Escape from Affluenza

Oh. I'm. Tired of the rat race looking for a simpler life by choice or by necessity. Many Americans are finding ways to spend less and live better. Little changes bring them big savings while it proving their communities and the environment as well. Check out how they're doing it. Stay tune for escape from affluenza. Coming up next funding for escape from affluenza was provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The summit charitable foundation the Merck Family Fund and the Pew Charitable Trusts. This is a rebirth with a shocking development to reform the Joneses of the

American family we've all been trying to keep up with for years. As you can see by the white flag they are surrendering. We've had it. We never see each other anymore. We have so much debt it's just not worth it. So please stop trying to keep up with us. So what's next. We're just going to try living less. And there you have it. Jones's surrender. I want to err Bansko about 10 years ago my husband Frank levering and I decided to call a halt to keeping up with the Joneses. The cost was too high. The long hours we had to work to pay for it all meant we hardly ever saw each other. We were successful riders but we were happy at the suggestion of Frank's elderly parents we moved here to the Blue Ridge Mountains to take over

the orchard that had been in their family for generations. It was a big gamble because the orchard was deep in debt making it possible again that we had to learn from Gallop in a hurry. It wasn't always easy but we found living simply to be full of rewards. Time was the big time for family friends community affairs and good conversation. Is hard. But. We still had time to write and we wrote a book called Simple living about our experiences. The response we got along. The fast lane for a simple life. We met many other people are finding ways to live better on less. You'll meet some of them a little later in this program. But first. Some history.

Here are the five experts say millions of Americans have fallen victim to a debilitating disease called affluenza. The symptoms include swollen expectation shopping fever chronic stress fractured family festering social scars and resource exhaustion. Affluenza is a painful addiction through the relentless pursuit of more and if not treated could lead to perpetual discontent. Experts believe affluenza will become a household word as the epidemic continues to break. Surveys show that most Americans regardless of income think they'd find happiness if they only had twice as much money as they do now. But they also show were no happier now than we were 40 years ago when we only had half as much or less. People feel sad and why do they go to the mall and they shop and they buy a box and it makes them feel better. But I don't feel better for about a week and after that they're still

sad and they have the bomb by sitting on the shelf or something. Hard Rock Cafe Las Vegas you're in Las Vegas right. And I bought a few Sure and as you can see I do you take it out of the bag. People usually lose their shirts in Las Vegas mister. At a public forum in Chicago 40 people have been brought together by an organization called the Center for a new American dream to discuss their buying habits. They were randomly chosen by a polling firm to represent the region's diversity. All were asked to bring one item they'd purchased but didn't really need it. This is the incredible food dehydrator is known as it is it's quite a little light up. Well tell us how you happen to acquire it. It was on TV credit card 800 number and UBS and I'm in business. Well no they're in business. Yes they are. And that was it and the the thing was I think I spent more time cleaning

it than I actually did use either. So you didn't get up of a given morning and say you know honey we really need a dehydration. But I do this all the time. My wife and I do it. We have our whole kitchens filled with things. Sounds like we could have your whole kitchen on the table here in my garage too I've got everything and everything and you know we just buy everything we can. Soon most of these products are likely to end up in a landfill. When I first heard it. Working here I was really amazed at the amount of. Material of people threw away. A lot of things. I thought would be celebrated. And reuse. Carpeting sofa chairs table. Hand over here or the computer monitor kitchen sink whatever. This in a city Seattle with one of the highest rates of recycling in America. Even here the piles of stuff simply thrown away keep growing. Recycling has been a real successful but it's our we

don't want to live that far on it because really the big success story would be preventing the waste in the first place. Just how much does a typical middle class American consume in 1900 to figure that out by adding up everything his family had used in the previous 20 years. Use the imam's almost every day. If you figure that out and read back to them and it was from Week three thousand six of them and two pounds of beef a week that's 4000 pounds. Pour your shared his calculations with Alan Williams a colleague at the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection. Six radios one VCR three alarm clocks two stereo systems 700 batteries 3.5 times newspaper 10000 gallons of heating oil three TVs. It just goes on and on as they examined the resources required by SIDS middle class lifestyle. He and Alan were astonished.

