluent society. A book whose title would be laughable today people would reject it even though we have actually in terms of gross national product and so forth more than twice as much. Everybody's home has got twice as much stuff in it. Back in 1958 only four percent of American homes had dishwashers. Now more than half the less than 1 percent had color TVs now it's 97 percent of that. And there were no microwaves VCR or personal computers. A four car garage is probably because a storage you never have enough storage. And so. You know you never have enough. ROGERS. Never enough. So much stuff so little space even though the average new

house is growing larger every decade. Now many new homes have three car garages nearly 900 square feet of garage space alone which is almost the size of an entire home in the 50s. Oh dang it's going to be 10 years to ensure you only wonderful we were in the world of the 90s the wonder of the world. In that gilded new world hardly any new cars had aircon today more than 90 percent do economy cars now offer more features than luxury cars did then. I wasn't part. I don't worry too much about gas mileage. It's not it's not something that I like got a lot of money. Yes it is today's hottest selling cars are expensive gas hungry sports utility vehicle. A lot of people it's a status symbol so they're willing to spend the 30 to 40 odd thousand dollars. To drive a pizzeria.

Yeah. Just as they did in the 50s new cars still help us keep up with the Joneses. But these days we find it more appealing to whine. It's like 25 times as much as we did then. Sometimes we fly just to shop in your commute. Car and. All those nice clothes stores really nice. Go well beyond. Nano MacNeill's attracts more visitors than any other site in Virginia. This shopping mall is such a popular tourist destination airlines offer excursion flights here from distant cities and where you're from. Elsewhere. Comac Mills is a discount super mall divided into what are you for mystically called neighborhood shopping malls have really become the centers of many communities. Children as well as adults see a shopping center as just the natural

destination to fill a bored life. Seventy percent of us visit malls each week more than attend churches or synagogues. On average we shop six hours a week and spend only 40 minutes playing with our children. You shop spend money what else get little letters. That big old bending world. Reflected in the windows of a suburban shopping center where they go to buy. By 1987 America had more shopping malls than high school. Few mall shoppers come with any intention of purchasing a particular product most buy largely on impulse as this old sales training film suggests that's no accident. And here is that most important store decision to impose a budget and make people hungry for as many things as possible. I'm going to have to buy a lot more than I planned to buy the half price addressing the cocktail party will come out and have you been to Potomac Mills this month.

It wasn't ingratiatingly clever ad campaign that first lured me to Potomac Mills Mall there. Listen to that little voice in your ear shop shop shop. This is a retail store which even wholesale the price is higher than most of us seem able to afford. In fact the percentage of Americans calling themselves very happy reached its highest point back in 1957. Psychological reality of people is that almost our entire orientation to how we are doing is based on comparison. That's why as an entire society grows people don't feel any better because they're still in the same relative position. There's the sense of being on an endless treadmill. And of never getting to where YOU FOR WHAT. You're going to get. Still we keep on increasing our consumption partly by saving less and working more.

In our research we hear the same refrain all the time from people I have no life. I get up in the morning take care elder care the 20 or 40 minute commute to work I have to work late. I get home at night. There's one three bills to pay. Jam something in the microwave oven. I'm exhausted I go to sleep I wake up and teen begins the next day all over again. This is what life has become in America. Would Jesus be agenda driven I mean would he carry a beeper. Can you imagine getting beat out of the Last Supper platter Twenge an empty anybody could be called an affluent epidemiologist if you look at all the countries in the world that have the most prosperity. They are the same countries that have the most stress. Dr. Swenson is convinced that much of the pain his patients suffer is a result of what he calls position overload. It could be physical symptoms you might have headaches you know low back pain hyper city palpitations in the heart. And it's going to take some pains could be emotional problems

