The Thoughtful Consumer

Blog Action Day: Climate Change

2009-10-15T00:09:00.000-07:00

The challenge facing a call to action to deal with climate change is that the issue is not an obvious problem on a daily basis. We might notice an unseasonal heat wave, or be inconvenienced by a drought that restricts our water usage; we might even have an intellectual awareness that the issue is a serious one, but most average consumers in our country don't really suffer as a result of it -- not yet.

The majority of people probably don't even see much of a connection between consumerism and climate change, but it exists. Every product that we consume requires not only the ingredients or components of the product itself, but also a manufacturing and distribution process for those components and the final product, all which have some sort of environmental impact. Often there's also an environmental effect during or immediately after the consumption of the product.

Probably the most obvious example that contributes to the climate change problem: a car. When we buy a car, we're not just buying transportation; we're buying the various metals, glass, fiberglass, rubber, etc. that were used to build the car, as well as the manufacturing process itself. Then we need fossil fuels to run the car. Fuel requires not only raw materials (which are extracted in an environmentally unfriendly way), but also plants to process them (also not environmentally friendly). When fuel is burned in the car (and in the giant tanker trucks used to deliver the fuel to our gas stations), the waste product contributes to pollution. The Environmental Defense Fund states, "U.S. autos emit more than 333 million tons of carbon dioxide each year, more than one-fifth of the nation's total carbon dioxide emissions. Any serious effort to fight global warming must include cutting auto emissions." (Click here for a detailed analysis on the EDF site about how cars contribute to global warming.)

Everything that we consume has some kind of environmental consequences, so limiting our consumption seems to be a simple way to lessen our negative impact (our carbon footprint) on the environment. And because we are such a wealthy society, our impact is substantial. Global Issues reported that "using the latest figures available, in 2005, the wealthiest 20% of the world accounted for 76.6% of total private consumption. The poorest fifth just 1.5%" (See Material World: A Global Family Portrait, one of my favorite books, for some startling images that show the differences between us and consumers in other cultures.)

We may not have a lot of time to make changes in our patterns of consumption in order to halt and perhaps reverse the climate change trend. A recent British study predicts that the polar ice caps will be gone in twenty years. "Remove the Arctic ice cap and we are left with a very different and much warmer world. . . Loss of sea ice cover will 'set in motion powerful climate feedbacks which will have an impact far beyond the Arctic itself' . . . This could lead to flooding affecting one quarter of the world's population, substantial increases in greenhouse gas emission from massive carbon pools and extreme global weather changes."

Well, that would get our attention, but let's not wait that long. We can get involved right now by supporting these or many other fine organizations that are making efforts to deal with climate change:

The Nature Conservancy

Greenpeace

Oxfam

There are also opportunities for political involvement here:

350.org (sponsors of the International Day of Climate Action, October 24th)

TckTckTck (a cooperative umbrella organization working for an international agreement to address this issue at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, December 7-18, 2009. You can read more about the UN's effort to make this deal happen.)

And you can check out the other 7900+ blogs from all over the world that are participating in Blog Action Day. [Update at 4:00 p.m. Pacific Time: over 10,000 bloggers are participating and the event was kicked off by a topical post from UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown.]

I know, it seems a little overwhelming. I've written in the past about "shopper's compassion fatigue," that oppressive feeling of the weight of the world on our shoulders that we can get when trying to make the "right" decision about what to buy, or whether to buy at all. But as long as we're all traveling together on this small planet, it seems like a good idea to do what we can to keep that planet healthy enough to take care of us. And nobody ever said that being a thoughtful consumer was easy.

© 2009 Cynthia Friedlob

Alternative Housing: Intentional Communities

2009-10-08T22:00:00.000-07:00

[There was a Feedburner technical glitch affecting the distribution of my last post on September 25th, "Going Wrong Going Green, Part 2," and I was never able to get the feed to update. If you subscribe to this blog by RSS Feed, you probably didn't receive the post, so you may want to take a moment to read it at your convenience.]

I’ve talked in the past about alternative types of housing, but the alternatives have always referred to structural and environmental issues. What about other types of alternative housing? What about housing that encourages people to live in a more communal spirit?

