 Book
Reviews
with Robin Osborne
Affluenza
By Clive Hamilton and Richard Denniss
Allen & Unwin $24.95
 Affluenza
is a wonderful term requiring little explanation and no doubt the authors wish
they had coined it. Alas there is both prior authorship (a 1997 book published
in the USA) and a dedicated website - www.affluenza.com.org.
That's not to detract from the value of localising our understanding of a disease
that affects countries like Australia where consumer aspirations, not to mention
debt, are running at ever increasing levels.
'Perhaps the most disquieting consequence of affluenza is the way it corrupts
values,' opine the authors, who hold senior positions at the Australia Institute,
a liberal think-tank, picking up the theme of Hamilton's earlier book, Growth
Fetish, which also flagged the dangers of our materialistic inclinations.
'Ethical decisions have become economic decisions, despite a nagging feeling
that putting a price on some things actually devalues them. Even the most intimate
and precious aspects of being human have been subtly transformed into their antithesis.'
An example of this is society's attitude towards parenthood, now a 'lifestyle
choice' based on weighing the cost of children rather than the joy of having them.
'When today's 20 and 30-year-olds conclude they cannot, it is not because they
are struggling financially. It is because, prompted by the pressures of consumerism
and luxury fever, they have set themselves overly high lifestyle goals.
'They have come to believe they are not in a position to have a baby until
they have paid off most of the mortgage, hold down two high-paying jobs, own a
couple of expensive cars, and are well on the way to providing for their retirement.'
Noting that nearly two-thirds of people say they can't buy what they 'really
need', they add the disturbing thought that, 'In the coming decade most of our
income growth will be spent on consumer products the craving for which has yet
to be created by advertisers,' conclude, for example, that, 'Australia does not
have a public health funding crisis: it has a flat-screen crisis.'
Keen to avoid claims that they are urging us to live like monks, they add,
'It is not consuming but consumerism we criticise; not affluence, but affluenza...the
affluenza spiral is intimately connected to these unsustainable activities - excessive
indebtedness, overwork and wasteful consumption - and the resulting pressures
help to explain the plague of psychological disorders, alienation and distress
that characterises modern Australia.'
The antidote, they suggest, is 'Conscious consumption, as opposed to no consumption,'
and the 'importance of distinguishing between wants and needs.'
It is a salutary warning that we continue to ignore at our peril.
- Clive Hamilton will be appearing at the Byron Bay Writers' Festival, August
4-7.
- Books available at Book Warehouse, Keen Street, Lismore
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