and it could be like depression or it could be anxiety sleeplessness you find that your life is being taken up by maintaining and caring for things instead of people and everything I own owns me and we've had a lot of we have a lot of sickness that. Credible Dr. Swenson says Americans in epidemic numbers have been pushed beyond their emotional physical and financial limits as they chase to dream for more. They have exhaustion in their relationships or vaporizing they're surrounded by all kinds of fun toys. But the meaning has gone. The secret to a good relationship can be found. Through trade. Joining us this morning are you. Three. By the age of 20. The average American has seen a million commercial messages 20 25 percent of the ads are

everywhere. If you get the feeling that there's a lot more advertising around than there was when you were a kid it's not your imagination. Advertising accounts for two thirds of the space in our newspapers and 40 percent of our male America spends a billion dollars a year on billboards alone. The extreme is the billboard that was proposed for outer space. There were project logos that would look about the size of the wood visible to practically everybody on Earth. You got the future you can be asked in. On average each of us will spend one full year of our lives watching TV commercials advertising encourages us to meet non-material needs their material and it tells us to buy their product because we'll be loved will be accepted. And also it tells us that we are not loveable and acceptable without buying their product. And the bottom line is that it helps turn citizens into

consumers. The process begins in childhood. This new game helps with children's appetites for shopping. Still my favorite story winner is the one who buys the most stuff and gets back to the parking lot first. Shaving isn't part of the strategy. Sixty percent of all Americans say their Our children are not just materialistic. They're very materialistic. That's actually good news to some people. Children are the fastest growing segment of the consumer market and many major corporations are finding that the consumer lifestyle starts younger and younger. And if you wait to talk to a person about your product until they're 18 years of age you probably won't capture them. Obviously somebody out there is afraid the youngsters might escape from 1980 to 1995. The amount targeted to reach them rose from 100 million

to one billion dollars a year. It's paying off. So what you get and where people are gonna carry it from some gap to get it back. On the way to get a. Jacket. America able. Somebody get them sued and I got me. That is not a concert. OK. I think that will really get the message Jennifer galas and Olivia Martin worried that today teenagers seek self-esteem in clothes and cars and are often left without a genuine sense of identity. Well they were high school seniors in Redmond Washington Jenny on the Libya wrote a play called Barbie get real. Hey you where you eyeshadow aren't you. It looks great. Hey so what are plans for today. Well first I thought we could go cruising around in your pink Corvette and that's what we did at the mall. Good idea. That. Say that like it's the best idea you've ever had. We're really excited let's go cruisin.

Jenny and Olivia played dazzling neon Barbie dolls whose shadow lives revolve around appearances and shopping. Midway through the play Neon has second thoughts about her life. What is wrong with me. I have everything the right look the right attitude the right friends. I still feel so empty. Neon is finally making her transformation her change so don't let it yet don't let it affect your smile but. Still show a lot of anger out there that she's made this outrageous change in her life you know and it's hurting you because it was never about her as a person it was about image it was about being seen together. Something happened. Me today I've been feeling so alone. And that I don't feel comfy in their shoes so much. Why you saw fraid to have a real conversation with me. Don't you want to know more about me and who I really am. I know you are your hero Barbie and that's all I need to know. There's more to me than where I go. Crime with and my excess or ease. At least I wish

there was. There is more to you than that. You're beautiful to drive a great car. You live a beautiful dream house complete with your own Barbie bowling spot near do you mean what else is there. I'm hollow inside. Like you know yourself. There are people here. How was your date. Libby and Jenny began to question the American consumer way of life after a trip to Mexico. Just the way they live down there and so harsh they barely have enough food of clothes but they were so giving and loving and happy people despite what they had. And you don't see that there are many places in America. Like kids in our high school take everything for granted. They think that they deserve it. They think that somehow they've earned it and the world owes it to them. And you know just take and they won't give anything back. And our society is just going to crumble if we don't have. People that care after performing Barbie get real.

