One of the ideas we stress here at The Center for the New American Dream is being a responsible consumer - someone who thinks critically about the full impact of what they are purchasing. The drawing above illustrates this principle by actually ranking the three R’s - reduce, reuse, and recycle.

While all three work as a unit, a major part of sustaining our resources is being mindful about what we consume in the first place. Doing things like saying no to excess packaging, limiting the amount of printed materials we accept, breaking the bottled water habit, junking your junk mail, and staying conscious of the practices involved in creating what we consume.

Unfortunately, it can be harder to follow this principle as…

Like many socially conscious Americans, I’ve had my fair share of qualms with the celebration of Thanksgiving. It’s been a struggle to find meaning in an historic event that represents the birth of American imperialism and hubris, commemorated in a day that’s become largely associated with consumption and excess, both at the dinner table and in Black Friday sales.

But while I’ll be the first to decry our conventional telling of the Thanksgiving story, to focus solely on these darker elements is to lose sight of what truly lies at the essence of the holiday. After all, what does the Thanksgiving meal represent if not people coming together in celebration of nature’s bounty? And how many American holidays transcend religious, class,…

Acquiring stuff doesn’t make you as happy as it promises it will…so what to do with that urge to shop?

As the holiday machine gears up for another shopping season, it’s fairly easy to decode the messages all around: buy buy buy. Embedded within the advertisement for a new watch, the latest computer, or a shiny car, is the promise for something less tangible but much more valuable: lasting memories, popularity, connectedness. If our current economy is based upon a ceaseless consumption machine, it is this subtler economy of intangible promises that drives that machine.

We as a society are increasingly vulnerable to bait-and-switch advertisements promising fulfillment because Americans are far more socially isolated than they were 20 years ago, according to a…

Further analysis of the financial crisis by Dr. Juliet Schor

Spending our way to prosperity? Not this time around.

As a “New Dream” economist, I am asked all the time: won’t consuming less hurt the economy? When there’s less spending, people get laid off, their incomes fall and businesses, especially small ones, go bankrupt. This question is especially urgent today, given that the recession is deepening and spreading. George Bush was widely (and rightly) criticized for suggesting shopping as the patriotic response to 9/11. Would Barack Obama be wrong if he suggested the same?

Short answer: Yes. But with this topic, there’s rarely a short answer. So here’s the longer one.

Let’s remember, first, that the economic crisis wasn’t caused by a…

As you may have read in the recent post about the green economy, there is a growing movement dedicated to finding solutions that address the economic and environmental crises simultaneously. We recently came across this great blog post that proposed a number of actions you can take as an individual that healthy for you, your wallet, and the environment. We’ve never felt so good at the suggestion that we might need to go on a diet!

The Economic Crisis Diet.

By Carla Golden, originally published at OneHealthyGirl.com

As you know, dollars are tightening here in the USA which puts a big squeeze on luxuries, indulgences and recreational habits. For the uber rich, this won’t matter too much and for those who live on…

An analysis of the financial crisis by Dr. Juliet Schor

With the financial system in a meltdown, the underlying economy in recession (or worse), the American Dream is in even more in jeopardy than usual. Millions of Americans are wondering who caused this disaster, what does it say about the role of government in the economy, how much is due to “greed” as the simplistic political discourse suggests, and whose greed? Individuals who wanted homes? Bankers and Wall Streeters whose obsession with money grew to mythic proportions? How much is this a morality tale? A political saga? Growing pains for a global economy? Business as usual?

The process of assigning blame for the financial meltdown is in its early stages, and…

From the perspective of New American Dream, a particular moment stood out in Tuesday’s second presidential debate.  (Of course, several moments may have stood out for viewers, but for present purposes I am looking solely through the lens of New Dream’s mission and message.)

One of the questions for the candidates came from a 78-year-old Chicago woman, who asked:

“Since World War II, we have never been asked to sacrifice anything to help our country, except the blood of our heroic men and women. As president, what sacrifices will you ask every American to make to help restore the American dream and to get out of the economic morass that we’re now in?”

It’s interesting both as a question and as a…

We are in the midst of an economic crisis—one that threatens American jobs, homes, life savings. In troubled times, each of us must take stock of our situation and assess our own economic forecast.  Facing catastrophic losses, we may not find silver linings, but in seeking the economic and emotional reserves to see us through the storm, we might discover what really matters to us.

Economic security matters. Stuff doesn’t. Our economy in recent decades has been propped up to an alarming degree by profligate consumer spending and wasting of resources. Even before the crisis, it was obvious that the traditional American Dream of comfort and security had been displaced by a “more is better” focus that promotes not quality…

Apparently, Green is the New Black. (And because ever-trendy shops are selling t-shirts boasting that slogan, it must be true!). While the green-is-hip trend seems to be popping up everywhere, I started really noticing it with the rise of reusable grocery bags as a fashion piece. More and more, as I venture down Washington DC’s K Street, home of of the lobbying firms and three-piece suits, I keep catching impeccably dressed, high-heeled women with Whole Foods canvas bags slung over their shoulders in lieu of purses.

And it’s not just Whole Foods. It seems that every retailer, particularly grocers, have come out with their own stylin’ version of the canvas bag bearing either store logos or catchy “green” slogans. While…