Throughout human history, groups of people with common bonds have lived together in a community, either a shared physical location or, in the case of nomadic tribes, a shared pattern of roaming. When civilization moved beyond the tribal stage, religious beliefs were the common bonds that held together villages and most small towns. When we moved into the era of multiple types of groups living in larger urban areas, ethnic bonds usually prevailed. Sometimes this offered the comfort and familiarity of a community; sometimes it resulted in impoverished ghettos. Larger societies also have class or caste systems that create communities. Some are blatant, like those in India or England; some are more subtle, like Japan or Israel. Here in “the land of the free, home of the brave,” we have a massive mix of groups, many still astonishingly segregated, and a class system in which higher echelons can be cracked, to a substantial degree, with enough financial success.

So where do modern “intentional communities” fit in? There are still religious and cultural forms like ashrams and kibbutzes, and, in the U.S., communities like the Amish, or Native Americans who live on tribal lands. But there are also other types of intentional communities, communes and cohousing, which are based on shared philosophies or on simple economic need.

In addition to shared philosophy, communes have a shared economy, i.e., the communal structure generates at least some income for the members. Aging Boomers who were politically active liberals probably remember The Farm, Steven Gaskin’s “noble experiment” and a classic commune. An English professor at San Francisco State, Gaskin witnessed the explosion, then implosion, of the Haight-Ashbury district during the late 1960s. His response was to buy land in Tennessee and, along with a few hundred followers, set up an intentional community that was held together by the philosophical beliefs of anti-materialism, vegetarianism and self-sufficiency. The Farm still exists, in spite of bumps along the way, and now includes charitable service as part of its philosophy.

According to the CoHousing.org website, "The cohousing idea originated in Denmark, and was promoted in the U.S. by architects Kathryn McCamant and Charles Durrett in the early 1980s. . . [Cohousing brings] together the value of private homes with the benefits of more sustainable living. . . The common house is the social center of a community, with a large dining room and kitchen, lounge, recreational facilities, children’s spaces, and frequently a guest room, workshop and laundry room. Communities usually serve optional group meals in the common house at least two or three times a week."

Click here for the six defining characteristics of cohousing. One is that the cohousing community is not a source of income for its members, making this arrangement distinct from a commune.

Check out EcoVillage in Ithaca, New York; Milagro Co-housing in Tucson, Arizona; and Prairie Onion Cohousing, right in the city of Chicago for examples of cohousing.

Finances may be pushing a lot of people who have never considered it before into alternative living arrangements. Multi-generational families are sharing homes again after the latest stock market and housing meltdowns. Finances are also often an issue for older people who are alone and either have limited resources or want to spend their later years in a more collegial setting than what passes for "neighborhood" in many larger cities. Boomers Go Back to the Commune in Retirement, an informative article from Bankrate.com, discusses this trend. It's particularly significant for older women, who usually outlive their husbands. A Smart Money magazine article states, "The 2006 Census found that 7.4 million women aged 65 and older live alone, compared with 2.7 million men. . . Even scarier: In 2005, the Census found that 12% of women age 65 and older were living in poverty, a sizable chunk more than the 7% of men in the same group."

But I liked the story of one resourceful Asheville, NC, woman: "[I]nstead of joining an existing [intentional] community, the self-described maverick set up her own, buying two houses in a three-house enclave. Now, she lives in one house, rents her second property to two other single women, and has a friend living next door. 'It's like being married to four different people,' says Kilkenny, who helped organize the 'Women Living in Community' conference in Asheville in July. 'You drive into your driveway and there's someone there. It's huge for me. I can walk out on my porch and say 'Morning, Bobbie, want a cup of coffee?' There's camaraderie.'"

We can talk about all kinds of ways to live more lightly on the Earth, we can debate all kinds of strategies to get through difficult financial times, and we can lament the lack of community that so many of us feel. The simplest solutions for most of us are to live in smaller spaces, keep our living costs affordable and get to know our neighbors. I've got the first two solutions covered, but I just met my "new" next door neighbor last week. She's lived in her townhouse for a little over a year. What can I say? LA's a tough town.

Find more information at:

Intentional Communities

The National Shared Housing Resource Center

Diggers & Dreamers, the Guide to Communal Living in Britain

Image: Jackie at StockVault.net

Going Wrong Going Green, Part 2

2009-09-25T23:06:00.001-07:00

Synchronicity, according to Dictionary.com, is "a coincidence of events that seem to be meaningfully related." After my previous post, I haven't been searching for more examples of the complexity of the decision-making process when you want to be a thoughtful consumer, but the LA Times had two articles today that relate to the topic. Synchronicity? Why not?