Jenny and Olivia gave all the money they made to Habitat for Humanity which builds housing for the poor. They want a national award for their play. But in the marketplace of ideas they face stiff competition. Kids love advertising. It's a gift. It's something they want. There is something to be said by the way about being there first and about branding children and owning them in that way. It's called Kids power but it's really about selling things to kids. In Boys advertising it is an aggressive play pattern. It is conferences like this marketers discuss the latest strategies for reaching children and anti-social behavior in pursuit of a product. Is a good thing. Experts have learned a little since the early days of marketing research. Sociologist psychologists some students of behaviorism find on the teenage girl of today are stimulating an almost limitless field. But one in which they are lost without expert guidance.

We are endeavoring to evaluate the teenage American Girl in terms of the likes and dislikes. What about teen age close what all your groups social have over the course of the past 10 to 15 years there's been a great boom in kids researching kids marketing going into new styles and watching them shop at their home were going to their homes singing down the kitchen sitting in their bedrooms to see how they how they decorate their rooms. And we're giving them the opportunity or how I am to to be the experts and tell us how they feel. Truncates going to ask your parents to use your credit cards and call 1 800 CRIME with. Just you know. To say. Can I get this. We can't have everything we want. You just don't want to be hacked. My name's Mr. Schrader. That's right Michel. Schmidt.

It For Me. You can't stop me. There's all scramble. The ads of always accompanied children's programs but todays marketing strategies are not limited to television. Children in this society are a cash crop to be harvested. Alex Molnar is the author of giving kids the business. The study of the commercial penetration of American schools marketers are attempting to exploit this market very aggressively because schools represent one of the few relatively ad free environments left in our culture. Parents would be shocked if they saw some of the materials that are sent to schools allegedly to help their children learn. They're nothing more than corporate come ons. School children discussion good and bad hair days with materials provided by

Revlon. They study geothermal energy by eating gushers fruit snacks. It is laughable on its face that corporate executives who go around thumping the tub for a world class academic standards sign off on programs that would seriously propose that children should learn the history of Tootsie Rolls can't discover until grade it won't have a care. I want to know what they can create maybe as early as next week in thousands of American schools students must watch Channel One a daily news program. I don't want my child I knew going to many along with the news comes commercials. Will companies pay up to $200000 to place a single ad on channel 1 because they're promised a captive audience of millions of children. Now commercial director in America's schools in other ways. One at North Junior High School they call this the 7-Up bus. It's one of several in the city of

Colorado Springs which have ads painted boldly on their sides. No one else that ever put ads on the sides of school buses. We're the first ones to ever done it. Colorado Springs is a prosperous rapidly growing city. But for years the schools here have been victims of affluenza. People tend to say Why buy a boat instead of giving money to the schools. Matter of fact the school levy has not passed here for capital since 1972 and for operation since 1969 school superintendent Kenneth Burnley turned to advertisers to increase revenues. At Wasson high school most of the ads are for the snack food. Students are warned against in their health classes. We are allowing things to creep in one by one that distracts from the learning I think there is a great deal more emphasis by students on. Materialism. I'm afraid the way our nation is going we are

becoming preoccupied. With material things at the expense of our children. Do you feel like if you're not wearing the latest the best that was hurt your self-esteem or you would be put down. I mean it's like if you wear something generic and you walk in and everybody feel like a vise looking at you you know does everybody know you know. So it is a it's a it's a big deal. Yes of course many young Americans are adopting consumerism as their credo. So many of the adults they see are already in above their head. So. The wedding was so good we almost had it paid off. And that's when the home started rolling. We started out. Thank you pretty much we could finance the world. And we tried but didn't work for the story of the Adams family of Colorado Springs is one that's become all too familiar throughout America. They too have got America's credit card. With that I managed to get my visa card. And then

