Escape From Consumer Culture
(overlapping
with & drawing upon Schor, The Overspent
American)
A. Downshifters
1. NOT
dropping out of society
2. NOT
moving into communes
3. NOT
ideologically motivated
a.
Demographics (of Schor’s sample):
1. 48% male, 52%
female
2. most have
at least some college
a. 69% (25% b.a.; 14% grad; 30% “some college”
3. 85% white
4. 53%
childless
5. 54%
married
B. She contrasts downshifters with simple livers (aka
the voluntary simplicity movement)
1.
Virtually identical demographically
2. Take downshifting a step further
a. d.s’ers trade off time against money (more of the former in
exchange for less of the latter)
b. Simple
livers transcend that trade-off; they have had a values transformation
c. “Decoupled” spending and self-worth
d. Reject the symbolic meanings of
commodities
e. See the consumer culture as the
embodiment of bad values
3. THEY
LIVE DIFFERENTLY, DON’T JUST SPEND LESS
B. The “Diderot
Effect”
1. Upgrade
one thing, wind up upgrading everything else to bring
all into conformity
2. E.g.
new home à new furniture (new jacket à new pants (etc.)
C. Nine principles to get off the
consumer escalator (See Schor, pp. 146-167)
(Remedies to the problems: too little
saving, a harried lifestyle, a deteriorating environment, the growth of
competitive spending, lack of consumer control)
1. Controlling Desire
2: Creating New Consumer Symbolism: Making
Exclusivity Uncool
3: Controlling Ourselves: Voluntary Restraints
on Competitive Buying
4: Learning to Share: Both a Borrower and a
Lender Be
5: Deconstruct the Commercial System:
Become an Educated Consumer
6: Avoid “Retail Therapy”
7: Decommercialize the Rituals
8: Making Time: Is Work and Spend Working?
9: The Need for a Coordinated Intervention