First, fabric. Let's consider the fact that many consumers who think of themselves as concerned and aware disdain anything other than "natural" fabrics like cotton, yet "Hard Truths about Uzbek Cotton," an opinion piece written by Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), details the plight of children forced to pick cotton in Uzbekistan, the world's third largest exporter of cotton -- cotton that ends up in our marketplace.

"Unlike most instances of forced child labor in agriculture, this mass mobilization is not driven by exploitative plantation owners or desperate families but by the government. . . Consumers and companies in the West prop up this monstrous system by unwittingly purchasing cotton harvested by forced child labor. Supply chain analysts have determined that most Uzbek cotton is sold to countries in South Asia and Eastern Europe. From there, the cotton is processed and turned into garments sold in retail stores in the United States, Canada and Western Europe."

Is child slave labor cotton any more acceptable than blood diamonds? No.

And don't think that buying "organic cotton" necessarily solves the problem. Erik Cussack's "Organic Cotton" blog has interesting posts about fake organic cotton that's being sold as the real thing and about genetically-modified organic cotton from India. Also, if organic cotton fabric is dyed with toxic chemicals, which does happen, that defeats its purpose. There's also a cost factor if you're purchasing most legitimate organic cotton goods; not everyone can afford a $35 T-shirt.

The next issue may sound amusing, but it really isn't: toilet paper. Reporter David A. Fahrenthold wrote, "Environmentalists Target Plush Toilet Paper," in which he explains that "plush U.S. toilet paper is usually made by chopping down and grinding up trees that were decades or even a century old. Environmentalists want Americans, like Europeans, to wipe with tissue made from recycled paper goods."

Although toilet paper and facial tissues account for only 5% of the products made from "the forest goods industry," do we really want to cut down a single old growth tree so that we can have three-ply toilet paper? No.

And finally, before I put to rest, at least for awhile, the problems inherent in going green, I want to close with some information I just happened to come across recently having to do with ethanol, which has been touted as as a biofuel alternative to gasoline. In 2008, the U.S. and Brazil produced 89% of the supply of ethanol fuel; Brazil has been nicknamed "the Saudi Arabia of biofuels."

From Wikipedia: "Because it is easy to manufacture and process and can be made from very common crops such as sugar cane, potato, manioc and corn, in several countries ethanol fuel is increasingly being blended as gasohol or used as an oxygenate in gasoline. Bioethanol, unlike petroleum, is a renewable resource that can be produced from agricultural feedstocks."

This makes it an appealing commodity to environmentalists. But, it turns out that, in addition to potential ecological problems affecting water quality (see the NY Times) and the contamination of grain fed to livestock (see Minnesota Public Radio), once again the human cost must be considered.

According to an LA Times article by Patrick J. McDonnell from June, 2008, "[m]ore than 300,000 farmworkers are seasonal [sugar] cane cutters in Brazil, the government says. By most accounts, their work and living conditions range from basic to deplorable to outright servitude. . . In its annual report, Amnesty International last month highlighted the plight of Brazil's biofuel workers, more than 1,000 of whom were rescued in June 2007 after allegedly being held in slave-like conditions at a plantation owned by a major ethanol producer. . . Although slavery cases tend to grab headlines, advocates say laborers typically face more quotidian abuse -- low pay, excessive work hours, inadequate safety gear, an absence of sanitary and health services, and exposure to pesticides and other toxic chemicals."

So, this is what it takes to produce one type of alternative fuel? Is that okay with everyone? No.

Unfortunately, I could list many more situations that most consumers may not be aware of, including some that I've covered in previous posts (see, for example, Fair Trade Jewelry). Clearly it's not easy to understand the complex issues surrounding every single thing we buy, to make the right decision, to do the right thing. But accepting that fact may at least help us make some decisions that we know are right:

I know for certain that I can live without that third ply.

© 2009 Cynthia Friedlob

Photo credit: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Going Wrong Going Green

2009-09-24T12:36:00.000-07:00

We all like to think we’re making wise consumer decisions that are good for us and good for the Earth. We like to think we’re making informed decisions, not irrational, arbitrary ones. Okay, at least we like to think we’re giving it our best shot. Turns out that often there are trade-offs and compromises that probably don’t even occur to us when we’re making those decisions.

