Seriously investigate the effects of up-scaling and the things in your life. The choice is ours. Conversation 1 Juliet Schor tells Paula Gordon and Bill Russell how Americans have capitulated to a consumerist mentality. She addresses the social meaning of spending, now that most people can meet their biological needs. She ties being overspent and overworked to fear of social isolation, the marginalization associated with doing things differently.
Fear is a recurring theme.
She describes the effects of people being redefined as consumers in every venue, from art to government. She links this transformation to what she sees as the increasing corporate domination of life. She describes being a dissident voice within her field of economics, concerned that we have too few counter-weights to ideas in the intellectual marketplace. Her example is the non-market parts of the economy, which underpins the market itself. Conversation 3 Consumer tourism is the fastest growing industry in the world, according to Schor.