And what frightens me is that both us and I consider ourselves environmental us and that if we were using these resources. But what the rest of the world. What about the rest of America. Some scientists up in Canada recently figured out that to support all the world's people at the North American level of consumption we'd need 4 planets in other words that we're three planets short. In the name of convenience we've gone from designing products so they could be repaired to a reliance on throwaway twenty five years ago. The large bulk of footwear was resold or repairable. Everybody had their footwear repaired it was automatic. And now things just don't get repaired and you want the little corner sure repair shop for one and two man shops that everybody used to go to. They're virtually disappearing. People just got used to throwing footwear away. And a lot of other things despite recycling. The average American throws away a ton of solid waste each year and for every time that ends up in the landfill another

20 tons were originally used up to produce it. Everything that we buy or use in our daily life has an ecological wake that ripples out across the ecosystems of the planet. We start with A. Cup of coffee got coffee started as 100 beans growing on a tree in Colombia in an area that was once cloaked with cloud forests. A kind of tropical forest that's now among the most endangered types. Of tropical ecosystems. The beans were picked by a worker who made about a dollar a day. They were shipped on a freighter made of steel from Japan out of iron from Australia. So you're with the self. Venezuela then the beans were unloaded in New Orleans where they were roasted over flames of. Natural gas pipeline from Oklahoma. The beans were then loaded in a four ply bag of three types of plastic resin and aluminum foil from the Columbia River system in Washington state. They were shipped across the country on an 18 wheeler brought home from the grocery store a brown paper bag made of Douglas fir trees from western Oregon. They were ground in my kitchen in a

grindingly Taiwanese parts from six other countries. Then they were brewed. You know. Coffee maker that was made originally in Germany are parts from a bunch of other countries. The water came from the slopes of the Cascade Mountains and the electricity came from a dam on the Columbia River. Then I enjoyed my cup of coffee. Over the past 10 years Frank and I have thought a lot about how much we use. We try to live by the three Rs reduce reuse and recycle. I still wonder sometimes though what how much we consume. I haven't tried to add it all up though like Sid Quarrier did. Maybe it's because I'm afraid I'd be as shocked as he was. But for Gene and Dick Roy the numbers would look very different. At some point things do have to level off if we're to live on a sustainable basis. Like it used to.

The office Dick Roy works in isn't nearly as spacious as his old one and his salary doesn't come close to what he once earned. In fact he's now paid nothing at all. Dick is the founder and director of the Northwest Earth Institute in Portland Oregon. Our goal was to be a resource for people and allow them to adopt habits and values that would be more earth friendly and more sustainable. Dick Roy has always been a leader officer in the Navy top of the class in law school and then top of the city a corporate attorney his office looked out on all of Portland. He could have lived in luxury but the woman he married wouldn't have it that way. I didn't want to live in a way that would harm the earth. Started with a lifestyle oriented. Toward frugality simplicity that I came in because philosophically Let's say so despite their substantial income the Roys live simply dressing their children in secondhand clothes going camping and backpacking on their vacations using a clothesline instead of a dryer. Their neighbors thought them a little strange but a lot of our friends have taken on our values. I've noticed that through the years.

I did feel different at times you know my friends would tease me they would tease me about having no use but I just had to accept that. What Gene wouldn't except for the long hours that corporate attorneys usually put in chances to Dick be home for dinner and make time for his family. As a lawyer I always had some of the lowest mobile hours or so by choice. I simply work floor hours and what I found in the firm was that if you practice law very well and your relationships were good and. That. The hours were not essential. Eventually though Dick Roy grew tired of corporate law. His children were grown and he wanted to do something that more directly expressed his values especially his concern for the environment. So at the age of 53 Dick Roy left his career for his calling as each of us to some little bit each day. The collective impact of that can be in the hands of volunteers from the northwest.