Here are just a few things to consider:

Sometimes the real cost of "buying American" defeats, or seriously compromises, our efforts to go green. For example, Newsweek recently reported that "[a] New Yorker leaves a smaller carbon footprint drinking a French Bordeaux shipped across the Atlantic (2.93 pounds of carbon per bottle) than drinking a Napa merlot (7.05 pounds). That's because when it comes to calculating carbon costs, the method of transportation matters as much as the distance. Shipping freight by sea generates less than half the emissions associated with airplanes and tractor-trailers."

The same shipping problem exists for groceries. Consumers have come to expect fresh produce in our stores throughout the year, so importing is the only option. But the New York Times reported that "the movable feast comes at a cost: pollution — especially carbon dioxide, the main global warming gas — from transporting the food. Under longstanding trade agreements, fuel for international freight carried by sea and air is not taxed. Now, many economists, environmental advocates and politicians say it is time to make shippers and shoppers pay for the pollution, through taxes or other measures."

But the transportation/fuel issue isn't straightforward: "The problem is measuring the emissions. The fact that food travels farther does not necessarily mean more energy is used. Some studies have shown that shipping fresh apples, onions and lamb from New Zealand might produce lower emissions than producing the goods in Europe, where — for example — storing apples for months would require refrigeration."

And how about those "green" re-usable bags we're all supposed to remember to carry into the store when we go shopping? Again, it's not so simple to figure out the benefits. From the Wall Street Journal: "'If you don't reuse them, you're actually worse off by taking one of them,' says Bob Lilienfeld, author of the Use Less Stuff Report, an online newsletter about waste prevention. . . . [and] Finding a truly green bag is challenging. Plastic totes may be more eco-friendly to manufacture than ones made from cotton or canvas, which can require large amounts of water and energy to produce and may contain harsh chemical dyes. Paper bags, meanwhile, require the destruction of millions of trees and are made in factories that contribute to air and water pollution. Many of the cheap, reusable bags that retailers favor are produced in Chinese factories and made from nonwoven polypropylene, a form of plastic that requires about 28 times as much energy to produce as the plastic used in standard disposable bags and eight times as much as a paper sack . . ."

Kind of makes you want to throw up your hands and surrender, doesn't it?

But let's not do that. Let's continue doing our best to make good decisions, but let's also remember that life is full of compromises. In fact, it's not always possible to make the "right" consumer choices because we can't always figure out what they are. Maybe realizing this is an opportunity to develop a more tolerant response to people who make choices that we don't understand. Maybe it's an opportunity to lighten up.

And maybe the whole dilemma doesn't matter all that much because if we don't start making better choices about how we relate to and care about other human beings, trust me, shopping will be the least of our problems.

© 2009 Cynthia Friedlob

Photo credit: StockVault.net

Hunger Action Month

2009-09-23T21:35:00.000-07:00

Better late than never!

Just a quick post to let you know that September (almost gone!) is Hunger Action Month, a worthy event sponsored by Feeding America (formerly America's Second Harvest, The Nation's Food Bank Network).

Macy's, The Cheesecake Factory, United Airlines, Sony Pictures Animation and Microsoft are partners with Feeding America for this project.

Click here to read the full press release.

Click here to find out what's going on in your community.

If you're in the Los Angeles area, you can head for the "Rock a Little, Feed a Lot" concert at Club Nokia on September 29th featuring Sheryl Crow, Ben Harper and other performers in an LA Food Bank fundraiser.

The Feeding America site has a calculator that demonstrates how many meals they can provide if we skip purchasing something we don't need and donate the money we would have spent to them instead:

New shoes = 240 meals

New purse = 135 meals

Round of golf = 180 meals

A single latte = 9 meals

Wherever we are, this month can help us keep in perspective our role as consumers. If we're fortunate enough to be able to cut back a little on shopping and entertainment, we can make quite an impact on the lives of others who can't afford one thing every consumer has to buy: food.

© 2009 Cynthia Friedlob

Photo credit: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The Great California Garage Sale

2009-08-30T13:51:00.001-07:00

It's a pretty sorry situation when a state has to resort to a garage sale to help balance a budget that suffers from a 26 billion dollar deficit. But that's what California did this weekend at the Great California Garage Sale. The government gathered up all of its clutter, plunked it down in a huge warehouse in Sacramento and opened the doors to the gleeful public. There were even items listed for sale on eBay.

