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The Overspent American: Why We Want What We Don't Need Paperback – April 7, 1999

4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 151 ratings

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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.
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Editorial Reviews

Review

'"Thick with survey data, less taxing than a saunter through Saks, Schor's study is a scornful indictment of consumerism--which, she argues, has created a nation of debtors but failed to fill a gaping cultural maw. This is the stuff from which revolutions are made." -- "Entertainment Weekly""[A] masterful take on the human folly of overspending."-- "Los Angeles Times Book Review""Engaging...[Schor's] case studies of families who have rejected consumerism and simplified their lifestyles are vivid and will resonate with many readers." -- "Fortune""Schor writes in a lively manner and offers fascinating information about consumer spending patterns. She has written an engaging book that will cause readers to look afresh not only at their society but also at themselves."-- "Philadelphia Inquirer""Offers trenchant commentary on Americans' overspending lifestyle and lack of savings." -- "Publishers Weekly""Consuming more now and enjoying it less? In this heavily researched but accessible work, Schor tells us how and why this is so and what we might do about it...This is an important analysis of who, or perhaps what, we are. It deserves and will surely gain a wide audience." -- "Kirkus Reviews"

From the Back Cover

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.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harper Perennial; 1st HarperPerennial Ed Pub. 1999 edition (April 7, 1999)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 253 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0060977582
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0060977580
  • Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 1150L
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 7.2 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.31 x 0.61 x 8 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 151 ratings

About the author

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Juliet B. Schor
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Hi. I’m Juliet Schor--a best-selling author, economist, and sociologist. I write for broad audiences as well as other researchers. I’ve done both since my college days—I did economics journalism even before completing graduate school. I try hard to write about what I learn from doing research in a way that makes sense to people without PhDs in economics. I’m also involved in various forms of activism—I’ve co-founded a number of organizations and these days I spend a lot of time trying to mobilize efforts to address the climate emergency. I’ve written quite a few books and I’m especially excited about my newest one-- After the Gig: how the sharing economy got hijacked and how to win it back. Here’s the full run-down on my professional life.

Schor is Professor of Sociology at Boston College. A graduate of Wesleyan University, Schor received her Ph.D. in economics at the University of Massachusetts. Before joining Boston College, she taught at Harvard University for 17 years, in the Department of Economics and the Committee on Degrees in Women's Studies.

Since 2011 Schor has been studying the “sharing” and “gig” economies. Her book, After the Gig: how the sharing economy got hijacked and how to win it back is being published by the University of California Press in 2020. With a team of seven PhD students Schor has written approximately twenty articles and chapters on this topic. This work was originally funded by the MacArthur Foundation. From 2019-2021 Schor has been continuing the work under a grant from the National Science Foundation.

Schor’s previous books include the national best-seller The Overworked American: The Unexpected Decline of Leisure (Basic Books, 1992) and The Overspent American: Why We Want What We Don’t Need (Basic Books, 1998). The Overworked American appeared on the best-seller lists of The New York Times, Publisher's Weekly, The Chicago Tribune, The Village Voice The Boston Globe as well as the annual best books list for The New York Times, Business Week and other publications. The book is widely credited for influencing the national debate on work and family. The Overspent American was also made into a video of the same name, by the Media Education Foundation (September 2003). More recent books are Sustainable Lifestyles and the Quest for Plenitude: Case Studies of the New Economy (Yale University Press, 2014) which she co-edited with Craig Thompson, and True Wealth: How and Why Millions of Americans are Creating a Time-Rich, Ecologically Light, Small-Scale, High-Satisfaction Economy (2011 by The Penguin Press, previously published as Plenitude.)

Schor also wrote Born to Buy: The Commercialized Child and the New Consumer Culture (Scribner 2004). She is the author of Do Americans Shop Too Much? (Beacon Press 2000), co-editor of Consumer Society: A Reader (The New Press 2000) and co-editor of Sustainable Planet: Solutions for the Twenty-first Century (Beacon Press 2002). She has also co-edited a number of academic collections. Schor’s scholarly articles have appeared in the Economic Journal, The Review of Economics and Statistics, World Development, Industrial Relations, The Journal of Economic Psychology, Ecological Economics, Social Problems, The Journal of Industrial Ecology, The Journal of Consumer Research, The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences, and The Journal of Consumer Culture, among others.

