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The Overspent American: Why We Want What We Don't Need
The Overspent American explores why so many of us feel materially dissatisfied, why we work staggeringly long hours and yet walk around with ever-present mental "wish lists" of things to buy or get, and why Americans save less than virtually anyone in the world. Unlike many experts, Harvard economist Juliet B. Schor does not blame consumers' lack of self-discipline. Nor does she blame advertisers. Instead she analyzes the crisis of the American consumer in a culture where spending has become the ultimate social art.
253 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1992
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5426 people want to read
About the author
Juliet B. Schor
34 books168 followersJuliet Schor’s research over the last ten years has focussed on issues pertaining to trends in work and leisure, consumerism, the relationship between work and family, women's issues and economic justice. Schor's latest book is Born to Buy: The Commercialized Child and the New Consumer Culture (Scribner 2004). She is also author of The Overworked American: The Unexpected Decline of Leisure and The Overspent American: Upscaling, Downshifting and the New Consumer. She has co-edited, The Golden Age of Capitalism: Reinterpreting the Postwar Experience, The Consumer Society Reader, and Sustainable Planet: Solutions for the 21st Century. Earlier in her career, her research focussed on issues of wages, productivity, and profitability. She also did work on the political economy of central banking. Schor is currently is at work on a project on the commercialization of childhood, and is beginning research on environmental sustainability and its relation to Americans’ lifestyles.
Schor is a board member and co-founder of the Center for a New American Dream, an organization devoted to transforming North American lifestyles to make them more ecologically and socially sustainable. She also teaches periodically at Schumacher College, an International Center for Ecological Studies based in south-west England.
from http://www2.bc.edu/~schorj/default.html
Schor is a board member and co-founder of the Center for a New American Dream, an organization devoted to transforming North American lifestyles to make them more ecologically and socially sustainable. She also teaches periodically at Schumacher College, an International Center for Ecological Studies based in south-west England.
from http://www2.bc.edu/~schorj/default.html
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 176 reviews
December 31, 2008
I don't even know where to start on reviewing this book other than to say that every once in awhile I read a book that can completely shake me to the core. I haven't lost this much sleep since my youngest was an infant. I am up at 2 a.m. wondering, "Am I trying to keep up with the Joneses? (my sister incidentally.) Or am I fitting in okay with my reference group, and do I care? If I do care, why? Did I buy designer jeans because of status or just because they feel and look good? Do I think they look good due to branding? Am I not as bad because I bought most of them used on ebay? The thing that plagued me most was what if I do make a purchase purely with the motivation to impress my reference group, if I am making those choices how can I live with myself?" I truly was left wondering if I am a despicable person? Quite an enigma to give this five stars, right? It's not all bad news. This book made me take a really close look at what motivates me to consume, and now I can't imagine making a purchase without thinking, "Why do I need this? What purpose does it serve? And will it end up becoming more junk taking up space?" So, I think this book is wonderful! I love examining these questions. I think this guilt can only help me become a less despicable person. ( :
My favorite thing about this book was that minus the research, I have had conversations almost verbatim, or have thought about almost all of what the author discussed in the book. I found another kindred spirit in this author. She talks a lot about the work and spent cycle. And how we never seem to have enough. Our income goes up and so does our spending. One of my favorite studies the author did was about cosmetics. She found that women were okay with buying the drug store brand moisturizers and even eye shadow, but women tended to buy high end lipstick because they might put it on in public. The author ends up saying, "I found myself unable to buy designer-brand cosmetics, not only because I knew I was wasting my money but also because it made me feel foolish." That pretty much sums up how I felt throughout the book. Big advertising dollars are spent so that we all rush out and buy the next big, "must-have" items. I don't want to be lumped into the group of "foolish American's," that are falling for all that.
Where does all this leave me? What's a girl to do? The author interviews several people who have, "Downshifted." Those who by choice or life circumstances have walked away from the work spend cycle, and have learned to live on a lot less. Part of me finds it exciting and freeing to just be able to shout out, "I'm done, I'm out," and go and find a drug-free hippy commune. But, this is not very realistic for a mother of three young children. (The author says she rarely found people with young children living simply because of financial realities.) Another part of me kids or not does not want to live simply. I don't think I'll ever want to make my clothes and I like my blow dryer. But, I think there is a happy medium and this book is helping me find that spot and helped me and hopefully the rest of America to start asking some important questions about our spending.
