The Overspent American: Why We Want What We Don't Need [Paperback]

Juliet B. Schor (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 7, 1999

The Overspent American explores why so many of us feel materially dissatisfied, why we work staggeringly long hours and yet walk around with ever-present mental "wish lists" of things to buy or get, and why Americans save less than virtually anyone in the world. Unlike many experts, Harvard economist Juliet B. Schor does not blame consumers' lack of self-discipline. Nor does she blame advertisers. Instead she analyzes the crisis of the American consumer in a culture where spending has become the ultimate social art.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

If getting and spending define our lives, then Juliet Schor now has us covered. Six years ago, her book The Overworked American scrutinized the getting part. It focused public attention on the disappearance of leisure and the harmful effects thereof on families and society. It sparked a debate over whether Americans really work as much as we proudly claim. (If so, how to explain the audience for Monday Night Football?) Nevertheless, Schor can take credit for helping push Congress into passing the Family Leave Act in 1993.

Now she is back with a critique of our spending. Schor notes that, despite rising wealth and incomes, Americans do not feel any better off. In fact, we tell pollsters we do not have enough money to buy everything we need. And we are almost as likely to say so if we make $85,000 a year as we are if we make $35,000. Schor believes that "keeping up with the Joneses" is no longer enough for today's media-savvy office workers. We set our sights on the lifestyles of those higher up the organizational chart. We seek to emulate characters on TV. For teenagers, "enough" is the idle splendor that hardly exists outside of what MTV un-ironically calls The Real World. Schor offers an original and provocative analysis of why many Americans feel driven and unhappy despite our success. As an alternative, she profiles several "downshifters" who've taken up voluntary simplicity in search of a more satisfying way of life. No policy solutions suggest themselves this time, only a change of heart. --Barry Mitzman --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Whereas Schor's 1992 bestseller, The Overworked American, touched a nerve among all classes of American society, her latest study is geared to middle- and upper-middle-class consumers who, in her diagnosis, are participating in a national orgy of overspending and living beyond their means. She traces this competitive, status-conscious consumption to the diverging income distribution and growing inequality beginning in the 1980s, as increasingly overworked, insecure, dissatisfied consumers, pressured by advertising and television imagery, sought to emulate the upscale lifestyle of the most affluent. An economist and director of women's studies at Harvard, Schor presents her arguable conclusion that the more TV a person watches, the more he or she is likely to spend. In counterbalance, she also reports on her nationwide survey of "downshifters," people who deliberately reduce their hours on the job in exchange for more leisure, time with family or other pursuits. In self-help fashion, she outlines nine steps individuals can take to break free of the cycle of compulsive spending. Although Schor's jeremiad lacks the impact of her earlier book, it offers trenchant commentary on Americans' overspending lifestyle and lack of savings.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 253 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial; 1st HarperPerennial Ed Pub. 1999 edition (April 7, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060977582
• ISBN-13: 978-0060977580
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (71 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #74,345 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #84 in Books > Business & Investing > Marketing & Sales > Consumer Behavior

More About the Author

Juliet B. Schor's research has focused on the economics of work, spending, environment, and the consumer culture. She is the author of Born to Buy, The Overworked American, and The Overspent American. Schor is a professor of sociology at Boston College, a former member of the Harvard economics department, and a Guggenheim Fellowship recipient. She is also a cofounder of the Center for a New American Dream, an organization devoted to ecologically and socially sustainable lifestyles.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

118 of 121 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Examining our Motivations, November 18, 2004

By 

Erika Mitchell (E. Calais, VT USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Overspent American: Why We Want What We Don't Need (Paperback)

This book is an exploration into our motivations for acquiring mountains of stuff. The book also includes brief descriptions of some groups of people who have managed to get off the acquisitions bandwagon. Schor takes us through some of the classic literature on class and consumption patterns, noting that we make use of lifestyles as a form of social communication. We show our status or place in the hierarchy of society by the goods we own and display. Others may judge us according to our display of goods, or they may choose to challenge our status by some acquisitive one-ups-manship.