It turned out to be a good idea.

Literally thousands of typical garage sale bargains like office furniture, computers, electronics, jewelry and an antique piano, plus some less common finds like surplus prison uniforms and dental chairs, brought about 1.6 million dollars to the state's coffers. Almost 600 state-owned vehicles were auctioned on-line; some had visors that had been autographed by our famous governator in order to boost their value.

I'm not a big fan of garage sales because the time and energy involved don't often pay off in a substantial way, but that's just my personal preference. If you're excited about having a garage sale to unclutter your home and raise some cash, it could be a perfectly fine choice for you.

However you choose to let go of things you don't need or want, the important thing is to let go. (If you or someone you know has a serious problem doing that and the resulting clutter is out of control, there is help at the Obsessive Compulsive Foundation website.)

The classic example of the inability to let go is the oft-cited story of the Collyer brothers whose hoarding ultimately led to their deaths in the late 1940s. A new novel about the brothers and their plight has just been published. Written by E.L. Doctorow, author of numerous fine books including World's Fair and Ragtime, Homer & Langley (which I have not yet read) sounds like a generous, humanizing story of the brothers' lives. On Amazon.com, Doctorow said:

"I was a teenager when the Collyer brothers were found dead in their Fifth Avenue brownstone. Instantly, they were folklore. . . I didn’t know at the time that I would someday write about them, but even then I felt there was some secret to the Collyers--there was something about them still to be discovered under the piles of things in their house--the bales of newspapers and the accumulated detritus of their lives. Was it only that they were junk-collecting eccentrics? You see that every day in the streets of New York. They had opted out--that was the primary fact. Coming from a well-to-do family, with every advantage, they had locked the door and closed the shutters and absented themselves from the life around them. . . I felt as if writing [the book] was an act of breaking and entering just to see what may have been going on in that house, which really meant getting inside two very interesting minds."

And yet, however interesting their minds may have been, their hermit-like existence in a home literally packed to the rafters is incomprehensible to most of us. Excerpts from a 2005 column by William Bryk in the New York Sun give more details about how they lived:

"At 8:53 a.m. on March 21, 1947, police headquarters received a pseudonymous call reporting a dead man in the [Collyer brothers'] mansion. After failing to force the front doors, the police unhinged them to find a solid wall of boxes. The basement stairs to the first floor were similarly blocked. After forcing a first-floor window, they saw rooms and stairwells jammed with ceiling-high, rat-infested stacks of boxes, paper, and furniture. . . By the end of the second day [of clearing the house], according to the Times, the first floor hallway alone had yielded 19 tons of debris. . .

"Amidst hundreds of tons of garbage, they found family oil portraits; hope chests jammed with unused piece goods, silks, wool, damask, and brocade; a half-dozen toy trains; 14 upright and grand pianos; chandeliers; tapestries; 13 ornate mantel clocks; 13 Oriental rugs; five violins; two organs, and Langley's certificate of merit for punctuality and good conduct from Public School 69 for the week ending April 19, 1895. . .

"By April 3, the Herald Tribune reported that the movers, in clearing only two first-floor rooms, had removed 51 tons of stuff. Another 52 tons later, on April 8, they found Langley's body. Police told the Sun that his clothing may have snagged a tripwire, releasing a booby trap that had buried him alive in paper."

Homer, an invalid, had died of starvation because his brother wasn't there to care for him.

This appalling, cautionary tale may be enough to scare many people into a minimalist lifestyle, but there's an alternative. If you truly have a passion for collecting -- not hoarding everything, but selectively acquiring certain items you love -- take heart from the story of Lester Glassner, who passed away a few weeks ago at the age of seventy. His obituary explains:

"The one-time picture editor, designer and art librarian for CBS Records had a massive collection of vintage movie memorabilia, dime-store merchandise and other pop-culture artifacts numbering in the hundreds of thousands.

"For more than three decades, Glassner's large and diverse collection filled his four-story 19th century brownstone home on Manhattan's Lower East Side.