My only wish like many other reviewers is that we could get some more current information about where we are at as a Nation on these consumer issues. The copy I read was published in 1998. In many ways I think our spending has gotten more out of control. Although, with the recent economic crisis I think we are forced to address these questions more than ever.
My favorite thing about this book was that minus the research, I have had conversations almost verbatim, or have thought about almost all of what the author discussed in the book. I found another kindred spirit in this author. She talks a lot about the work and spent cycle. And how we never seem to have enough. Our income goes up and so does our spending. One of my favorite studies the author did was about cosmetics. She found that women were okay with buying the drug store brand moisturizers and even eye shadow, but women tended to buy high end lipstick because they might put it on in public. The author ends up saying, "I found myself unable to buy designer-brand cosmetics, not only because I knew I was wasting my money but also because it made me feel foolish." That pretty much sums up how I felt throughout the book. Big advertising dollars are spent so that we all rush out and buy the next big, "must-have" items. I don't want to be lumped into the group of "foolish American's," that are falling for all that.
Where does all this leave me? What's a girl to do? The author interviews several people who have, "Downshifted." Those who by choice or life circumstances have walked away from the work spend cycle, and have learned to live on a lot less. Part of me finds it exciting and freeing to just be able to shout out, "I'm done, I'm out," and go and find a drug-free hippy commune. But, this is not very realistic for a mother of three young children. (The author says she rarely found people with young children living simply because of financial realities.) Another part of me kids or not does not want to live simply. I don't think I'll ever want to make my clothes and I like my blow dryer. But, I think there is a happy medium and this book is helping me find that spot and helped me and hopefully the rest of America to start asking some important questions about our spending.
My only wish like many other reviewers is that we could get some more current information about where we are at as a Nation on these consumer issues. The copy I read was published in 1998. In many ways I think our spending has gotten more out of control. Although, with the recent economic crisis I think we are forced to address these questions more than ever.
February 6, 2010
This book inspired me to be that slacker that I am.
July 16, 2013
As others have mentioned, this book feels dated because it was written in the late 1990s. Fortunately, the author has published similarly themed books more recently. Reading this book now just makes it seem like more of a harbinger. It also has me wondering what carrots employers will dangle to get us to work long hours when we're no longer dependent on them for health care in the very near future.
This book is important because it drives the point home about how much has been taken from us in the buying of our time; how much time corporate thieves have stolen; and how much of our own suffering we permit.
Schor describes, in depth, how the absence of a culture of consumption results in an understandable lack of compulsion to work. It was interesting to learn about studies in non-consumer oriented cultures in which people simply would not work more no matter what they were offered: they prefer to have their time and don't see stuff as a trade-off for time.
I loved the story on page 49, of workers antagonizing clocks controlled by the employer. Geez, if I think I'm resentful of long hours I've worked, imagine being a person who has never had a clock, whose day was organized by sun and moon, and then some slave-driving employer installs a clock in town and is counting their time! Schor also describes (and it's fascinating) how employers used the weapon of time against employees, encroaching on customary periods for eating and resting and the loss of nearly all holidays. For this we can blame the Puritans, unsurprisingly.
The book contains numerous surprises. First, though I'm already a strong proponent of home schooling (possibly because I have no children to actually homeschool), I was surprised at the documented history of the elementary school as factory on page 61. Sure, elementary schools seem like factories to me, but I doubt most people know the extent to which they were intended as such.
Later, I was horrified to learn (on page 66) that many people who have especially long hours find themselves unable to cope with leisure time. It is a distressing section of the book if you have a shred of empathy in you. And, finally, an equally great surprise from history came on page 74: I had no idea our workaholic nation was once so close to the 30-hour week. It pained me to read about it. People don't really want to work long hours. They want to be able to survive, and -- as we see today -- extra hours (which are worked for free if you're salaried) by one or two people amount to a job that someone else is not hired to do. Long hours keep unemployment high.
The quotation from economist Michael Kalecki on page 75 is well worth remembering: "Under a regime of permanent full employment, "the sack" would cease to play its role as a disciplinary measure. The social position of the boss would be undermined and the self assurance and class consciousness of the working class would grow... Business leaders' class instinct tells them that lasting full employment is unsound from their point of view and that unemployment is an integral part of the normal capitalist system." No truer words.
But Schor is not naive. Along with abundant evidence of how possible it is for us to work less, she acknowledges the culture and structures we've built up that prevent this from happening. On page 128 she describes how hard working less can be to implement; how men want shorter hours but the jobs are full time. In Feb. I felt I had to become self-employed to control my time, taking a very hard line. Page 133 aptly describes my experiences with the social side of working less: in short, you basically need to be counter cultural to live this way, and defend it to others far more than you may have anticipated.