Cindy. She managed to get her visa card and we ended up with lots of reason cards to begin with. The name Cindy Adams married in 1990 and soon began buying lots of things for their home all on credit. Furniture couches love C and table coffee tables entertainment center. What's another $25 a month. I mean that's a huge difference. And then we found ourselves making new payments all over the place to the point where I couldn't. And then when we started to get a few months behind three months behind the arguments ensued we started fighting. They were $20000 in debt. We were screaming divorce filing we just ended up reaching a breaking point. They called in the car so what they say could be 600 in 90 percent of divorce cases. Arguments about money play a prominent role and Cindy didn't get divorced they got help when a debt collector referred them to Consumer Credit Counseling. If you have something set up to get that repaid. Their clients

apparently had financed some medical bills. You haven't called Chris second some a credit counselor these days the phones are busy and the Consumer Credit Counseling Service an international network with hundreds of offices throughout the United States. When a person comes to consumer credit counseling the first thing we do is cut up the credit cards that whole availability and ease of use of credit I think makes it real hard for people to remember that they're dealing with real money Americans possess more than a billion credit card. It's fewer than a third of us pay off our balances each month. Credit card debt tripled in the 1980s not including real estate and mortgages we're carrying over a trillion dollars in debt. In 1996 more than a million Americans declared personal bankruptcy more than graduated from college. Money due to the rising Bank of America and money in the form of the convenient

personal loan. When this commercial was made Americans earn half as much but saved twice as much as they do now. Our personal savings rate is now 4 percent. By contrast the Japanese say 16 percent of their wages. Still for Americans the message to spend even more is incessant credit card offers keep coming with enticements ranging from temporary low rates to frequent flyer miles. Each month. Cindy Adams deposits a check at Consumer Credit Counseling to pay off debt. She's learned a hard lesson. It's ok not to have the newest wearing the latest style on a home doesn't have to be tiptop 90s condition. Let us focus on other things that are more important than stuff. Cindy and Keaton still feel caught when they think about their children. Even Brandon that 3 is now going to pick out his 10 favorite things and mommy why can't I have it. And that's just the way things are.

And that troubles Glenn Stanton of focus on the family. The pressure that materialism is bringing to bear on the American family today is woefully underestimated. But it is critically important to focus on the family. This is Cathy may have been founded by Dr. James Dobson whose radio program reaches millions focus on the family is the largest Christian conservative organization in the United States. The political ideology here is free market capitalism though not without reservations. The market in a very real sense is hostile to the family. It needs to expand itself it needs to bring in new consumers. And quite tragically it brings in new consumers almost at any price. Do we go out after a sale even pitting child against parent. We would contend that that is too far. Strong families spend time together. But that's less common in our consumer society. Even when parents are not working. Moms up stairs watching a movie on the VCR that is on the Internet.

Kids are downstairs in the video game. Everybody is connected to something outside of the home even though they're physically within the home. New Life Church is less than a mile from Focus on the family. Sunday services here attract thousands of evangelical Christians. The Bible does not say buy a new Cadillac every year. It says keep your lives free from the love of money and be content. Now the message of our day and our society right now is always always just content. I mean we have tremendous prosperity in our country right now and we've never probably had so much discontent. Pastor Ted Haggard like his neighbors would focus on the family is a free enterprise conservative but he too feels that consumerism is becoming a poor substitute for

family. The majority of people are rushing rushing rushing trying to get a little bit more. And that that's gotta stop. Our kids need it our wives need it. Husbands need it. Grandma and Grandpa need it. Yes. It is not worth having another thousand square feet in your house if you lose the relationship with your wife or if your child turns 16 and you realize you never met him. No no no need to worry. With a little help Pastor Ted prepares a sermon for him being conservative means conserving the whole idea of us using a thing and then throwing it away and getting another one I think is affecting all of us as people. We start looking at other people and we say if they don't give us pleasure. Then they are disposable. And I think it does. I can't help it carry over into relationships with people that I'm dissatisfied with this. There's got to be somebody better out there I see that a lot in my practice where people will come in and say well

they met someone at work or you know our relationship started at work and then and then eventually we divorced our spouses and we got together and you know once the wrapping was off then it wasn't as new and different and wonderful as it was in the very beginning when when everyone was dressed up and powdered and looked perfect so they go back to the company and find some some other toy to play with. Right. Our community bonds also suffer the Salvation Army reports difficulty finding volunteer bell ringers. Participation in civic organizations and activities has been declining over the past 20 years.