Earth Institute conducts seminars on simple living in many of Portland's largest corporations. Already thousands of people have taken their courses. We simply give people a chance to stop take the time to consider their values and habits and how those are affecting the Earth. First you have to decide to do what. I mean willing to spend the extra time at first if you get into habits where you always have your bag. You can save 500 packages a year. Jean Roy is also an active volunteer a leader in Portland recycling program. She often teaches other people how to reduce resource and energy use in their homes. One of the changes that we've made over the years is getting to a point where we create almost no waste. The Roys compost food waste using a warm beon. They carefully reuse paper and discourage junk mail by sending it back. That's going to go back to.

Along with that. Yeah make sure you get everything. And they found you out. OK. And they'll pay the postage. Amazingly the Roys fill only a single garbage can with trash in an entire year. In their efforts to live sustainably Dick and Boyd may represent the extreme but they insist they aren't sacrificing anything. If you ask people what kinds of activities bring them pleasure. It's usually contact with nature. Things that are creative. And and relationships with people. And so you know the things that we did live simply bring us all the satisfaction. I've met people like the Roys throughout the United States but in one city more than most. The frugal lifestyle is winning widespread respect. Talk about the economy in this booming city and you're bound to come around to Microsoft

software giant in the past 15 years. Hundreds of Microsoft employees have become millionaires. Ron Simons might have become one too but his life took a different turn. My weight right. This is what you need to be right here as a regular volunteer at a house a home for people with life. Not long ago Ron had no time to volunteer for anything. He was a manager at Microsoft a company where long working hours are almost a religion as well. It was not uncommon to work 11 or 12 hours five days a week of income in five or six hours on a weekend per day pretty much with Microsoft. Financially it was a very good life for a young man from inner city Detroit. He was the first in his family to earn a college degree and to get to Columbia from the airport.

You realize you know my God the people or the drama that they're going through and the pain and suffering that's going on. And then you arrive at this Ivy League campus by the growing at the side of the walls and you can get a lot of thinking. Well this is what you know life is all about it's like being at this really prestigious institution and learning all these great things about business and. But it's not as he climbed the corporate ladder. Simons grew tired of endless conversations about making money. For a long time. I was thinking the something missing in my life. He often thought about his grandparents in Detroit. My grandmother matricular was one of the most from of the women. That I know in my life I mean not only did she give money to your church but she volunteered and helped people through organizations that she got involved in. But also individually My grandfather was all that a bag of chips. He would give you the shirt off his back. And so that whole model was what I was used to. And Ron had another dream. He always wanted to be an actor. But it took courage to leave the security of his career. It was hard and sleepless nights and finally offered yet another

promotion. Simons resigned from the company instead. The first reaction he faced was fury. My mother thought I was crazy when I told her that I was leaving Microsoft to become an actor. She said if you were doing what Lord have mercy Jesus. Has become an actor. It isn't easy. He's just beginning to do meaningful roles instead of commercials. I like baseball but he's patient. He lived frugally and he finds enormous satisfaction in the volunteer work he now has time for. I really have no way to really give back and I wish I were there. Right now I say at the home for AIDS patients. He reads to the blind uses his business skills to help nonprofit organizations and serves on several local boards. But he especially cherishes the time he spends as a big brother for a boy named Andrew spend four five hours a week together. He lives with his mom. He's a big sports fan and still a couple hours on a boat.

It's good exercise for me might be involved in the volunteers I think it's been very very thrilling to get out of this rat race and get a real life. Not everyone chooses to downshift in the past decade. Thousands of Americans were downsized laid off when the companies they worked for cut labor costs to increase profits. One of them. I think if I were to look at I was living they would say. He's really got everything. Beautiful family beautiful beautiful but the beauty was superficial. The Fred was earning six figures a year as a corporate personnel manager. His wife wasn't as wonderful as it appeared. The so-called good life is coming up for me for the significant price. He worked long hours and found time for his wife and two daughters and his job was stressful. It was his responsibility to tell other employees they'd been laid off. Eventually his marriage broke up. Then his own