'There are hats . . . mechanical toys . . . World War II propaganda posters . . . antique Seven Dwarfs of various types. . . . a huge collection of antique postcards of all types. And autographed photos of famous people.' [his sister said]

"That's not to mention chalk, ceramic and porcelain figurines, rare celluloid toys, Halloween masks, clothes, antique sleighs, dolls, 78-revolutions-per-minute records, art glass, movie posters, movie stills, lobby cards and a host of other items. Glassner's collection of movie stills alone numbers more than 250,000 photos, many of them rare.

"Louis Pappas, a friend and fellow collector . . . said, '[Glassner’s home] was almost like a museum, really, the whole place. I'd say it was one of the major collections in the world.'

"Before he died, Glassner made plans to donate more than 2,500 [18th and 19th century] books to the library at Buffalo State College. 'He also has a large collection of art, photography, architecture, fashion, painting and sculpture books, and those will go into the general collection,' [a library spokesperson] said."

Clearly, this was a man who loved his possessions. He displayed and cared for them for his own enjoyment and to share with others. Massive as the collections were, he kept them well-organized. In this photo of him as a young man, you can see how happy he is showing off some of his toys. There was even a book published in 1981 entitled, Dime Store Days, in which his collection was featured. He’s a perfect example of a collector.

The majority of people are not hoarders like the Collyer brothers, nor passionate collectors like Lester Glassner. However, most of us could take a cue from the state of California: if we have excess stuff taking up storage space or, worse, space in our homes, we might want to think of parting with it in a way that generates some cash to pay down debt or help out with living expenses. Unfortunately, unlike Arnold, autographing our junk won't increase its value.

© 2009 Cynthia Friedlob
Image from the Flickr images posted for the Great California Garage Sale

Stop Screaming About Health Care Reform

2009-08-19T21:13:00.000-07:00

Watching an older man scream that he wants the government to keep its hands off his Medicare insurance has probably been the most ludicrous image I've seen in the so-called debate about health care reform.

The most disturbingly ignorant image was the woman holding a poster depicting President Obama with a Hitler-style moustache as she challenged Representative Barney Frank with the astonishing claim that the President's suggested reform is a "Nazi policy."

The visions of men openly, although legally, carrying guns (including an assault rifle) at several of the President's Town Hall meetings across the country I've found almost incomprehensible.

The biggest problem our society faces is that these are not isolated incidents. Many people are enraged, but they're also woefully ignorant. Political discourse can barely exist in this uninformed, hostile atmosphere.

As blogger Seth Godin said, the screaming of nonsense and lies "is often a tool used to balance out the lazy ignorance of someone parroting opposition to an idea that they don't understand. . . If you want to challenge the conventional wisdom of health care reform, please do! It'll make the final outcome better. But if you choose to do that, it's essential that you know more about it than everyone else, not less. Certainly not zero. Be skeptical, but be informed. . . Screaming ignorance gets attention, but it distracts us from the work at hand."

And there is serious work at hand.

Anyone who denies that health care reform is necessary must be completely out of touch with reality. Steve Lopez of the LA Times reported on a recent free clinic staged in Los Angeles by Remote Area Medical (I mentioned RAM in my August 1st post on charitable giving). He described what he saw there as "scenes from the Third World": The Forum, a huge facility that formerly housed the LA Lakers, converted into a massive medical clinic. Exhausting waits in long lines full of desperate people, often entire families, who had no insurance, not enough insurance or who were unable to pay the deductible required for the treatment they needed. Overwhelmed doctors, dentists, opticians, nurses and other support staff. And not enough time to help everyone.

Unless we were to follow the lead of the UK, Canada or France and offer universal health care -- something that won't happen in this political climate -- whatever changes are made will require many of us to continue to buy some form of health insurance. To say that we will need to be thoughtful consumers is an understatement.

So, in order to participate in this crucial debate -- and let's remember that it is a debate, not a showdown at the OK Corral -- let's at least do enough research to get the basic facts straight. I suggest starting with this very short, informative article from BBC News in which you'll learn that our current health care system is less efficient than those in the UK, France and Singapore.

Then search on-line. Thanks to the Internet, it is possible to get accurate information about the reform that's being discussed (there are no "death panels," no euthanasia for older people, no one interfering with your health care to any greater degree than it's already being interfered with right now by your insurance company, if you're fortunate enough to have one). We can go to major, reliable sources that still have journalistic integrity (thank Heaven) and read. There are no short cuts. We need to get that information and, even if it's confusing or there's a tremendous amount of it or we'd just rather do something else with our time, we need to try to understand it so that we can act to make responsible reform happen.