All our attention is being pulled in the wrong direction and trying to run that rat race. We don't have the time to volunteer down at the soup kitchen to volunteer at church to go visit the old folks home to pay some time and attention to people who need us. Affluenza affects people across all income barriers. People who have a lot but want more than feel themselves almost empty inside once they get more. And people who want for life's basics but still find themselves almost taunted by glittering embellishments. And in recent years the gap between the two groups has been growing. In fact the gap between rich and poor Americans is now the widest in any industrial nation. Low income people see it as an issue of inequity. How is it that I see all these people around me getting wealthier and wealthier doing better and better gaining more and more material goods at a time when I'm falling farther and farther behind.

If you look carefully at the big consumer boom since the 1980s I think one of the things you'll find is that it's fairly heavily concentrated in the upper part of the middle class and above. Alicia Edwards didn't share in that she and her two sons live in a tiny apartment in Hartford Connecticut. Like millions of low income Americans Felicia works full time and then some but still struggles to provide for her children. I try to think to know that our heart felt like well to me it is Christmas all around you by me this but whatever I give them they're fine with that. You know I come from another question. Money is an important I mean you can buy certain things but still. We're happy we're OK with it. It's good for Lucia knows her boys frequently feel deprived. How long ago one of them begged her for a pair of expensive sneakers. There were 90 dollars and they explained to him that. I could not

afford them. So he wasn't going to get up but man. I came to a decision that we were going to go have one and he got three kids in our poorest communities the sense of deprivation is intense. There was a fellow that I met and he works with gangs and I asked him I said you know what's the one thing that you see that's causing a lot of problems without skipping a beat he said. GREENE materialism. He says these kids they don't feel like their lives to be worth anything unless they had the hottest product that's being sold in the marketplace. Soon children throughout the world may feel the same way. The whole corporate system and in the course of globalization is increasingly geared up to bring every country into the consumer society. And there's a very strong emphasis on trying to reach children to reshape their values. In the very beginning to convince them that progress is

defined by what they consume. Each day television exposes millions of people in the developing world to the consumer dream and they are eager to be included. David Korten once believed they could and should. He's worked in Africa Asia and Central America for the Harvard Business School the Ford Foundation and the Agency for International Development. My career was focused on training business executives to create the equivalent of our of our high consumption economies and in countries throughout the world. Gradually I came to realize that that wasn't working it couldn't work in many people's lives were actually worse off. You were saying the environment trash we're seeing a breakdown of cultures and and the social fabric. One fifth of the world's people live in abject poverty dying slowly of hunger and disease. Millions of others also desperately need more material to get where they consume as much as we do as a result.

Could be an environmental crisis. There is absolutely no way that everyone in the world can can live at that standard of of affluence because the Earth's eco system simply will not stand up. Just imagine if every Chinese household had two cars as this car show in Beijing reveals they're already on that road. Western products and advertising are pouring into developing countries. It is creating a groundwork for a credible global disaster combined with a population explosion not expected to peak for decades. The consumption boom threatens to devour the world's reserves of oil. No other resources will be in the lifetime of our grandchildren. We've set the example. The American consumer. Each year you consume fantastic amounts of food clothing housing amusements appliances and services. Since 1950 Americans alone have used more resources than everyone ever lived before the best.

Each of us uses up to 20 tons of basic raw materials and only a small fraction gets recycled. Here ruthlessly cutting down the world's forests the braiding of our lands destroying the climatic systems all in the quest for money. We Americans throw away 7 million cars a year two million plastic bottles every hour anough aluminum cans annually to make six thousand DC 10 nearly. Their total yearly waste would fill a convoy of garbage trucks long enough to reach. Halfway to the moon. While rivers and oceans are already flooded with pollution increased emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases Excel await global warming affluenza the