job was downsized. But I found I was laid off. It was a shock to me. It's a different experience on the receiving end. Than giving the most difficult wasn't the financial letting go was the letting go. Of what I thought was what I was supposed to do with myself. So at first he looked unsuccessfully for new opportunities in his field. He could have found them in another part of the country but he realized he hadn't been happy in his career. There came a point where I I knew I simply had to take the step off the cliff into the unknown. Fred went back to school and studied massage therapy. His new line of work was far less lucrative than what he'd been used to. I was faced with going from 100000 down to $20000 in job and the question obviously is how are you going to support a lifestyle. $100000 lifestyle and $20000 and the answer is you don't.

Fred moved to an apartment so most of his possessions and was forced to live on a whole lot less. Ironically he's still paying off debts he ran up when he was earning five times as much. But I'm not generating that. I'm not spending more than I'm making. I'm finding I can make the ends meet. I have more opportunity to be present with my family now. And it turns out that for me living simply seems to be leading to more happiness you know. Wow what a concept. I am thankful now that I was laid off because I'm doing something that I love. It's what the Buddhist like to call right livelihood. It feels to me like I have found my right livelihood. It was a few blocks from the neighborhood.

And his family lived is a result of a decision they made years ago when the company workforce transferred him to a job designing weapons he was morally opposed to. And I said well I'm not going to accept a transfer. So you can do with me what you will like return to school and change careers. Now he works at a treatment center for alcohol and drug abusers. He put in three days each week and is on call for emergencies. Mings wife Karen Schneider Jan doesn't work for Peggy but she keeps a busy schedule. Karen volunteers at a shelter for battered women and several other community organizations including a food bank. And the baby boutique thrift store providing funds for children from low income families. It is important to us that we have time being involved in the community and time for neighbors

and helping older people in our neighborhood. I feel very energized by this about everything I do. Right here on the. Right. With three children and only one paycheck and Karen have to be frugal. We live in an old house and there's always work to be done to fix it up and preserve it. This piano came from my grandparents as my mom played it when she was a girl. And then this chair over here we had a really ugly yellowish brownish color and I think it came from my mom and grandma. And then like. I think my grandparents house. Already. On one of his days off. Man and daughter Stephanie run errands. They buy used books then return them to a local bookstore for credit toward other purchases winnings toasters stop working. He didn't discard it.

I actually was on the verge of going out and buying a new toaster oven. I had just assumed that anything electrical was going to cost more to repair than it would to buy a new one. But had a local repair shop. He got the toaster fix for a fraction of the price of a new one. That was a choice that resulted in conservation of resources and supported a small business in our community. For making it his family's saving resources and supporting the community are more important than simply saving money. A lot of them products that we buy actually don't fail me. For example they buy organic food recycled paper and union made goods. It's a process of trying to figure out how to live your life in a way that's consistent with your values. Whenever we face making a decision about how to use our money or our time we have to take those values into account. Still they do find ways to keep expenses down. They buy food in bulk at a local

reducing both costs and packaging. They cook from scratch instead of using more expensive processed food. For much of the year their garden provides fresh produce. They raise chickens in their backyard feeding them kitchen scraps. That reduces the bulk of our garbage and because our garbage bill the size so we can get away with micro canned generates fertilizer to enrich the soil for our garden. Without having to rely on. Chemical fertilizers very chickens because they kind of humanize the city and people in the neighborhood to really enjoy it then they can link us more to the community and we get eggs and beautiful eggs of all different colors. They also save money by driving as little as possible.

