The Excerpts From The Overspent American ' I Was Not Familiar With Juliet Schor's Work

During the post WWII period in America, the face of the nation changed greatly under the presidency of Truman and Eisenhower. America underwent another era of good feelings as they thought themselves undefeatable and superior over the rest of the world. Communism was the American enemy and American sought to rid the world of it. Because of the extreme paranoia caused by Communism, conformity became an ideal way to distinguish American Culture from the rest. Conformity became a part of every American Life to a large extent. It became evident through the medium of culture, society and politics throughout the era of the 50s.

Coontz analyses both the weakness and strengths of the period and takes a ‘sarcastic’ approach. She is able to indicate the ideal time for the Americans pointing positive outlooks such as education, birthrate, economic expansion, jobs, family oriented culture and social environment. Her weakness about the myth of the 1950s includes teen pregnancies, poverty, marital problems, discrimination, racial and gender inequalities. She attacks the political system who continues states the goods of the 1950s but the politicians have not created and advanced the ideals and optimism of the 1950s. She categorically attacks the perceptions of people saying the 1950s was good even though when compared to the freedoms and engagements of these days, the 1950s’ thinkers are misplaced. The following quote summarizes her perspective, “This confidence that almost everyone could look forward to a better future stands in sharp contrast to how most contemporary Americans feel, and it explains why a period which many people were much worse off than today sometimes still looks like a better period for families than our own” (p. 40). Based on the historical and available information, Coontz argument may suffice because currently, nobody thinks about the future since the economic and social challenges are immense. The optimism is absent while challenges of discrimination, prejudice are fading. Hence, the article cleverly covers the

Money. The essays all analyze a different aspect into the way Americans are spending their money. Juliet Schor wrote her piece in 1998 and discussed how Americans had an excessive amount of stuff. She wrote directly to the American consumer charging them with the question about a life lived in excess. Similar to Shor but with a few differences, Elizabeth Warren who wrote her piece in 2007, took Juliet’s idea more in depth. She used statistics and data to find that due to inflation and the addition of a second income to the household, Americans were spending less on discretionary items and at least twice as much in fixated costs. Unlike Shor, Warren discussed how Americans spend an equal to lesser amount of money on materialistic purchases as they did before. Buffet wrote “Stop Coddling the Super-Rich” in 2011. He discussed the unfair sacrifices middle and lower class Americans were making while the rich suffered little to none. Even though these essays were written by different people, in different times, and even abut different issues, they still led back to the same ideas. All the writers want to see a change of some sort. A change in American spending habits, a change in the payment of workers, and a change in the taxation of Americans. It is important to take notice to how all these individuals wrote from different decades. This shows the longevity of the issue and the long battle

What they failed to realize was that also during this time, there was segregation in schools, restaurants, bathrooms, courthouses, community, even water fountains. This was a major key to the 1950s lifestyle. It kept people of color away from Caucasians, making sure there was no interaction. There was a great ethnicity barrier, and it was apparent to see.

The 1950’s American, for the most part, lived in a small suburban town where the houses were designed the same and everyone had a car. This luxurious lifestyle derived from an economic flourishing after World War Two from production boosts and former soldiers re-entering the work force. The other aspects of 1950s America were not so bland and conformist in nature. Art, literature, and music exploded in a new way in the fifties, and influenced society in unseen ways. The Civil Rights movement began to ignite in this decade and started to rework all of American society, creating an anything but bland societal movement. In 1950s America, society had more money than it had ever had before and this created a consumer culture which bread conformist

The 1950s was the most influential decade in American history for many reasons including: the beginning of the civil rights act, the new and trendy style, and much more advances in technology and entertainment. Families were together and the young honored elders, teenagers respected themselves as well as others, and the cheerful music played all throughout the 50s is what mostly made this decade unforgettable. Not only that, but the lifestyles was much more functional than any other decade in America because people were peaceful. In the 1950s, Americans valued true fellowship with their friends and family.

During the 1950s, America was at its prime. At that time period, the United States had the world’s strongest military power. Its economy was booming, and the fruits of this prosperity included, but was not limited to, new cars, suburban houses and other consumer goods. During the 1950s, about four million babies were born each year. Between 1945 and 1960, the gross national product more than doubled, growing from $200 billion to more than $500 billion. Rates of unemployment and inflation were low, and wages were high. However, the 1950s was also an era of great conflict. A growing group of Americans spoke out against inequality and injustice during the 1950s. The struggle against racism and segregation entered the mainstream of American life.