disease of consumerism is spreading around the world. So it's really critical that we here in North America begin to alter our patterns of consumption and set a better example for the rest of the world what the good life really is or none of us are going to have a good life. According to historian David shy the idea that the good life is is simpler less acquisitive life runs deep in our heritage. Simplicity is an ancient even a primordial ideal. The Greeks referred to it as the middle way that midpoint between luxury and deprivation. Give me neither poverty nor rich reached. The New Testament is filled with warnings about the dangers of will. So when the Puritans arrived in the New World one of their major premises was their desire to try to create a Christian Commonwealth that practiced simple living. Waste not want not. Wrote Benjamin Franklin in colonial America habits of thrift persisted alongside desires for luxury. Even 19th century

Americans still had more respect for thrift than for spendthrifts. The word consumption meant something different. Then we go back to Samuel Johnson's Dictionary the English language to consume meant to exhaust to pillage to lay Rand to destroy and fact even in our grandparents generation when someone had tuberculosis they called it consumption. So up until this century to be a consumer was was not to be a good thing it was considered a bad thing. One of the first harbinger is of a change of heart with the department store and department stores came in during the 1980s basically to create the sort of place where people would. Go and kind of use the south and spend their money. By the 1890s wealthy Americans proudly display the material signs of their success. Still not everyone was impressed in the late 19th century there was another major revival of American interest living there or Roosevelt was one of the foremost proponents of a simpler life for Americans

during this period Roosevelt was quite candid in saying that for all of his support for American capitalism he fear that if it were allowed to develop on leashed that it would eventually create a corrupt civilization. As consumer goods began to roll in large quantities from American assembly and labor and religious leaders urged the productive new technologies be used to give people more free time instead of more. But business executives feared a lag in consumer demand might send the whole economy crashing down. They claim that human wants are insatiable and look just psychology to stimulate spending. Why you feel low. Why be a little guy. Now you can be just as tall as your best girl slip into a pair of daisies you take if you're. After the Great Depression and World War 2. A lift was just what Americans wanted.

And business was eager to provide it with a little help from the government. The new automobile streamed from the factory. Fresh buying. Our floods into our stores of every community prosperity greater than history has ever known. Low interest federal loans and spending on super highways fuel the suburban housing boom. The expansion of credit made large consumer purchases easier and the good life became the good life. We have the money to spend and we want least smelling soaps lotions and glamour. We can get with it our egos are best now raised by a well-placed investment in real luxury goods. What you might call discreetly conspicuous wait who immediate post war period does represent a huge change in the kinds of attitudes that Americans have had about consumption convenience was the new ideal disposable Dimmy use it once and throw it away.

Families were encouraged to buy a new car every year. Marketers called it planned obsolescence. Products became obsolete because they were out of style but they still worked or not. They were saying the car that you have last year won't do anymore and it won't do anymore because it doesn't look right. There's now a new car and that's what we want to be driving consumer society was crying out. But not with. Critics in the 1960s a small but vocal counterculture called for a simpler way of life than the 1974 a nationwide oil shortage caused many people to wonder if we might run out of resources by 979 even our president was questioning the American dream. Too many of us now tend to worship so open door engines and consumptions part of Jimmy Carter's failure was his lack of recognition of how deeply seated the High Wide and Handsome notion of economic growth and capital development had become in the modern American psyche.

Since Mr Carter lost by a landslide no presidential candidate has dared challenge the goal of infinite economic growth. There's no need to leave. See how it is. Do you still believe we didn't know it was Bill Clinton and Al Gore appreciated the sentiments contained in this old Shaker him. But they pledge to grow the economy faster than their opponents could. And Bob Dole and Jack Kemp's opinion we should aim at doubling the size of the American economy in the next 15 years. When Jack Camp offered that opinion his debate opponent Vice President Gore never questioned whether it would really be a good idea for Americans to consume twice as much as they do now. Now I know what you're going to say this one hurt right. Wrong. Ouch. I'm calling my lawyer. Shots stink but they're supposed to help. Now there is no shot for affluenza But help is possible. And if you stay with us we'll tell you about