They realize that every gallon of gasoline emits five and a half pounds of carbon dioxide which is responsible for global warming. And I think it's really important for us to think of alternatives to the car. The next gold goes to the red most evenings. Family members gather in the living room to spend time together. For Karen and daughter Susanna it's often a time to make or repair clothes just feels really important to come together after dinner and have kind of a smooth transition into Going To Bed time. We've done that for so many years it's part of our rhythm of our family life. But like all families this one has its conflicts daughter Emilie who's 15 is on confortable with her parents a passion for simple living. I want her to miss her forever. I have Floyd the house on fire and I want to. It's been difficult but some of what's going on right now is stuff

that any child her age has to go through. All I can do is demonstrate my values and like you know I can only hope that that will have an effect on her and the choices she makes. We felt like you know really it's important that that we respect her wishes too as he commutes to work by bicycle and often rides through heavy traffic. That's something David Gallop and doesn't have to worry about. Calvin found freedom in more ways than one with his wife and two children moved from a 2000 square foot home to an 800 square foot house but we're trying to live with the four of us now in the 800 square feet. It's a nice and cozy. We had to get rid of a lot of clutter and we just ended up with things that are really important to us down here that makes a big difference. On most days. David has a commute that would make anyone envious he can get to work almost as fast my kayak as my car without consuming energy for

creating pollution. And it's such a great way to get to work because I don't have to deal with traffic of course changes the whole day for me to be more in touch with the environment which is what I do for my living. Two I work on water quality of hazardous waste things like that so it's really important to me to feel that connection. Exercise helps too. It's a pretty good workout. What are you learning through the practice of keeping track of your expenses just by writing them down. It's the little things I think I always knew that but the extent to which that was true it was kind of shocking. Little latte or something every other day or you know if you look at it for a whole year and that's a couple hundred dollars worth of caffeine just gone down the drain at the office. Galvin finds kindred spirits who share his interest in scaling down. Several of them meet regularly at lunchtime for a study group based on a popular guide for gallery called Your Money or Your Life. I've been struggling with my van. I spend $600 a month on that stupid thing to get to and from work. I can't use a car that gets great gas mileage that doesn't come and said

what I want to do a lot of kids around and we go camping. But I don't haul kids around that much and we go camping two or three times a year I think. Some program they must write down every expenditure I tend not to spend as much money. I really want to spend it and that really has helped. MacDonald wrote the book that David Galvin and his colleagues have been using to simplify their lives. But the work she does today is a far cry from the career she once had in mind to become the youngest female administrator in the country. On the way to her promotions and pay raises were coming her way often and so was a lavish lifestyle. I talk to people who are less fortunate than my.

Hundred. So much. Then one day she lost it all in the morning. A doctor informed her that she had a fatal disease and only months to live. My home was also. Stolen. Suddenly both sick and possession was confronted with questions about the essence of her life. Did I want to be when I die. My life has been about to accomplish what I discovered was I didn't want to have the most things when I wanted my life to be with understanding love understanding service and feeling whole. Despite her grim prognosis the recovery. And health. My life first and part of that was.

How I spent my money. What I did with it with my values and my life purpose. Shortly afterwards she met a couple whose ideas moved me. Jo Domingo's was a stockbroker. Robin a former actress living they taught others how to save money and spend their life energy on improving the world. What I felt was that their work was so important that I wanted to join forces with them for over 15 years he has been working with Joe who died in 1997 to promote more frugal and sustainable lifestyles. And I think about voluntary simplicity is that. You look so benign we look so harmless you know. Somebody said where the Trojan Horse of of change will just sneak right in and they won't notice it. The think all those sweet people gathering to talk about simplifying their lives and then suddenly will

burst out and transform everything. Ask anyone in Seattle about simple living and they're likely to send you to this woman with your big name. Cecile Andrews is the author of circle of simplicity the story of the Voluntary Simplicity study circle movement she story. I was a community college administrator for a long time and I was always looking for some sort of class that would lure people out of their homes. And I had tried then. A class of voluntary simplicity in 1909 and four people signed up so we had to cancel. And then we did it again three years later for a variety of reasons and that time we got 175. You want to start to see organize small groups called study circles instead of lectures. Participants begin with a simple reading list but much of the discussion is about their own personal experiences. Dave and I have been making a concerted effort to get more connected in our neighborhood.

