I finished reading The Waste Makers by Vance Packard and wanted to recommend it again.  It was written in 1960 but many of thoughts are very relevant today.

Sound familiar?:

Still, as the sixities have begun with something less than jet-powered take-off, most American citizens are not particularly apprehensive that they would fall into really serious trouble because of thier debts.  They feel that the federal government - whether Democrat or Republican - is emotionally committed to make it safe for them to continue spending.  And it has become increasingly probable that if a notable lag in consumption does develop the federal government will be under massive pressure to manipulate interest rates in such a way that saving will be discouraged and spending encouraged.

He writes in another chapter, something that I continue to worry about and feel that Packard would be even more dismayed about if he was still alive:

A final price that must be considered in assessing the implications of the current drift of American society under the impact of an economy based on ever-mounting consumption is the change it may be producing in the character of the people involved… It is unrealistic to assume that all such pressures are not producing changes at a deeper level than mere spending habits.  For example, a person who finds himself induced to spend beyond his income habitually does not wish to feel guilty about his excesses and welcomes a system of morality that condones such habilts.  Much of the average American’s consumption has been channeled into frivolous or playful or whimsical outlets, which also requires rationalizing… These new pressures are causing ever more people to find thier main life satisfactions in their consumption role rather than their productive role.  And these pressures are bring forward such traits as pleasure-mindedness, self-indulgence, materialism, and passivity as conspicuous elements of the American character.

I could quote on and on but will spare you most of that and say that this is a book worth reading.  It’s not all gloom and doom, Packard does offer some suggestions for hope and change.  He also talks about a movement of the citizens towards change and to me that is obviously the voluntary simplicity movement.  I understand that it’s almost trendy right now to say you believe in simple living; however, I’ve met enough folks in real life and even more online to know that there are good people out there fighting this culture of commercialism and over-consumerism that threatens to ruin so many.

I’ll close this entry with one last quote from The Waste Makers:

The central challenge seems to be this: Americans must learn to live with their abundance without being forced to impoverish their spirit by being damned fools about it.