I you don’t read the whole book, you have to read the Preface and the Introduction. (I usually skip over those in a book) The Intro really “hits the nail on the head” and gives a lot to think about and discuss.

I definitely find this a problem for me in my neighborhood. I drive a very old minivan while the neighbor’s have Lexuses, etc. My kids are already asking me why we are the only ones in our neighborhood that don’t have a beach house. They even asked “are we poor?” (They are 10, 8, and 4 years old.)

I feel like I can deal with not keeping up with the Joneses, but I’m not sure about my kids. I guess mostly it’s that I feel guilty that my kid’s are suffering (okay, not suffering really) because of my decisions, and really because of my past financial mistakes. We are working feverishly to pay off a large debt, currently at $38,000. And I can’t help but think that my kid’s could have more if I hadn’t wasted my money on stupid purchases in the past!

These people often have a way of making those who don’t live their lifestyle feel uncomfortable. Mention WalMart to these people and observe the changes in facial expression/body language. These people are not happy or wealthy.

There is a lot of pressure in general to buy. The media tries to make us believe that we need things we could live without. Parents start thinking they aren’t good parents if they don’t take their kids to Mc D’s or use tide, clorox, etc. We begin to lose our identities.

There is also a lot of pressure to buy. I can’t call a single utility company without getting a sales pitch. The phone co. used to offer phone service. Now they offer internet, satelite tv, all kinds of add-ons. They don’t care if a consumer can’t afford something, they try to push them until they break down and spend more money. Then they wonder why people don’t pay their bills. A lot of it has to do with greed. All they care about is making their wallets fatter so they can fund their lavish lifestyles.

Another good book along the lines of this one is “Green With Envy”; that too was a real eye-opener for me personally.

@kim – My wife and I are consciously striving for simplicity, but she sometimes has trouble with the “I’m making good money and should be able to splurge” mentality, too. I’ve tried several explanations, but the evidence of past credit card freedoms doesn’t seem to sink in. Any recommendations for making this point stick?

As far as the book goes, I’d like to check it out. We live a simple/frugal life, at this point borne out of necessity rather than choice. I feel strongly about the rampant consumerism that seems to motivate the purchases of most of the people I know. However, I have often wondered if my strong feeling is disgust or jealousy (or a little bit of both – along the lines of “I’d like to have the option of frugality, as opposed to necessary frugality”). I guess we’ll see when my husband is out of school :P

Brad

Because she’s an academic, your saying this book is at a higher level actually makes it more likely that I’d consider reading it. Sadly, a lot of people who can write beautifully when it comes to more academic work really fall down when it comes to popularization.

(Example: Lakoff’s Moral Politics–provocative, persuasive–was turned into Don’t Think Of An Elephant–completely nasty f*@k-up, really ticked me off even though I have mostly-liberal politics in American terms. I haven’t read Nickel and Dimed, but Ehrenreich might be another example–for me, the book she wrote w/ Deirdre English really finally made sense of a lot of weirdness in our culture surrounding things like homeopathy and welfare.)

I’d never looked at it that way! Interesting…

My copy of this book is now in the pile of stuff ready to go to Goodwill.

If you want to read this book try to get it from the library or buy it used.