There's a sense in study circles that you are there to really change your life. The experience in itself changes you and the reason it changes people is because people talk about their own stories and why they're here they have no time they're working too much they have no fun they're not laughing anymore. You bring your baby. Group members pledged to make changes in their lives receiving reinforcement and practical advice from the other participants. I think the thing I would would venture to commit to would be to get to know your new neighbors at least say hello and let them know that if they need anything like tools or somebody to wash their house or something that that they can certainly call on us I think I can stick my neck out that far. Cecile Andrews believes support groups like this one make it easier for people to change their spending habits.

It's putting positive things in place of the negative things. It's saying the way I kind of fill up this emptiness is not by denying myself something. It's by figuring out what I really need and I need community I need creativity I need some sort of passion in my life I need connection with nature. And so people help each other figure that out as well. Here is one of the really rare plants in the wild land here is the water parsnip burial. It's things like this that really excite you because it instills in you some sense of awe and wonder and I think that on wonder. Is really the thing that we're missing. When Cal the way it looks for a little excitement he goes to the marsh instead of a movie or a mom. This kind of awe and wonder that you carry with you. He can identify more than 80 birds that live in this wetland by their collars on mom. He marvels at the flight of Sandhill Cranes. The texture of grass in the water

before. The break of dawn through the setting sun and then on into the night the absolutely dramatic changes as you stand for a while things begin to unfold if you're. Quiet enough to watch and listen. And after a full day you're not tired either. You tend to be exhilarated from the experience. But perhaps most curiously of all you come home with your wallet just as full as when you left. And you've got all this pleasure educations and understanding peace for not a single penny. One also begins to understand something about how the world works. Perhaps the most dramatic thing we learn is how much human society our current human society works at cross-purposes with the very principles that we learn here in a wetland. We tend to see the world as a one way flow from producers consumer to trash vending to landfill and here

everything is recycled. When a stock of the cat tails strapped down of them are it's just converted again into soil for 11000 years since the end of the last ice age will be some Marsh has been working like that all things in the marsh are part of the cycle of life. Nothing is wasted counter-weight walks through these wetlands with a certain sense of satisfaction. Twenty five years ago this marsh was threatened by development. At the time Cal was chairman of the tiny township of Don Wisconsin. Where he declared a moratorium on all land of vision in our town for two years and we came up with a storage plan. They stop on planned urban growth at the edge of will be some marsh and work together to restore the already damage wetland to its natural state. How do we it is something of an anomaly. A scientist and professor of environmental

studies at the University of Wisconsin. He is also a theologian and a deeply religious man. The scriptural teachings really are kind of trying down their heads by our modern consumption philosophy to consume more then you'll be happy. The scriptural view is honor God take care of creation deal your bread to the hungry and then joy comes as a byproduct of the service. We try to short circuit that in our modern society by pursuing first Joy. And of course we mess it up. Our consumer culture teaches us that newer is better. That outfit you bought that one you've had for two months is out of date. You need a new one. One problem with with the new is it keeps us from learning and appreciating our past. My husband's roots go back

generations. I've been inspired to thank. Many of the American colonists living in their homeland. It wasn't long before goods to the colony. The Puritans passed a series of laws to require simple living. Because they were unfairly. You could wear whatever you want if you were rich. We're somewhat more successful in materialism. Communicated slaves and unfair treatment of Indians and other by products. Revolution itself was the rich that took the British

with taxes and laws the exploitive. American revolutionaries with patriotism. Future president and his wife every time. After years of sacrifice. But. The new. Material. The boy supper Galatea were drowned out by the sound of money being.

Raised again. Emerson. As they call themselves. Utopian communities were formed on this principle before the hippies started. Nathaniel Hawthorne lived at Brook Farm a utopian community near Harvard. His novel. Another community was home to a little girl named. Perhaps the best known transcendental experiment was Henry David Thoreau a solitary retreat. His book Walden still inspires readers today simplicity simplicity simplicity. Most of the luxuries and many of the so-called comforts of life are not only indispensable but positive hindrances to the elevation of. One of our most beloved leaders. A man with roots

in the White House. They found his toughest opponent. Her sister women so country and the wife of the president seem to have nothing to do. But in the decades that followed it was Mary Lincoln and not her husband at the Mark Twain summed up the credo of what he dubbed the Gilded Age. What is the chief and rich. What is God the One True. Money is God. Money ruled until it fell from its throne when the stock market collapse. And the depression and war rationing brought American for galloping to the surface once more. For a while then when.

