Life After the Economic Collapse: How Having Less Will Make Us Happier

[marmar]

via AlterNet:



Life After the Economic Collapse: How Having Less Will Make Us Happier

By Sarah van Gelder and Doug Pibel, YES! Magazine. Posted December 11, 2008.

Having big cars, fancy TVs and trendy clothes never made us happy. It only drove us into debt -- and increased our dependence on long work hours.



“The pursuit of happiness.” It’s so American that it’s in our Declaration of Independence, where it’s listed alongside life and liberty as an inalienable right.

But how successful have we been in that pursuit? And now that the global finance system is imploding, how likely is it that we’ll be happy in the coming months and years?

Can’t Buy Love

Since roughly the 1970s, Americans have been buying things madly, whether we could afford them or not. We were promised that a bigger car, a more trendy purse, or a flat-screen television would bring us happiness, and we’ve been acting accordingly. We were promised that an ever-growing economy would make us all rich. But while our gross domestic product increased more or less steadily from the 1970s until the onset of the current financial crisis, most of us did not see a rise in our standard of living or our wellbeing. Wages stagnated, while the costs of basic needs -- like homes, medical care, food, and energy -- climbed rapidly. Those in the top 20 percent increased their net worth by 80 percent over the last 25 years, while the bottom 40 percent actually lost ground.

Few families today can make it on a single wage-earner’s income, and a health problem or a job loss can send a middle-class family into poverty or even homelessness.

Yet we continue to buy the products that are supposed to make us happy, driving many of us deeply into debt. Families are carrying an average credit card debt of $5,100, with interest rates that often make payoff nearly impossible. In recent years, home equity reached record lows as people borrowed against the value of their homes. In 2004, the most recent year for which Federal Reserve figures are available, debt secured by real property exceeded $290,000 per household, almost three times what it was only 15 years before. .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/story/111802/life_after_the_economic_collapse%3A_how_having_less_will_make_us_happier/

[ixion]

1. in a nutshell: the things you own, own you.

[Zenlitened]

4. That's a great way to put it.

:thumbsup:

I've found that paring down possessions -- getting rid of some of the "stuff" and "things" that clutter up our lives -- doesn't lead to a sense of deprivation at all. It's actually very liberating.

[rucky]

2. This is a very important point.

and what we should be focused on.

[BeFree]

3. Life, Liberty and...

...the Pursuit of Credit.

The United States of Credit. One nation, in debt, with unlimited credit for all.

For all, except for those who have no credit. You know, those types who live within their means. They used to be known as free men and women, but now they're just the poor, while the borrowers be rich, rich, rich, beyond their wildest dreams! The American dreamers.

Wake up people!

[SheilaT]

5. Many years ago,

it was probably in the late 70's, the Washington Post profiling about thirty people or so who stated their incomes and how they lived. And what struck me the most was that the ones with the most money who did things like took weekends off to scuba dive in the Bahamas seemed far more dissatisfied than the ones who made enough to pay rent, buy clothes and food, and spent quality time with their kids.

There is a certain minimum we need to have a roof over our head and food on the table, but over the last few decades things that are surely optional extras have become "necessities" and we're not necessarily better off because of that.

[raccoon]

6. Glad you said that, "There is a certain minimum we need to have a roof over our head and food on the

table." And, I would add, being able to afford health care, including dental and vision care.

[mondo joe]

7. Very uncool. The economic crisis isn't that people have to buy less. People are losing jobs.

People are unable to afford the cost of their healthcare. People are losing their homes.

This sounds like some smug puritan's schadenfreude that at least people won't be buying *things*.

[dysfunctional press]

8. i don't know...my 60" plasma made me VERY happy when it came.

and 8 months later- it still puts a smile on my face.
so does the hot tub.
and the tempurpedic mattress with fleece sheets is like sleeping in a dream...