Over generations, America’s materialistic ways have ultimately snowballed, creating a society in which hard work and virtue are no longer valued. Instead of focusing on earning the things they want, Americans have cared more about conforming to the people around them, and even trying to one-up them. This common practice of trying to surpass the next person has resulted in a snowball effect, which is displayed through James Twitchell's report that “The average American consumes twice as many goods and services as in 1950; in fact, the poorest fifth of the current population buys more than the average fifth did in 1955” (16). This report encapsulates what has occured throughout American society for generations. As each generation’s focus on material

American society during the 1950 's was an industrial society it was a time where the economy was transforming"from a wartime economy to a consumer economy". The growth in the population lead to a demand and production of "American goods [in Europe that] fuel[ed]… the American economy." and allowed for home appliances and vehicles that were only available "for [those in] the upper classes" to be affordable to those in the middle class. Not only was America an industrial society it was also viewed, at the time, as "an egalitarian society". A society where it "provides equal access to resources and prestige" (sociology dictionary.org) but sadly this was not reflected. People were sold, with the help of the media, on this false belief that

Children in the 1950s had very different lives to adolescent people today. Most left school much earlier, with many starting work at 14, and far fewer people had the chance to go on to further edification.

These social critics of the 1950s all agreed that this era was characterized by a lack of individuality. The idea of the American family is what everybody was after,the breadwinning father, the do everything at the house mother, and the daughter and son who were both excellent in school, and the boy in sports. This caused for suburbs to expand rapidly, and the people who lived in them were considered to be "other-directed" Americans. They were obsessed with conforming to social pressures and obtaining material goods. They strayed away from traditional American values such as frugality and self-denial. They were considered bland and blank wind-up toys. What else was concerning was the constant fear of nuclear breakout in the 50´s between the

Today millions of Americans who compulsively buy are creating a materialistic society. It is unfortunate that most Americans do not realize that when they have to buy something that everybody has, or are eating out continuously they are losing money. Us Americans are shopping for things like name brand items for the sake of our identity and the image we present to others. Name brand items are expensive, but you can almost always get the same quality item for a cheaper price. People are deliberately working to make money to buy these items. On the other hand, downshifters are cutting their work hours to put their values ahead of the amount of money they possess. Downshifters don’t mind what item they buy, they prefer to bargain shop, which allows

Each year the average american throws away sixty-five pounds of clothing, since the early two thousands the home organization industry has doubled in size, annually americans spend more on shoes, jewelry, and watches than they do on higher education. The money for these items equals up to about a hundred billion dollars. Consumerism has a colossal impact on these statistics. People are spending money on things they don't need or use because they are convinced that these items are must haves.

Americans in the 19th century had their own view on consumerism. The average American believed in the idea of having less is more. They believed that purchasing the basic living items and essentials to live was all you needed. This view was in place because blue collar workers had smaller wage jobs and they only had enough to purchase what they needed. Once the 20th century rolled around, the blueprint of consumerism changed. In the roaring 20s, America developed movie and film. People started to purchase items like makeup and home items to look like the movie stars. People went from purchasing only the necessities like food and clothing, to purchasing extravagant items like makeup, movie tickets, high end fashion items, and extravagant home décor. People started to buy more things because the idea of less is more was dead and the idea of more is better was in place. In the beginning of the 20th century, Americans believed that what you buy determines where you fall on the socioeconomic class. When actually it did the opposite. The articles we read actually show how the 20th century consumerism blended the blue-collar family and the middle class together. The articles More is Better by Shelby Nickels, Architecture of the Space Age by Matt Novak, and Authenticity in America by Joshua Freedman all address the changes and development of mass consumption in the United States by showing how economic states blended with consumerism,

Historically, the United States has been a nation of consumerism. Columnist Anup Shah (2010) asserts that consumption trends in the US follow the 80-20 rule, stating that “the wealthiest 20% of the world accounted for 76.6% of total private consumption”. However, consumerism in the United States doesn’t stop there. Because consumers have become so accustomed to certain norms it can be difficult to determine necessity from commodity. Some items, such as Starbucks, are sometimes put into the same category as necessities, such as gasoline. Economists use the Consumer Price Index (CPI) to measure consumer spending habits and the change in inflation rates. Some have even likened the CPI to “a tug of war between the prices of goods and the prices of services, playing out beneath the surface” (Hilsenrath, 2011).