This book is important because it drives the point home about how much has been taken from us in the buying of our time; how much time corporate thieves have stolen; and how much of our own suffering we permit.
Schor describes, in depth, how the absence of a culture of consumption results in an understandable lack of compulsion to work. It was interesting to learn about studies in non-consumer oriented cultures in which people simply would not work more no matter what they were offered: they prefer to have their time and don't see stuff as a trade-off for time.
I loved the story on page 49, of workers antagonizing clocks controlled by the employer. Geez, if I think I'm resentful of long hours I've worked, imagine being a person who has never had a clock, whose day was organized by sun and moon, and then some slave-driving employer installs a clock in town and is counting their time! Schor also describes (and it's fascinating) how employers used the weapon of time against employees, encroaching on customary periods for eating and resting and the loss of nearly all holidays. For this we can blame the Puritans, unsurprisingly.
The book contains numerous surprises. First, though I'm already a strong proponent of home schooling (possibly because I have no children to actually homeschool), I was surprised at the documented history of the elementary school as factory on page 61. Sure, elementary schools seem like factories to me, but I doubt most people know the extent to which they were intended as such.
Later, I was horrified to learn (on page 66) that many people who have especially long hours find themselves unable to cope with leisure time. It is a distressing section of the book if you have a shred of empathy in you. And, finally, an equally great surprise from history came on page 74: I had no idea our workaholic nation was once so close to the 30-hour week. It pained me to read about it. People don't really want to work long hours. They want to be able to survive, and -- as we see today -- extra hours (which are worked for free if you're salaried) by one or two people amount to a job that someone else is not hired to do. Long hours keep unemployment high.
The quotation from economist Michael Kalecki on page 75 is well worth remembering: "Under a regime of permanent full employment, "the sack" would cease to play its role as a disciplinary measure. The social position of the boss would be undermined and the self assurance and class consciousness of the working class would grow... Business leaders' class instinct tells them that lasting full employment is unsound from their point of view and that unemployment is an integral part of the normal capitalist system." No truer words.
But Schor is not naive. Along with abundant evidence of how possible it is for us to work less, she acknowledges the culture and structures we've built up that prevent this from happening. On page 128 she describes how hard working less can be to implement; how men want shorter hours but the jobs are full time. In Feb. I felt I had to become self-employed to control my time, taking a very hard line. Page 133 aptly describes my experiences with the social side of working less: in short, you basically need to be counter cultural to live this way, and defend it to others far more than you may have anticipated.
July 14, 2008
As good as this book is, it’s outdated. The most recent research is about 1998, and a lot has changed in 10 years. It’s a shame that things haven’t been updated, since I think as time goes on the information has only become more relevant.
If it’s good enough to keep in print, why isn’t it good enough to update?
If it’s good enough to keep in print, why isn’t it good enough to update?
January 16, 2008
1. Our society's constant desire to upgrade everything (cars, homes, furnishings, clothes, etc.) is a relatively new trend.
2. Studies show that we have more than ever, but we aren't any happier than earlier generations.
3. True or false? On average, for every hour people watch tv per week, their annual savings decrease by more than $200.
2. Studies show that we have more than ever, but we aren't any happier than earlier generations.
3. True or false? On average, for every hour people watch tv per week, their annual savings decrease by more than $200.
Want to read
December 30, 2008Do you know what I always seem to buy too much of? Bananas. I am always tossing brown bananas in the trash. But I never slow down my banana purchasing. I think it's because I feel lame buying just one or two bananas. I feel like you need to buy a whole bundle to justify the purchase. I am also afraid I might REALLY want a banana, and there won't be any in my fruit bowl.
November 5, 2009
i really cannot say enough good things about this book. it's well-written, well-researched and incredibly interesting. the most shocking thing to me is that the content is so relevant to today and yet it was written in 1998.
also, it was good timing for me since we just rented 'what would jesus buy,' directed by morgan spurlock, and that film discusses something a little similar in terms of people's shopping habits at christmas - how the spending has spiraled out of control and how americans go into debt purchasing gifts.
my favorite ideas and takeaways from the book include the following:
--schools incorporating classes and lessons on how to spend and save money, including examining advertising to deconstruct messages and what they mean
--government and community initiated lending libraries: not just for books! this could include lawn tools, other tools, puzzles, games, so many ideas that would work better on a shared level
--we place $$ limits on work gift exchanges, but why don't we do the same for family gift exchanges, kids' birthday parties, birthday presents, etc?