America was a memory. Americans were spending again but they had to be trained to conspicuously consume one industry tackle the job with films devoted to getting us to buy more and more just play to find the right thing glassware clean themselves wash. Their bath. But. Not everyone wanted us to catch affluenza films like this one tried to teach sensible spending habits. But the for Galaxy films just weren't quite as exciting. Thanks Henry.

Maybe it's not surprising which ended up calling the tune. The dance was on. The good old. Sixties the. Material is

just one more product in the market. The counterculture. In the 25 years since the hippies did drop out of sight materialism has definitely been the prevailing fashion. But now the voices of frugality are being raised again amid the din of consumerism and their message seems to be reaching a far broader cross-section of Americans. Perhaps this time the impact will be more enduring. But what would happen to our economy if many Americans began to consume less. Would a reduction in spending create an economic crisis. I don't think that consuming less and saving more would be a bad thing for the economy at all in fact I think it would have a beneficial effect on the American economy because the savings would be invested. The investment would add to productivity and the next

generation of people would be better off than they would otherwise be. You can think about some of the smaller Northern European economies which have large numbers of what pollsters have called Post materialist citizens people who are interested in the environment they're interested in. The quality of life and having time those are countries which are doing well and have provided a very high quality of life for their citizens. Take this country for example the Netherlands has the highest level of post materialists in the population of any country and I'd venture to say that they have a much higher quality of life on a whole range of things that in the polls at least Americans will say I'm more important to them such as spending time with their family and friends by having economic security having meaningful work and a meaningful life. Now if we were to feel. That the Dutch interest in quality instead of quantity has brought this couple celebrity status in Holland Rob and Hanukah von

Fein are known affectionately as the Tightwad couple. Now that is if he's saying we won't. And off I started to feel empty. I did not like to live like this anymore. So I try to pawn fencer off that's And all the lifestyle more Same for would be better in one way I was already convinced because I was working in a governmental or engineering firm and we were making all kinds of scenarios for a clean future of Holland. In the end each scenario led to a sobering conclusion. The Dutch environment could only be improved if wasteful over consumption was sharply reduced. So I thought well you know I do it for a few months just to. See how low can you go. They found many ways to reduce their consumption without going low at all. Little changes brought big savings when you use two bags and you switch

to a tea bag from a tea bag to a T. But it's safe to about $600 in a lifetime in time. They cut their spending by two thirds while finding that the quality of their lives have actually improved. With encouragement from friends they began publishing a newsletter filled with frugality tips. They were amazed at the response. One day we couldn't even open our door and one it was just a big pile of letters. Yeah I knew then that all these people saying yes yes finally a paper multiplied by that one. Right. Last Stand Your hair on the candy bar to start a bank I have. Found that credit card debt. Soon they were been asked to speak all around the country. We talk about the food closets of people clotted and everybody can open up to one of their most popular tips is what they call the having principle.

It works for many products. Take shampoo for example the next time you wash your hair try using only half as much as you normally use and then when it still works for her it's clean and you feel comfortable. You use a can of how and then you call him dearly it doesn't work anymore and you think well there's just not enough and then you put a little bit extra to it and then you have the exact amount of shampoo you need and you. This was a very good principle I think. Recently Robin Hanukah translated your money or your life the American book about for gallantry in the Dutch adapting it to fit their own reality. The funny thing is we read stories about United States about type once and they say sell your second car you know and then they say is this tide wives sell your first car or give it away but you don't need a car at all. But that's easier done in a country like Holland with its separate paths for bicycles. And it's a