it after this message. The average North American consumes five times more than a Mexican 10 times more than a Chinese person. And 30 times more than a person from India. We are the most gracious consumers in the world. If you've never seen this uncommercial before. It's not for lack of effort to get it on the air or the major networks in North America have rejected just about all of television on commercials. That hasn't stopped these activists in Vancouver British Columbia from producing. They organize an annual event called Buy Nothing Day as a protest against consumer culture consumerism and over consumption is really the mother of all our environmental problems. Kelly Lawson there was a market researcher until a sudden change of heart is the publisher of a magazine called Adbusters. It's filled with slick parodies of real ads but his real dream is to get

on commercials on commercial television. Take back your. I think the commercial television which is the command center of our consumer culture. Why are nine out of 10 women dissatisfied with some aspect of their own bodies. Many of the UN commercials are designed by refugees from the advertising industry clandestinely they come and they they help us to come up with our environmental and other kind of messages which which are trying to use television to change the world for the better in the days of the command center of consumerism with some very very powerful antivirus and. It's coming. Down the day of the. Television executives continue to reject the edge even though the producers are willing to pay for the airtime. Lawson is challenging the rejections in court even without television these Adbusters find ways to get their message out.

This year right I think they have exploded in eight countries around the world. But I fully believe the hope. And it's becoming a truly international celebration of frugality and living lightly on the planet than in a voluntary simplicity was. Not in Seattle Buy Nothing Day celebration included music by a group called the Raging Grannies and signs urging passers by to cut up their credit card. Several did. Just that. Though most shoppers ignored the protests some found it thought provoking. This is a luxurious country you know really needed stuff like we just buy stuff the in my

commercial site. I mean. I feel that we're at the early stages of a second American Revolution to reconsider this. This is a consumption binge that we've been on for for almost half a century now. It's going to keep on gathering momentum and somewhere along the line. Even the economists will come on board. Consumption really is at the heart of the entire apparatus that we're looking at right now as a first step toward improving our quality of life economist could change the way they measure progress. Critics say the current yardstick growth that the gross domestic product or GDP is severely flawed is the economy that Americans experience gets worse the GDP often portrays it as better like a family going through divorce for example. First they have costly legal bills and then they stablished two households instead of one household buying and spending goes up considerably. But meanwhile what you have is family breakdown. The more we pay the cost of affluenza the healthier the GDP says we are.

Every time a horse falls. Gm people. Every oil spill. The GNP goes up every time a new cancer patient is diagnosed. The GNP goes up. We're amassing a larger whole state and his colleagues have developed a different measurement of economic success. The GPI are genuine progress indicator. The GPI takes into account 24 aspects of our economic lives that the GDP ignores. They start with for example the value of housework in voluntourism. We add for that we subtract things like the cost of crime the costs of car accidents the costs of family breakdown while GDP continues to rise the GPI has been falling since 1973 meaning that by this measure the overall cost of increased economic activity are starting to outweigh the benefits. There's no knowing sense that we're passing on a world of social environmental and economic debt to our children.

Joe Dominguez would agree. And for more than 20 years this former stock market analyst has been doing something about it. When I was on Wall Street I saw that people that had more money were not necessarily any happier. They had just as many problems as the folks that lived in my ghetto neighborhood where I grew up. So it began to dawn on me that money didn't buy happiness a very simple finding. So Joe tried for garrulity he found he enjoyed life more and he saved so much he was able to retire early and live on his interest. And he taught other people how to cut their spending. Vicki Robin was one of them. I found that I needed to learn how to fix things and I became fascinated with living life directly and developing my skills and capacities and ingenuity rather than just learning more and more money and throwing money at problems. We have so few standard of living with quality of life. Soon Vicki too was teaching workshops about using money wisely. In time the workshops led to a popular audiocassette course a charitable foundation and a