As an example of such social communication, Schor cites some research she did on cosmetic brands. Of all the types of cosmetics, lipstick is the one most likely to be applied in public. Schor found that women will often choose an expensive brand of lipstick to carry in their purses, especially if they are going to apply it in public where others will see and recognize the tube. But in blind tests, it was found that lipsticks are all more or less equivalent in quality, so women pay extra just for the visible tube. In contrast, facial cleansers are almost always used in private, and women make their choices between facial cleansers based on what works best, not brand name.

This brand consciousness pervades all of our purchasing behavior, whether we are aware of it or not. Think of your living room- -are there furniture brands or types of furniture some people display in their living rooms, but you would not even consider putting in yours because of what it would say about your taste? What statement does your wrist watch say about you? Does it show you pay attention to fashion, or that you are strictly practical, or that you're proud of being a cheapskate, as anyone can tell from your torn Velcro band that's held together with duct tape? Whichever way you answer, realize that you are not unique. There are others just like you, who share many of your preferences and have similar possessions in similar states of newness or disrepair. Do you avoid mass produced or branded items in favor of handmade? Funny enough, that's what hot with the upper-middle class right now- -you're not bucking the trend- -you are the trend!

Marketers make their business on studying patterns of acquisition. Zip codes are often great indicators of similar consumer groups by virtue of the fact that people who share the same zip code often live in houses that fall within a certain price range- -they often have similar incomes, and similar experiences. Marketers use this information to design effective campaigns to get people to buy products and services. In the past half century, they've gotten people to buy more stuff than ever before, and the rate of acquisition seems to be rising rapidly.

One reason for the rapid rise in hyper-consumption, Schor argues, is that people are no longer trying to keep up with their neighbors, since neighborhoods are less cohesive and people don't know as many neighbors as they used to. Instead, social contacts are often with work colleagues or with TV "friends". As a result, consumers are now trying to acquire stuff that will keep them not on the level of their peers, but on the level of their their managers (people with higher incomes) or fictional families on TV (whose consumption is often directly driven by marketers).

Schor also points out that "it is precisely when traditional markers of identity and position, such as birth and occupation, begin to break down that spending comes to the fore as a more powerful determinant of social status." And who are the biggest spenders of them all? Highly educated middle-aged women. They are very status-conscious and very well informed. Because of their education, they are exposed to high status people, and constantly seek ways to affirm their own high status through the social symbols they display.

Another factor that has added to the consumption feeding frenzy is the ease of getting consumer credit. Schor notes that on average, 18% of Americans' income goes towards paying interest on consumer debt (and how much more goes towards interest on the national debt?). Meanwhile, our traditional cultural and religious restraint on greed has been relaxed, to the point that spending is "extolled as good for the ego, if not for the soul...Most insidious of all, aggressive spending was made patriotic." This is even more true after the September 11th attacks, when the message coming from mass media seemed to be that we needed to spend our way out of grief in order to show the world how powerful we are.

Towards the end of the book, Schor profiles some "downshifters", people who have experienced a significant decrease in income, and who are coming to terms with their tightened financial situations by learning to spend less. Schor also provides a brief description of the Voluntary Simplicity movement, in which people choose a lifestyle focused on living rather than on earning in order to spend.

At the end of the book are an extensive bibliography, appendices explaining the details of Schor's research projects, a list of organizations devoted to reducing hyper-consumption, endnotes of sources, and an index. Overall, I found the book to be very well-researched and quite interesting to read. Her investigation into the social foundation of motivation to buy was extremely thought provoking.

148 of 154 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Credit card debt-free in 2003...., January 24, 2002

By 

T. Quach (Garden Grove, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Overspent American: Why We Want What We Don't Need (Paperback)

As a young professional who is lucky enough to make more than most people my age, I was perpetually frustrated by my inability to save. When I whine about the vicious work-and-spend way I was living my life, most of my friends would tell me to just shut the hell up because they simply don't understand how someone with my income could have a difficult time "just keeping up."

