Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic [Paperback]

Contrary to some of the reviews, I didn't find the book to be preachy or pedantic; actually, it was the book's common sense approach to the suffocating realities of our consumer society that made it so easy, in the months that followed finishing the book, to start spending sensibly, when at all. Armed with a new skepticism as to whether happiness was just one more swipe of the credit card away, I was able to put items back, turn deals down, and walk away with my money still in my pocket -- never once regretting the decision NOT to buy, in marked contrast to the many times I felt a hollow dread after dragging home another piece of crap to take its place atop the heap of crap bought before it (just like the book's cover).

If you're a person for whom happiness is carrying a plethora of brightly-colored shopping bags to your car on a Saturday afternoon, this may not be the book for you. If, however, you've noticed that you're drowning in stuff but no closer to the shore of contentment, this book can inject a little sanity into our otherwise credit-crazy world. I'm not promising it will get you out of credit card debt -- but it just might attack your drive to spend at its roots and give you a little more breathing room -- which, for less than $13, is a bargain you just can't pass up, don't you think?

The second portion of the book is a very brief discussion on causes of affluenza and how it grew in the roaring 20s, the prosperous 50s and became an epidemic under Reagan and then supported by formerly green democrats like Gore. This was helpful for me, but they could have gone into greater depth on the psychology of affluenza and for me income inequality deserved greater emphasis. A major blindspot was ignoring how the art of black Americans, a major barometer of the underclass, has gone from the church and socially critical messages of What's Going On to the consumption driven music of Jay Z, Puffy and much of current rap music.

The last portion of the book quickly goes through cures for affluenza and while I found some of the suggestions beneficial on a personal level, the proposed cures seemed utopian and heavily biased towards Seattle quasi Utopian communities. I was left very unclear how an urban community in Washington, DC would apply some of the philosophies of this book on a local level.

The tone of the authors is a mixed blessing. On the one hand, they right in readable prose and they intersperse the text with political cartoons for emphasis of points. I showed these to my grandmother and she found these hilarious. On the other hand, they often use a sledgehammer to drive home a point where a soft point will do. They will assume some of their conclusions at timew without fully backing them up.

Here's an example [p153] "Remember how the communists were going to destroy the businesses in our town. They didn't, but dot communists might (led by DotComGuy, dot communism's answer to Che Gurevara). Consider your local bookstore. Can it fend off an Amazon? Where is Joe McCarthy now that we really need him? Where is the John Birch Society now that we need it?"

Okay, I get your point we need more local business. But is this the best target and is this the best tone to promote dialogue? Ultimately if you want to get things done, you have to have a message that will build consensus between those that do not share your view. I can deal with attacking big business, but many of the dot coms blasted in this attack here are the same multimillionaires they praise later in the book for being more enlighted philanthropists than many of the past elites.

I find the book's message helpful, but I will look for even more texts that allow me to convince the unconvinced and dig more deeply into this problem.

3.5 stars
good idea could have been better executed