Affluenza: I want to be effluent too!*

I have recently finished reading a book called Affluenza; when too much is never enough, by Clive Hamilton and Richard Denniss. There is another book called Affluenza which I assume is similar, but I haven’t read it, yet (Crunchy Chicken is running a book club discussion on it and a meet the author.) What I enjoyed about this book is that it is Australian. Too often one reads a book from the US and dismisses the problems discussed as a US problem (we’re ok, but the naughty Americans on the other hand….). However this book makes it abundantly clear that Australians are just as bad as Americans when it comes to consumption patterns. If we are not as bad as Americans in some areas of spending/consumption I think it is only a matter of time. Australians seem to see every mistake larger countries (population wise) make as a challenge to be the same. Instead of looking at the mess the US economy is in, we are striving to ensure our economy is in a similar mess.

Affluenza is defined as ‘the bloated, sluggish and unfulfilled feeling that results from efforts to keep up with the joneses. An epidemic of stress, overwork, waste and indebtedness caused by dogged pursuit of the Australian dream. An unsustainable addiction to economic growth’.

The premise is simple: we spend too much money, and often money we don’t have, on things we don’t need, in order to make us happier, which doesn’t work. Being in debt for luxury items is not a recipe for happiness. Our definition of luxury has changed. What was a luxury a few years ago, is now commonplace, we aren’t just upsizing our fries at McDonalds – we are upsizing our fridges, flat screen TVs and houses. We are building bigger and bigger houses, to hold all the stuff we ‘need’ in order to be happy…..and working ourselves into an early grave in the process. We spend way too much time watching advertisements on our large TVs telling about all the other stuff we ‘need’. People make livings inventing new things we just have to have. And all the while lots of people, in our country and elsewhere, live in dire poverty.

An Aussie BBQ:

One example they use in the book is the good old Aussie BBQ. Used to be when I was a kid a BBQ was made by dad out of bricks and a metal plate that he found in the back of the shed. If it was fancy it had a ledge to put your beer, and perhaps a place to store firewood. Really posh rich people had a gas BBQ. Then everyone got a gas BBQ…and when you go to the shop to update it you find out that a top of the range BBQ/outdoor kitchen can cost up to $7000. So buying the ‘best you can afford’ suddenly is a daunting prospect, and spending $1500 on a ‘midrange’ BBQ doesn’t seem so bad. Except you are paying $1500 for something that used to cost nothing…and in backyards across the land men are now suffering BBQ envy too….

The three R’s: recycle, re-use, reduce.

The mantra everyone is familiar with is recycle, re-use, reduce. People are getting better at recycling and reusing, but the reducing message doesn’t seem to be sinking in.

I’m not suggesting we all drop out, stop spending entirely, and live on homemade tofu. If you could see my stash (my dirty little secret), or our book shelves, you would know that ‘practising what I preach’ isn’t my forte.

But we all have to start somewhere. Just today I have left three bags of toys and two of kid’s books on the doorstep for a free-cycler to collect. I am actually pretty good with spending/clutter in most areas of our lives. The above mentioned are the sticking points. There are another two large bookshelves with kid’s books not shown, plus a chest full of fabric. But you get the idea. I have decided I have enough stuff – instead of rushing to the shop each time I ‘need’ a piece of fabric/beads/threads (and come home with three times more stuff than I went in for), or going to the craft fair with $300 in cash (just in case) and spending it all plus more – I am going to do what I do with other purchases: Stop. Think. Wait. And often I discover I don’t really need the stuff after all. Or I use what I have and end up with a violet eggplant! I will continue to buy books and craft stuff because I enjoy it and it gives me a lot of pleasure, however I buy it with the knowledge that they are a luxury, and I curb my spending elsewhere in order to do so. The problem isn’t buying craft supplies and books – it is buying more than you’ll ever use, buying it just for the ‘fun’ of buying it (another thing I’m guilty of) and buying it as well as a lot of other unnecessary stuff.

Some more challenges:

A number of blogs I read are doing challenges at the moment: Crunchy Chicken is conducting the Buy Nothing Challenge; Chile is cutting the crap, goinggreen is giving stuff away. They all tie in nicely: Don’t buy anything new except for necessities (beads and threads are not necessities); de-clutter the stuff you already own, and give stuff away to someone who needs it/appreciates it. I haven’t officially joined the challenges, but I’m playing along anyway! Lucky I bought all that DMC the other day, and I’ve decided backing and wadding for an almost completed quilt does not counted as a necessity in the ‘buy nothing challenge’ .

*This is a reference to Kath and Kim, a silly Australian TV show I don’t watch.