position public transportation. We're always talking in the Netherlands about the American way of living. People don't have time to raise that because they have such a heavy lifestyle. Peter van litter felt is the Dutch director of an international organization called the Global Action Plan or gap for short. Gap was actually started in the United States but now finds active participants in many other countries especially in Holland. Global Action Plan works through people. It's a grassroots organization to build the energy of one with the basic idea is simple. Friends neighbors or coworkers form small groups called Eco teams and we are helping to change the lifestyle towards a more sustainable way of living. Eco teams meet monthly and follow a workbook to reduce their household energy and water

use solid waste and overall consumption of resources. Shows you how to ask the question Do I really need this. Corrina VanDoren belongs to an eco team and the Hague. A first friend of mine get to work with and immediately thought hey that's something for me. As a result of her participation she is far more careful about what she buys. I know this because. I want to make us change because I hope people will follow my example. In Holland we have a saying consume in the oven. It means to consume less and that's what I'm trying to do was well I only want to buy things I really need. In just six years the number of eco teams in Holland rose from 40 to 650. A Dutch University study found that members of eco teams use far fewer resources than their neighbors do and save about four hundred fifty

dollars a year besides. Clearly we can learn to consume less wastefully. That's a lesson that's part of the curriculum in one American city. How much do you guys figure that we spend on our quality. Find it right here with this book. What is the true broad nose the pants or the shoes. You know $40 this is just to show you that you don't necessarily have to spend a lot of money to look professional. The veil of frequently shops in thrift stores like Nate Mackay aren't teachers. They work for the Consumer Credit Counseling Service brain a one of a kind program to thousands of students in San Diego area schools are bowing to your board of trustees. A dramatic rise in bankruptcies a dramatic rise in debt and they said when does it stop.

She hopes the Bucks will stop here at Castle Park High School where students are taught to stretch a dollar until it screams. They don't graduate until they've learned to manage money wisely. It's called The Money Masters program. As we've asked students how many of you own your own credit card. The number of students hands that go up in the air is rising every semester. This despite record levels of credit card debt and a recent study which found that 80 percent of Americans don't understand basic financial principles. Tanya ROSKO is glad her daughter and Mito went through the money masters program. She seems to be more aware. Of how money is managed. She's a lot more understanding about when I don't have money to buy her things or when we can afford something than she was before. It really helped me understand a lot more about my Mom's finances. Tanya can't wait until I need his younger sister Naomi takes it to every corner for us to see.

She wants me to buy that item. So call me into the into the living room to look at the TV to show this item that she wants is being advertised and it can be really frustrating. Mommy can you buy me this movie. OK. OK we've got to start making the streets of the store as a single parent. Tanya knows what it's like to struggle financially. Not long ago she sought out the advice of consumer credit counselors herself. A lot of the debt came from me wanting to buy things for my children. I've started learning to say no to certain things. Each month. Tanya and her daughters go over the family bills together. I don't want them to grow up and end up with a lot of debt like I'm trying to get help right now. What is it. All are OK on the dollar bill. Consumer credit counselors say even preschoolers aren't too young to learn to save instead of span yeah come back and ask us what are you teaching my little boy or little girl because my little boy or little girl's

not telling me that I have to save my money. And they'll ask me like is that really something that we need. What you do is you get your money and you put it inside the piggy bank. You have more things that you need in your house. Sometimes I'm invited to speak in classrooms like when I do it gives me a new sense of optimism. School children often admit to having more than they need. Consuming less sharing more with those less fortunate throughout the world protecting them. Those things just make sense to them. After all it's they are future. There are many ways to simplify and none of the stories in this program are meant to be a model for everyone but whether you want to save the environment or simply save money and whether you take small steps or giant strides I think you'll find that escaping

from affluenza will leave you feeling more fulfilled. It might also leave the world in better shape for generations to come. Thanks for watching. I'm want to err Bansko to obtain a video cassette of this program for public or home viewing. Please contact bullfrog films for more information about the issues presented in this program. Please check out our website at PBS dot org slash affluenza. Funding for escape from affluenza was provided by the Corporation for

Public Broadcasting. The summit charitable foundation the Merck Family Fund and the Pew Charitable Trusts.