FUCK THE JONSES

Last month while browsing through a used bookstore, I came across a bit of non-fiction titled Affluenza: The All Consuming Epidemic. It beautifully captures the economic, environmental, cultural, & spiritual consequences of our over-consumptive modern lifestyles. According to the co-authors (DeGraaf, Wann, and Naylor), people in North America buy more than they need out of fear. Fear that they will not appear successful or happy to the people around them. After all, acquiring material goods, that is the fastest road to happiness, right?

Not only is the book totally comprehensive, it's also packed with some really stunning quantitative information. For example, did you know:

* We spend more on shoes, jewelry, and watches ($80 billion) than higher education ($65 billion)

* Americans now spend six hours a week shopping and only forty minutes playing with our kids

* The average American household carried $7,564 in credit card debt during the year 2000

* The average 12 year old American spends 48 hrs a week exposed to commercial messages

* The same child spends only 1.4 hrs a week in significant conversation with his/her parents

* In 1998, the average total compensation for CEOs of the 365 largest American companies increased by a whopping 36% to $10.6 million each. Blue collar workers got a 2.7% raise.

* Bill Gates held assets worth about $90 billion, nearly as much as the bottom half of the American population (and greater than the GNP of 119 of the world’s 156 nations).

* Average total CEO compensation has increased by 443% since 1990, when the poor fellows averaged only $2 million a year. They now earn more than 400 times what their average workers make, up from forty times as much in 1980. By contrast, Japanese and German CEOs earned only about 20 times as much as average workers.

* American workers are now toiling 160 hours (one full month) more on average, than they did in 1969. According to the International Labor Organization, in October of 1999 the United States passed Japan as the modern industrial country with the longest working hours.