Simple Prosperity: Finding Real Wealth in a Sustainable Lifestyle

Although I'm already a dedicated environmentalist and try my very best to live green, this book introduced me to the philosophical and psychological side of sustainable living. This isn't just a book with tips on how to save money by living green, its a book with tips on how to live a happier life by contecting with nature in your search for complete sustainablility. I'd highly recommend it to anyone who is willing to look at their lifestyle in a different way.

I found myself nodding in agreeing with what David Wann wrote throughout Simple Prosperity: Finding Wealth in a Sustainable Lifestyle. As Americans, our obsession on spending money to buy stuff began over one hundred years ago, during the Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Revolution created an abundance of cheap goods; advertisements taught us that buying stuff would make us happy and fulfilled. Wann shows us that stuff doesn't make us happy and that the uber-abundance of goods is ruining the environment, particularly cheap, disposable goods, most of which are petroleum based. Wann believes we must shed the beliefs that goods will make us happy. That we must shift our thinking from economic growth and consumption to become a knowledge based economy. This shift in thinking is not merely for the individuals' well-being, but for the survival of the planet. The shift from a material dominated society to a spiritual, aesthetic and artistic culture is already happening, led by the Cultural Creatives. For more on the the Cultural Creatives, read: The Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People Are Changing the World (BTW: the CC's are now approximately 100 million strong; are you one?) The author of the award winning book, Harmonious Environment: Beautify, Detoxify and Energize Your Life, Your Home and Your Planet

For people not familiar with the subject matter of Simple Prosperity, it is a fantastic wake-up call. For those, like me, who are familiar with Mr. Wann's earlier work, particularly Affluenza, Simple Prosperity serves to re-focus our efforts to step off the hyper-consumeristic bandwagon so many of us mindlessly have boarded. History will show that David Wann was way ahead of the curve. Soon enough the planet will punish us for our waste and excess, however, as the book makes clear, having to live with less quantity does not mean we have to give up quality. In fact, at some point the opposite is true, and as the book makes clear, less is more when it comes to enjoying life. What is the use of making a six figure salary if you don't enjoy your life or have time to relax, enjoy your family or pursue a hobby? The book is most effective when Wann cites statistics and case histories, less effective (at least for me) when personal examples are used. The book uses the right amount of humor and does not try to preach or scare people into changing their lifestyles. Instead the message is more upbeat. Unless the reader is completely close minded, this book will stay with you and result in some lifestyle changes. Reading it, you want to nod your head and say, "that's right, I knew that but it never made so much sense until now." Eventually, either voluntarily or out of necessity, more and more people will scale back and re-claim their lives from the fast-paced, angry, consumeristic impulses we've been subjected to for the past few decades.

I've read most of David Wann's books about over-consumption, well-designed neighborhoods, organic gardening, and sustainable ways of living and designing, but this one is his best effort yet. He puts words and concepts together in a way that makes the book an easy read, even though it's packed with facts, examples, and actions to create a new lifestyle guided by a much greener "everyday ethic." To me, the book's important message is that human needs remain the same across all cultures, throughout history. What changes is the way we try to meet those needs. Needs are finite and achievable--meeting essential needs satisfies us the way eating a healthy, great-tasting meal does. But most "wants" are infinite and insatiable--we eat too much and still aren't satisfied. As the psychologists in the book point out, our society is overfed and undernourished in many way. Reading Simple Prosperity made me realize that we are trying to BUY essential, basic qualities (like appreciation, respect, health, self esteem, freedon, security and creativity) when in many cases we could satisfy these needs without spending any money at all. Wann argues persuasively that we have the social, phychological and technical tools to build a more sustainable society, and that there is not higher goal we could aspire to. For me, each paragraph in the book is like another brick of that new, more compassionate culture.

Republished Blog Post: I recently finished up a book entitled Simple Prosperity that was written by David Wann, one of the co-authors of Affluenza (in fact, it was so interesting I blew through it in two sittings). In Affluenza, David and his co-authors diagnosed the debilitating disease of over-consumption that is effecting America and other parts of the world. Simple Prosperity picks up where Affluenza left off and shows us how we can make a change for the better and increase our quality of life. In fact, as another reviewer put it, Simple Prosperity will take you through a lot of what researchers have learned about stress, happiness, community, etc. The one thing it won't do is show you how to make more money. It'll show you that the money you have may already enough. In the book Wann relates a lot of personal stories that tie into his message of consuming less and being happy with what you have. There are a lot of interesting points in the book relating to happiness which is one of the main themes. Specifically Wann tells us, and backs it up with studies and other anecdotes, that the things that make us happy are the things we always knew made us happy. Those things being friends, family, a sense of community, healthy food to eat, civic work and purpose. One piece of information that I found interesting was a study referenced by Wann in the book that mentioned that any incremental money we earn over $50,000 per year doesn't necessarily make us any more happy. In fact, it most likely lowers our happiness level since we need to spend more time working to make each additional dollar rather than spending that time with friends, family, doing civic work and doing the things we love, our hobbies. Of course I am sure you need to adjust that dollar amount for certain cities (NYC is super expensive for example) but you get the idea. Another main theme of the book was our throw away culture. Wann wonders why we spend so much time and money buying cheaply made goods that end up owning us through continued maintenance, etc. Then, at the end of a short life span we just throw them away. He suggests we would be better off to spend a bit more and purchase quality goods that last. This hearkens back to my previous post on Etsy and handmade goods. If Etsy's success is a barometer for the rest of the nation then it would seem a lot of other people feel the same as Wann. This idea also extends to produce and other foods. Wann argues that spending a bit more for organic produce is worth it since it tastes better, provides more nutrients and isn't covered in poisonous pesticides. I agree with him on that one. It hurts the wallet sometimes but I always feel better after a good piece of fruit or an outstanding veggie. What always stuns me when I think about it is that 100 years ago - and further back from there - we always ate organic. It has only been in the last 100 years that things have changed so drastically. Even though there is a lot more to this boo