--we shouldn't all subscribe to the thought that just because we're not paying full price on an item, it means we're saving in some way
--how can we decommercialize our rituals to make them more about the moment and less about the stuff? weddings become about the registries, christmas about the gift exchange and halloween and others about specific decorations and things to purchase
beyond these overall ideas, the book does so much to chronicle how much money is actually saved and how much people are in debt. it's a sad story and i think a cautionary tale that we should all pay attention to so that we don't end up consuming more, but essentially gaining less emotional satisfaction.
also, it was good timing for me since we just rented 'what would jesus buy,' directed by morgan spurlock, and that film discusses something a little similar in terms of people's shopping habits at christmas - how the spending has spiraled out of control and how americans go into debt purchasing gifts.
my favorite ideas and takeaways from the book include the following:
--schools incorporating classes and lessons on how to spend and save money, including examining advertising to deconstruct messages and what they mean
--government and community initiated lending libraries: not just for books! this could include lawn tools, other tools, puzzles, games, so many ideas that would work better on a shared level
--we place $$ limits on work gift exchanges, but why don't we do the same for family gift exchanges, kids' birthday parties, birthday presents, etc?
--we shouldn't all subscribe to the thought that just because we're not paying full price on an item, it means we're saving in some way
--how can we decommercialize our rituals to make them more about the moment and less about the stuff? weddings become about the registries, christmas about the gift exchange and halloween and others about specific decorations and things to purchase
beyond these overall ideas, the book does so much to chronicle how much money is actually saved and how much people are in debt. it's a sad story and i think a cautionary tale that we should all pay attention to so that we don't end up consuming more, but essentially gaining less emotional satisfaction.
August 1, 2007
One of the better books about consumption / work / materialism / money / self-worth. It's interesting how a book like this can go right hand in hand with a book about investing and financial independence.
Would like to go back and re-read this one soon.
Would like to go back and re-read this one soon.
July 3, 2007
I re-read this book whenever I feel like spending a huge amount of money on things I don't really need. Its an excellent snapshot of lower middle class spending since the 1970's and into the 80's. If you want to read this book, pick up the updated version published in 1998 - this one is too outdated to be helpful much longer. This book reminds me of the power of advertising and envy.
August 9, 2022
The Overworked American is an incredible work of academic inspection that is totally relatable to the general public, and which touches on topics and issues that most of us - if not all of us - can identify with.
At the risk of vastly oversimplifying this book, Schor argues these things:
- Americans work more than they need to.
- Americans work more than they want to.
- Americans aren't getting more leisure time as time passes, but in fact are receiving less.
- Business elites are to blame for this^ contradiction.
- Business elites, themselves - in a perfectly Marxist example - are victims of this contradiction too^^
- If we start focusing more on giving people the free time they want, instead of the higher salaries they receive, we could start fixing these issues.
This is one of the very few books that I wholeheartedly recommend to everyone I know who are even the tiniest bit interested in labor, economics, or the American reality.
An elementary exercise in arithmetic that I always mention which I learned from this book is that if - instead of pay increases - we had compensated workers with free time as they became more productive on the job starting in 1947... We'd all be able to make a full 1947 salary and receive a 6 month paid vacation EVERY YEAR! We could all put in 20 years on the job - just about any job - and retire with full pension! This wouldn't bankrupt ANYONE. It wouldn't even be hard to do! Of course, now that we have the money, we don't want to give it up, because (just like how we all would rather have had paid vacation than extra pay, but we were never offered that chance) nobody wants to trade money they already make for free time in the future.
Sigh. I haven't read this book in years, but I remember it being inspirational and a half. I fully recommend to all you potential readers.
As for Schor's politics... I read charges of undue feminism in one of these reviews, but that's ridiculous. She suggests remedies for equal pay and equal choice of work opportunities between genders.
Is she leftist? Maybe. She's a labor economist, so that should be a sign that she focuses on people instead of capital. And her ideas for remedy all depend on government. But - a common question - since we've identified a problem, identified that a hands-off approach has steadily exacerbated the problem, and there is an organization empowered with the authority to specifically fix this problem (government)... "What else would you suggest?"
Entertainment: 1 Star
Education: 1 Star
Thesis: 1 Star
Readability: 1 Star
Inspiration: 1 Star
At the risk of vastly oversimplifying this book, Schor argues these things:
- Americans work more than they need to.