bestselling book called Your Money or Your Life. It's not about making a killing. It's not about how to buy real estate with no money down or anything of that sort it's simply how to handle your existing paycheck in a much more intelligent way than the way that you've been handling it. That means carefully re-examining your spending habits and asking if what you buy is really worth the extra working hours it will cost you. It's the stuff that our grandparents knew. You know her grandma read the book before it came out and after she she read the next day she came in to us and said. You got to publish this. Everyone knows this. You're crazy. After only three months my spouse and I are out of debt. We have become more at peace with money in our life. This was in Portland with thousands of readers have found the book to be a revelation. They follow its nine step program and find themselves lowering their expenses by an average of 25 percent. The correspondence that we've gotten indicates that people from every income bracket

are using this program. Obviously the steps will be far more fruitful far more effective for people in the lower income brackets simply because they're the ones who need to know how to stretch a buck. Oh good point I think. Good good we got that. Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin each lived comfortably on seven thousand dollars a year while donating all royalties to their foundation. Other Americans are finding their own ways to live better with less. One solution is co-housing by Portland Oregon several families have come together to form the ongoing co-housing community. Yeah each family has its own hearing but they grow food together and take care of each other's children and often share meals. They buy groceries in bulk and lower their expenses in various ways. A recent study found that co-housing families using half the energy in produce only half as much waste as typical households members of the ongoing community have made a

voluntary decision to live with fewer possessions. According to a 1995 poll 86 percent of those Americans who have voluntarily cut back their consumption say they are happier as a result. Interest in voluntary simplicity now extends even to the corporate world. My needs lead out and I think my life is simply too complicated. My life has become so chaotic at chapel sorting things out on a daily basis and I really miss my home. If you take the simplistic course and you take it seriously then you'll have more. Been enough time to do anything that's important to you and Dick Roy of the Northwest birth Institute ran a workshop on voluntary simplicity at Nike's Portland headquarters one hundred people gave up their lunch hour to attend nearly all joined long term study groups hoping to change their lives. Study Circles are beginning to develop newsletters magazines internet resources on the computer and so on and that is now beginning to

create a culture of simplicity a culture of ecological living. If trend watcher Gerald Celente is right it's a culture with growing appeal in our 17 years of trend tracking. Never before have we seen an issue that is gaining such grovel acceptance as voluntary simplicity. In 1996 we estimate about 5 percent of the baby boom population are practicing a very strong form of voluntary simplicity by the year 2000 we estimate that number is going to be up to 15 percent. They're finding a cure for Africa once they get rid of their stress and they say you know I like living like this a lot better. How did I live like that before I die. And it's not just boom. So Lente sees growing evidence that young Americans are also. Beginning to rebel against consumerism. Today's teens and preteens are going to be tomorrow's revolutionary. They're going to be

very anti materialistic. These young activists hope he's right. You're stupid you're ugly you're not popular unless you buy this product. And it sickens me when you throw environmental sanity members from around the world met recently much of their discussion was about living simply and assuring a future for all generations to come. It need not be a future of deprivation. Studies suggest that the Earth could sustain a standard of living nearly as comfortable as our own. For every human being on earth. That would demand social as well as personal change. It would mean investing in non polluting energy efficient technologies producing goods that will last longer and require fewer resources carefully reusing and recycling. Rewarding for Galatea while penalizes waste narrowing the gap between rich and poor. Committing ourselves to economic stability instead of infinite expansion. You're broke

right there. A generation ago Americans watched ads like this and nobody laughed. Attitudes about smoking certainly changed. Today with growing evidence that over consumption may also be hazardous. It's time perhaps for another attitude adjustment. And what might we gain. Stronger families and communities shorter working hours and less stress a better way of life. Think about it. Think about all the money we spend to fight various diseases and then remember affluenza is one malady we can cure by spending less money not more. Thanks for being with us. I'm Scott Simon. To learn more about affluenza visit PBS online at the address on your screen. For a video cassette copy of this program. Call 1 800

9:03 7 5 3 8 7. The preceding program was made possible by a grant from the Pew Charitable

Trust. Yes.