And then I read "the Overspent American." Now everything is starting to come together. I'm no different than most people in my situation. Apparently, the more you make, the more you spend (because those with money are generally more status-oriented, and "status" requires money...lots and lots of money). Couple this with one's general dissatisfaction in the workplace, and spending goes even higher because people with means buy more things to distract themselves from the general unhappiness that is their life.

'Lest you think this is a "bleeding heart" book that doesn't put the blame squarely on the shoulders of the irresponsible consumer, let me assure you that this book makes no excuses for our society's poor consumer choices. Like any well-documented social science project, this book merely explains the new consumerism, based on Schor's studies and interviews with downshifters and overspent consumers. It passes no judgment, but it does not give irresponsible consumers an easy scapegoat for their problems either.

On the contrary, I felt like this book was a wake-up call. First, it made me feel better simply to know I wasn't the lone idiot who couldn't get my finances together. But second, and more importantly, this book gave me hope. It talks about downshifters and other individuals who have successfully managed to get their consumerism under control. I am now more determined than ever to crawl out of the credit card existence I've been living somewhat uncomfortably in for the past 8 years. Like my one-line summary of the book suggests, I'm now seriously planning (rather than just hopelessly wishing) to be credit card debt-free in 2003!

For anyone who finds themselves living paycheck to paycheck, or struggling just to get by (despite a decent income), this book will shed light on some of the reasons why, and inspire you to make the necessary changes to ensure your long-term financial prosperity and conquer your short-term consumerist impulses. A quick, but powerful, read. Highly, highly recommended.

43 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tops! Deals With the Heart of Overspending & Materialism, February 22, 2002

By 

Edward J. Vasicek "Author, pastor, columnist" (Kokomo, IN USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Overspent American: Why We Want What We Don't Need (Paperback)

...

Harvard professor Juliet Schor has written a timely and convincing work. Schor's argument is that people are actually happier when they are not obsessed with craving material luxuries.

Schor's perspective is balanced, realistic, and moderate. Unlike books that offer advice on money management, Schor cuts to the quick and goes to the heart of the problem: we buy not because we need but because we attempt to find identity, status, or security through our purchases.

The volume is divided into seven chapters. The first is titled, "Introduction," but is not really merely an introduction. It is a chapter in the fullest sense and might better be titled, "overview." Let me share one of numerous quotables from this section: "American consumers are often not conscious of being motivated by social status and are far more likely to attribute such motives to others than to themselves. We live with high levels of psychological denial about the connection between our buying habits and the social statements they make."

The second chapter, "Communicating With Commodities" discusses how people crave the standard of living portrayed by television sitcoms. The American majority is frustrated (and sometimes desperate to attain such a standard) because they compare themselves to these fictious upper middle classed lifestyles. Shcor illustrates where this can lead by referring to the "sneaker murders" where people were actually killed for their shoes (of the "proper" brand, of course).

The third chapter, "The Visible Lifestyle" emphasizes the sub-conscious quest for status. In her typically well-balanced perspective, she distinguishes between, "the desire [for] social status [and]...trying to avoid social humiliation." This is a GREAT chapter.

The fourth chapter, "When Spending Becomes You" is also superb. She quotes one statistic that 61 per cent of the population ALWAYS has something in mind they look forward to buying. She also discusses how religion used to curtail obsessive materialism and spending, but no longer does. As a professional clergymen, I'll second that. She is right.

The last two chapters, "The Downshifter Next Door" and "Learning Diderot's Lesson" offer practical ways to attack this problem. We must change our attitudes and view frugality as a virtue, not a vice. She offers several case studies of "downshifters," those who have decided that, once past a modest financial threshold, family, time, and the deeper things of life are worthy of financial sacrifice.

This volume exposes how shallow, foolish, and silly our society has become in our uncontrollable culture of reckless spending. It is a gem of a book, worth your time for sure!