As Saint Teresa of Avila once said – "Thank God for the things I do not own!" This may not be the most politic time to praise the virtues of paring down. After all, the biggest shopping season of the year is barely over. But just how much more stuff do you really need, or even want? In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, how much is enough? A conversation about what to do with America's affluence.
Dinesh D'Souza was a policy analyst in the Reagan administration. His new book is "The Virtue of Prosperity: Finding Values in an Age of Techno-Affluence." D'Souza tells Steve Paulson that people who make (or inherit) a lot of money still need a reason to get out of bed in the morning: they must find some meaningful activity to replace "work." Also, Jessie O'Neill founded the Affluenza project in Milwaukee. She tells Jim Fleming about the problems having too much money creates in her clients' lives.SEGMENT 2:
Lynn Marie Helvey tells us the story of how strangers helped her acquire a beautiful dress, to make a point about finding abundance in the universe. Helvey lives in Indiana where she teaches Abundance Training Workshops. Also, Camy Matthey lives outside Madison, Wisconsin. She has chosen a lifestyle of extreme simplicity. Matthey describes it for Anne Strainchamps and talks about the seductiveness of consumer culture and how she guards against it.SEGMENT 3:
Peter Sealey used to do the marketing for Coca Cola. Now he champions "simplicity marketing," which offers consumers fewer choices. Do we really need 47 kinds of Crest? Sealey tells Steve Paulson how product marketing got so crazy, and what may happen to shopping when products contain digital chips. Peter Sealey is the co-author (with Steve Cristol) of "Simplicity Marketing - End Brand Complexity, Clutter and Confusion." Also, Karen Kingston, author of "Clear Your Clutter with Feng Shui," tells Anne Strainchamps that our stuff has emotional power over us. She says, if you feel bad about something, get rid of it!Cassette copies are available at 1-800-747-7444. Ask for program number 00-12-24-A.
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