- Americans work more than they want to.
- Americans aren't getting more leisure time as time passes, but in fact are receiving less.
- Business elites are to blame for this^ contradiction.
- Business elites, themselves - in a perfectly Marxist example - are victims of this contradiction too^^
- If we start focusing more on giving people the free time they want, instead of the higher salaries they receive, we could start fixing these issues.
This is one of the very few books that I wholeheartedly recommend to everyone I know who are even the tiniest bit interested in labor, economics, or the American reality.
An elementary exercise in arithmetic that I always mention which I learned from this book is that if - instead of pay increases - we had compensated workers with free time as they became more productive on the job starting in 1947... We'd all be able to make a full 1947 salary and receive a 6 month paid vacation EVERY YEAR! We could all put in 20 years on the job - just about any job - and retire with full pension! This wouldn't bankrupt ANYONE. It wouldn't even be hard to do! Of course, now that we have the money, we don't want to give it up, because (just like how we all would rather have had paid vacation than extra pay, but we were never offered that chance) nobody wants to trade money they already make for free time in the future.
Sigh. I haven't read this book in years, but I remember it being inspirational and a half. I fully recommend to all you potential readers.
As for Schor's politics... I read charges of undue feminism in one of these reviews, but that's ridiculous. She suggests remedies for equal pay and equal choice of work opportunities between genders.
Is she leftist? Maybe. She's a labor economist, so that should be a sign that she focuses on people instead of capital. And her ideas for remedy all depend on government. But - a common question - since we've identified a problem, identified that a hands-off approach has steadily exacerbated the problem, and there is an organization empowered with the authority to specifically fix this problem (government)... "What else would you suggest?"
Entertainment: 1 Star
Education: 1 Star
Thesis: 1 Star
Readability: 1 Star
Inspiration: 1 Star
May 26, 2009
Great book. She talks a lot about materialism/consumerism, work/family issues, and how to get out of the cycle of "work and spend", from a progressive economist's viewpoint. There's a good history of the work week, dating back to medieval Europe (and beyond that, though with much less precision in her estimates). It's a bit dated (1992), but if the stats on working hours were updated, she could pretty much leave everything else alone and it would still be relevant to today. One of the fine economists who recognizes that markets are often (I would say inherently) faulty and the labor market is almost always skewed in favor of employers and against workers. Could have been better if the beginning of the book was shorter (there's a lot of discussion of stats and estimates of stats and how she arrived at her numbers, other surveys of working hours, etc.), though I understand her need to state her case. The thing that would have given this book five stars for me is if she had gone just a little further and called less for liberal reforms that will most likely only superficially help the situation and more for radical solutions that address the root of the problem (though she does say that it's capitalism, not industry, that is the primary culprit for the rise in working hours and the decline of leisure).
May 8, 2007
Should be required reading. How and why the 8 hour day and 40 hour week are kiling our society and our selves.
March 20, 2012
Meh.
First of all, the edition the library had was published in 1998. It was more than slightly outdated. I think the author genuinely enjoys writing but perhaps a non-fiction book isn't the best place to over use the thesaurus for uncommon words as well as make up words when the thesaurus failed.
The first chapter was a fantastic synopsis of the entire book, rendering the rest of the book to be somewhat redundant. This book seemed to get hung up on the driving force of "keeping up with the Joneses" without really bringing in any other arguments for why we buy, unlike other books that analyze consumerism which mention the Joneses in passing but delve into much more interesting reasons.
My favorite fact from the book was for every hour spent watching t.v. reduces the amount people put into savings by about $208 -which is a 1998 statistic but still!
First of all, the edition the library had was published in 1998. It was more than slightly outdated. I think the author genuinely enjoys writing but perhaps a non-fiction book isn't the best place to over use the thesaurus for uncommon words as well as make up words when the thesaurus failed.
The first chapter was a fantastic synopsis of the entire book, rendering the rest of the book to be somewhat redundant. This book seemed to get hung up on the driving force of "keeping up with the Joneses" without really bringing in any other arguments for why we buy, unlike other books that analyze consumerism which mention the Joneses in passing but delve into much more interesting reasons.
My favorite fact from the book was for every hour spent watching t.v. reduces the amount people put into savings by about $208 -which is a 1998 statistic but still!
July 31, 2015
A ground-breaking study on working America that is well-researched and practical. The author traces the history of work from the Middle Ages to modern day and presents arguments from all sides. I learned interesting facts about work habits and our culture that are highly relevant to life, health and happiness but were never mentioned in any text or lecture during my four years as a business major.
This book is a launching pad into new areas of research in the fields of sociology, psychology and economics.
In addition, the author offers practical suggestions to help spark the debate on the improvement of the quality of life for all Americans.
This book is a launching pad into new areas of research in the fields of sociology, psychology and economics.
In addition, the author offers practical suggestions to help spark the debate on the improvement of the quality of life for all Americans.
May 22, 2023
Alright guys I’m gonna have to be real with y’all. This book is 30 years old. Things have changed in this country since 1992. However! I think this book is still a valuable read today. Girl queen Julie goes into a brief history of labor fighting rising working hours (and losing), the psychology of why humans want more and more, and how the modern overwork and overspend economy is a very invented thing. I know there are probably more up to date titles on this topic, but something about Julie B. Schor just hits so right.
May 30, 2016
A fascinating look at the sociology behind Americans obsession with materialism. It is much more complicated than you may think but pretty fascinating. The book explains why we want what we don't need. You may not even realize that you are being affected by some of these societal pressures. The book also offers some good suggestions for breaking these pressures and getting back to a simple life. Would recommend!
May 5, 2019
Why wasn’t this book assigned reading in my doctoral program? Schor covers economics, labor relations, psychology, and sex and gender. A definite classic.
August 11, 2009
An approachable, mostly statistics-based analysis on American work habits over the past century. Schor demonstrates that Americans work hours, both at home and at the workplace, have increased. Though most households have appliances such as washing machines and microwaves designed to save time, Americans now spend more or the same amount of time on housework as they did before. And generally speaking, most employees will prefer higher pay as compensation rather than more flexible or reduced hours. In addition to making these observations, Schor provides reasonable explanations: higher standards (e.g. cleanliness etc...), labour market competition, corporate incentives and consumption habits.
July 20, 2022
At first glance this seems like pretty dry subject matter. But as a working person, I was shocked at how much I could relate to what this author was talking about. I know, and I'm willing to bet that you know, what it feels like to be burnt out and just done with work. Especially after these recent pandemic years. The daily grind is wearing us all down. The promise of more leisure time - something that analysts actually worried we would have TOO MUCH of today - has not been fulfilled. Schor does a fantastic job of describing what went wrong and what we need to do to make things right. An excellent academic work that translates easily for the common reader as well. My eyes have been opened.
Read
August 18, 2012I thought it was informative and depressing; depressing because most US workers are still obsessed with the outdated "Puritan" work ethic and endless consumption. US workers - especially those who have time, like the unemployed - need to read this book. As our economy continues to be radically reshaped, and we wonder what our future work lives may be, this book presents a compelling argument to reduce our average working hours/days/months and re-invest in our families and communities.
August 13, 2007
From buying stuff we don't need to overextending ourselves on credit, we give Juliet Schor plenty of ammunition for her thesis. Her book has good anecdotes and lively writing, but also is backed by solid research on our spending patterns and the relationship between consumption and happiness (limited, as you might expect)
May 16, 2008
This book discussed the development of our economic system over the past 200 years or so and how it has resulted in our current state of almost constant work and lack of leisure time. Also touches on the "disappearance" of house work as real work.
Read
April 19, 2009fantastic deconstruction of how our American working culture has gotten into it's current mess. it will make you think twice about all the plastic shit your're buying, whether you really need it, and whether you really want to work more to be able to have it.
October 22, 2019
A true eye-opening book about America's problem with consumerism and materialism. Downshifting or spending less, working less and having more time for leisure is better for your wallet, the environment, and your overall wellbeing.
October 15, 2007
interesting. but went it told me to save my time and energy by not blowdrying my hair...she must not have my hair and live in the humidity.
February 12, 2008
Another life-changing book! I thought that I was "above" being manipulated by corporations. But, I learned that I was not. Read it, you will never impulse buy without thinking again.
October 14, 2008
A concerned look at Consumer Culture. This book warned of an impending credit crunch almost exactly 10 years ago.
March 9, 2025
Clear, lucid sociology showing how the personal is political.
personal copy donated 2025
personal copy donated 2025
May 21, 2012
A wonderful book, filled with useful stats, research, and socio-historical examples that show that leisure time in modern America has become increasingly scarce.
November 19, 2013
I wish I had this book 30 years ago.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 176 reviews