Schor is a former Guggenheim Fellow and was the Matina S. Horner Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Radcliffe Institute at Harvard University in 2014-15. In 2014 Schor received the American Sociological Association’s award for Public Understanding of Sociology. From 2010-2017 Schor was a member of the MacArthur Foundation Connected Learning Research Network. She is the recipient of the 2011 Herman Daly Award from the US Society for Ecological Economics. In 2006 she received the Leontief Prize from the Global Development and Economics Institute at Tufts University for expanding the frontiers of economic thought. She has also received the George Orwell Award for Distinguished Contributions to Honesty and Clarity in Public Language from the National Council of Teachers of English. She has served as a consultant to the United Nations, at the World Institute for Development Economics Research, and to the United Nations Development Program. She is also a former Brookings Institution fellow. In 2012 Schor organized the first Summer Institute in New Economics, a week-long program for PhD students in the social sciences, and repeated the program in 2013.

Schor is a co-founder of the Center for a New American Dream (newdream.org), a national sustainability organization where she served on the board for more than 15 years. She is the Chair of the board of the Better Future Project, one of the country’s most successful climate activism organizations. She is a co-founder of the South End Press and the Center for Popular Economics. She has also served as a Trustee of Wesleyan University, and as an occasional faculty member at Schumacher College. Schor has lectured widely throughout the United States, Europe and Japan to a variety of civic, business, labor and academic groups. She appears frequently on national and international media, and profiles on her and her work have appeared in scores of magazines and newspapers, including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, and People magazine. She has appeared on 60 Minutes, the Today Show, Good Morning America, The Early Show on CBS, numerous stories on network news, as well as many other television and radio news programs. Schor lives in Newton, Massachusetts with her husband. She has two adult children.

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Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on January 24, 2002
    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.
    167 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on June 14, 2002
    It is a fact today that we Americans are in more personal debt than at any time in our history. When economic times are good we spend more. in the 1980s personal saving was -0.2% meaning we spent more than we actually earned. After the boom of the 90s we are in more debt. Today seniors are in more debt than they ever have been since studies have been conducted. It is mostly cultural. We, as a society are not savers or planners financially. Not good nor bad, just the way things are. We do have a 100% chance of death. Thomas Jefferson, died owing massive amounts of debt. This is an interested read that explains why we do what we do.....Wants are not needs.
    7 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on April 6, 2013
    Below are key lessons in the form of excerpts that I found particularly insightful from this book in which Juliet "analyzes the crisis of the American consumer in a culture where spending has become the ultimate social act":

    1- "While I believe all Americans are deeply affected by consumerism, this book is directed to people...whose income afford comfortable lifestyle. I focus on more affluent consumers not because I believe that inequalities of consuming power are unimportant. Far from it. They are at the heart of the problem. But I believe that achieving an equitable standard of living for all Americans will require that those of us with more comfortable material lives transform our relationship to spending. I offer this book as a step in that direction."

    2- "This book is about why: About why so many middle-class Americans feel materially dissatisfied...How even a six-figure income can seem inadequate, and why this country saves less than virtually any other nation in the world. It is about the ways in which, for America's middle classes, "spending becomes you," about how it flatters, enhances, and defines people in often wonderful ways, but also how it takes over their lives...IT analyzes how standards of belonging socially have changes in recent decades, and how this change has introduced American to highly intensified spending pressures. And finally, it is about a growing backlash to the consumption culture, a movement of people who are downshifting - by working less, and living their consumer lives much more deliberately."

    3- "...Even though products carry well-recognized levels of prestige, are associated with particular kinds of people, or convey widely accepted messages, we cannot automatically infer the motivations of the consumers who buy them...There are other sources of meaning (beyond social inequalities). Gender, ethnicity, personal predisposition, and many other factors help structure the meanings and motivation attached to consuming."

    4- "First, for a significant number of branded and highly advertised products, there are no quality differences discernible to consumers when the labels are removed; and second, variation in prices typically exceeds variation in quality, with the difference being in part a status premium...The extra money we spend could arguably be better used in other ways - improving our public schools, boosting retirement savings, or providing drug treatment for the millions of people the country is locking up in an effort to protect commodities others have acquired. But unless we find a way to dissociate what we buy from who we think we are, redirecting those dollars will prove difficult indeed."

    5- "Today, in a world where being middle-class is not good enough for many people and indeed that social category seems like an endangered species, securing a place means going upscale. But when everyone is doing it, upscaling can mean simply keeping up. Even when we are aiming high, there's a strong defensive component to our comparisons. We don't want to fall behind or lose the place we've carved out for ourselves."

    6- "To maintain psychological comfort, most of us must transcend the strictures of the current consumption map...The first step is to decouple spending from our sense of worth, a connection basic to all hierarchical consumption maps. The second is to find a reference group for whom a low-cost lifestyle is socially acceptable."

    7- "I outline nine principles to help individuals, and the nation, get off the consumer escalator...1) Controlling desire...2) Creating a new consumer symbolism: making exclusivity uncool...3) Controlling ourselves: voluntary restraints on competitive consumption...4) Learning to share: both as a borrower and a lender be...5) Deconstruct the Commercial system: Becoming an Educated Consumer...6) Avoid "Retail Therapy": Spending is Addictive...7) Decommercialize the Rituals...8) Making Time: Is work-and-spend working?...9) The need for a coordinate intervention."

    8- "It can hardly be possible that the dumbing-down of America has proceeded so far that it's either consumerism or nothing. We remain a creative, resourceful, and caring nation. There's still time left to find our way out of the mall."
    10 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on August 2, 2005
    As a recovering Shopaholic, this book was a god send. Great analysis on why we spend, why we feel we have to, and just k nowing the truth beneath it all, allows you to let go of ever feeling that way again. No more having to 'keep up with the joneses' or feeling like your not good enough because of the material possessions you have or dont have. An amazing quick and easy read, well written and very helpful. a real eye opener - you will think twice about spending irresponsibly after reading this book! definatly worth it!
    13 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on July 2, 2018
    I had to read this for class, and I was truly enlightened. The notions are dated, but concepts are still valid!
    One person found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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  • BLS
    4.0 out of 5 stars Good
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 8, 2017
    Interesting
  • 優作
    5.0 out of 5 stars かなりの良書
    Reviewed in Japan on March 9, 2008
    日本でもなじみ深い「ナイキ」や「BMW」などのブランド名や商品名が随所に出て来て、飽きずに読むことが出来る。
    アメリカの話ではあるが、日本の話として読むことも出来る。「あなたらしさ」を作るためにあらゆる商品が用意され、広告され、それを借金してまでも手に入れようとする人々。かたやそのような世間に背を向けて、生活レベルを落としても自分の時間を確保する「ダウンシフター」と呼ばれる人々。
    私も人間として幸福を追求してやまないですが、金や物に安易に頼るのは結局間に合わせの幸福でしかない、と強く思いました。私たちが欲しいものなんて、ここ100年ぐらいになって出て来たものでしかないんだし。
  • T
    4.0 out of 5 stars 生活習慣を見直す!
    Reviewed in Japan on January 5, 2012
    10年ほど前に出版された本。
    ちょうど10年遅れぐらいで日本で習慣が変わるので、丁度良いかも知れません。
    これからの人生設計を見直すチャンスに!!

    ダウンシフターな生き方はノマドやシェアハウス今日本で顕在化しつつあります。

    『大企業に拘束されずに個人の仕事で収入を得る』
    『家や車、生活の一部もシェア』
    見栄を張らずに身の丈に合った無駄のない生活を目指す。

    大5章の隣のダウンシフター像がなんとも納得してしまった。

    『ドライヤーの電力を節約する』
    『有機食品を買う』
    『買うよりも修理』
    『リサイクルの紙袋を再利用する』
    『スポーツジムをやめて夕方歩く』
    『充実した今を送る』

    など働き過ぎで時間までも消費してしまった現代の生活習慣を見直す。
    働きすぎているのにお金も時間もない人は必読!