Order this film along with In Debt We Trust: America Before the Bubble Bursts - DVD, and you'll receive a free copy of the DVD "The Story of Stuff"

Summary:

In this powerful new video, Juliet Schor scrutinizes what she calls "the new consumerism"--a national phenomenon of upscale spending that is shaped and reinforced by a commercially-driven media system. She argues that "keeping up with the Joneses" is no longer enough for middle and upper-middle class Americans, many of whom become burdened with debilitating debt as they seek to emulate materialistic TV lifestyles.

Drawing on her academic research, Schor explains the cultural forces that cause Americans to work longer hours and spend more than they can afford in order to participate in a consumption competition with others. The video illustrates with numerous examples how more and more products are being used as social communicators to demonstrate material success. The Overspent American challenges the inevitability of the consumer lifestyle by proposing alternatives to the work and spend cycle that has so many Americans feeling trapped and unfulfilled. The video draws attention to--and ultimately raises serious questions about--the costs (both financial and societal) of relentlessly searching for happiness and identity through consumption.

Sections: The Cycle of Work and Spend/ The Stretching of Reference Groups/ The Visible Lifestyle/ The Costs of Overspending/ Getting Off the Consumer Escalator

Logistical Information:

Producer & Editor: Kelly Garner
Executive Producers: Loretta Alper & Sut Jhally

Biographical Summary:

Juliet Schor, a professor of Sociology at Boston College, is the author of The Overworked American: The Unexpected Decline of Leisure and The Overspent American: Upscaling, Downshifting and the New Consumer. She has co-edited The Golden Age of Capitalism: Reinterpreting the Postwar Experience, The Consumer Society Reader, and Sustainable Planet: Solutions for the 21st Century. Her research over the last ten years has focussed on issues pertaining to trends in work and leisure, consumerism, the relationship between work and family, women's issues and economic justice. Currently, she is working on a project dealing with the commercialization of childhood. She is also a board member and co-founder of the Center for a New American Dream.

Watch the trailer below: