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–noun1.a modern movement for the protection of the consumer against useless, inferior, or dangerous products, misleading advertising, unfair pricing, etc.2.the concept that an ever-expanding consumption of goods is advantageous to the economy.3.the fact or practice of an increasing consumption of goods: a critic of American consumerism.

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WhyOvercomingConsumerism?

Imagine yourself dwelling in the following world:You live in a safe pleasant and unpolluted community where youactually know your neighbors and interact with them, be it a smalltown, a suburb or even a city neighborhood. You can easily walk, bicycle or take effective mass transit to your nearby job, giving youtime to think or read as you get there.The work that you do improves our future, benefits your communityand means something to you and those with whom you interact. Youactually look forward to Monday. The longer that you are employedthe more you learn and the more valuable you become to your employer with an increasing level of pay.Your work schedule leaves you sufficient time to enjoy your friends,

family and outside interests. Money isn't a controlling influence inyour life because your needs are easily met. Your possessions arefew, yet of high quality, thus allowing your home to be smaller andless expensive to own or rent.You're connected to your surroundings, rather than just dwelling inthem, your backyard, for example, provides most of the produce youmight need plus a surplus that you can trade with neighbors. Youhave a stake in your community and participate in local decisionmaking at the Town Council, P.T.A. and other grass rootsorganizations.. You buy what is necessary in nearby establishmentswhose owners are known to you and live in your community. If youhave children, they walk to a nearby well-funded neighborhoodschool in safety and then learn authentic social skills as they interactwith a community of honorably employed adults when away fromschool.Occasionally you need to travel to a large store on the edge of town.You do this on a free shuttle bus or perhaps in a simple, older vehicle, the use and costs of which you might share with others or acar that you rent only when you need it, thus preserving for yourself the weeks or months that it takes to earn the thousands of after-taxDollars that owning a new car would take away from you each year.Your interests, the things that you really like to do with your mindand your hands, all the possibilities of your life, are there to beexplored because you have the time.

"But this is America, you say, all this is possible."

Not anymore it's not.There are growing forces making this way of life almost impossibleto attain or maintain, even for the wealthy. If you are among thelucky few who still have the kind of life outlined above, these same

forces threaten you. Whether you live in an isolated small town or prefer your anonymity as well as the multiplicity of things availableto you in a big city, these same forces will are eroding your securityand ability to make choices for yourself.Do you think what's outlined at the beginning of this page can onlyoccur in some mythic long-past small town? Before the hegemony of consumerism and bottom-line economics, you could do all of thesethings anywhere, including our cities. There is no reason that wecannot live like this again if sufficient people work to identify anddisempower the forces that promote and profit from limiting our social and economic horizons.

These forces are manifested in our lives as consumerism: At firstthey were a growing number of pleasant conveniences for housewives in the 1950s, then a car for everyone with the gradualerosion of transit, then the ubiquitousness of things and chemical products technologically unimaginable a few decades earlier, thengrowing availability of consumer credit and debt, the over-dependence on labor-saving devices, total dependence on the car andabsolute necessity of full time work, the two income household to pay for more and more, then the importation of cheaper and cheaper goods and the disappearance of manufacturing jobs and now thedecline of service work with professionals next to bedownsized....The ongoing disenfranchisement of people from our own community, replaced by commercial transactions with distantstrangers...where will it end? When America looks like some fadedThird World fragment of the old British Empire? An overpopulatedwasteland of pollution, eroded landscapes, worn out infrastructureand hungry people digging into landfills for salvageables?We shouldn't allow this or anything like this happen. Things may bestarting to turn around in our favor. But it takes work and time and