Someone is always trying to sell you something -- whether it's Nike sneakers, Chanel lipstick, or a Big Mac. Is there any relief? In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, a few people who've rejected consumer culture. Also, how the advertising industry co-opted the counter- culture of the Sixties.
Harvard economist Juliet Schor tells Steve Paulson why people with incomes of a hundred thousand dollars a year feel poor. She says we're all comparing our lives to what we see on TV. Schor's book on consumerism is "The Overspent American." Also, Paul Lukas, publisher of the 'zine "Beer Frame: The Journal of Inconspicuous Consumption," revels in nifty products we all use and take for granted, or which appeal to a very narrowly defined market niche. He tells Judith Strasser about some of them -- like kraut juice.SEGMENT 2:
Eustace Conway lives in the woods. That's what he does. These days he also runs the Turtle Island Preserve near Boone, North Carolina, where he teaches others how to live off the land. Conway tells Steve Paulson about catching and killing his own food, making deerskin clothes, and why he lives the way he does. He also recounts a cross-country trip he made on horseback with his brother.SEGMENT 3:
Cultural critic Thomas Frank is the author of "The Conquest of Cool." He tells Jim Fleming that the advertising industry co-opted the counter culture of the 1960s by figuring out how to market the hip and rebellious. Also, an excerpt from Mary Ann Lieser's essay "The Media Free Family," published in "The Plain Reader: Essays on Making A Simple Life."Cassette copies are available at 1-800-747-7444. Ask for program number 98-06-14-A.
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