How do we act? Obviously not by screaming, not by spreading false rumors or innuendo, certainly not by making ridiculous and outrageous claims. Instead, click on these links to find out (if you don't already know) who represents you in the House and who represents you in the Senate and e-mail your opinions to them. Members of Congress can't act in our interest unless they know what we think.

This is no time to bow out of the decision-making process; we all must participate to make sure that we get the health care reform that we need.

Our lives depend on it.

© 2009 Cynthia Friedlob
Photo Credit: Library of Congress via PingNews
Public Health Service Nurse and Patient (pub. date: between 1918 and 1925)

You can read more and get links to many other blogs that are publishing posts on this topic today, "Elders for Health Care Reform Day." Go to www.TimeGoesBy.net.

Being Thoughtful About Money

2009-08-09T21:29:00.000-07:00

Let's just admit it up front: once a society goes beyond the barter system, "finances" are all smoke and mirrors. If I have a couple of chickens, you have a goat and we trade, you'll get some eggs and I'll get some milk. If I bake loaves of tasty bread, you weave a beautiful blanket and we trade, there’s no mystery about the exchange or value of goods.

Start using money and everybody's operating on faith. Even before we abandoned the gold standard, everyone had to accept that gold was special and worth some amount we all could agree on -- a fairly arbitrary assessment when you think about it. And now there are plenty of bizarre, almost totally inexplicable financial instruments that have brought down the entire world economy. This is progress?

Obviously, in a complex society the barter system won't work, therefore money is necessary and useful. Maybe it's the abstractness of the concept of money that gets so many people into trouble.

Clearly our perception of money and credit and what has value has been tossed on its head in the last couple of years. This is not a bad thing in the eyes of someone like me who came of age in the sixties, but it's certainly a bad thing for anyone who was caught unprepared for the current recession.

So, armed with only a very fine liberal arts education and far less money than Donald Trump, I'd like to offer a few thoughts about financial planning from a thoughtful consumer's point of view. Investing presumes that you are fortunate enough not to be living paycheck to paycheck and that you are fortunate enough to have a paycheck at all. Even if that's not the case, take heart. You can still use this information to help plan your future.

First, the stock market: it's not for everyone, especially if you buy individual stocks. If you have a pension plan of any kind at all, you're already in the stock market. It's okay if you choose to invest your own money elsewhere, no matter what the investing gurus insist. It's your money.

What set me off about stock market investing was yet another article reporting about yet another company that had missed analysts' profit predictions; in this case, the company had "only" made 26 cents instead of 31 cents per share. This caused the stock price to drop 7 percent.

If you were an investor in that company, you would not have this information quickly enough to act on it to avoid losing at least some of your investment. If you were a long-term investor, you might shrug it off and feel confident that you'd recoup your money in time. But how would you know this? Either by relying on your broker (an honest one, I hope, who charges less than the usually high standard fees), or by having the ability on your own to investigate the company in detail and make appropriate decisions based on your knowledge of the company itself, the entire industry and reasonable predictions of future trends. How many of us can do that? Not many.

If you bet on the stock market by responding to supposedly hot tips, you're gambling, not investing. If you still have "disposable income" in this recession and choose to gamble, again, it's your money so it's your choice. Just don't delude yourself into thinking that a hot tip is better than a Lotto ticket when it comes to retirement planning.

But if you're convinced that the market is the place for you to be, I'd like to suggest the following books (total disclosure: they are not infallible, nor do I personally endorse or follow all of the recommendations, but, like I said, I studied liberal arts).

If you know something about the stock market, or thought you did until lately, try these:

A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton Malkiel. This book presents a strong case for index fund investing and explains why it can be very expensive to try to beat the market.

Mr. Market Miscalculates: The Bubble Years and Beyond by James Grant of "Grant's Interest Rate Observer," also the author of the original Minding Mr. Market. Grant suggested that "Mr. Market" behaves in a manic-depressive way (bi-polar would be the updated term for today), so it should be no surprise that the opinions of someone who is so afflicted might not be terribly reliable.

If you haven't got a clue about investing or if you know just enough to be dangerous, try this:

The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need by Andrew Tobias, is an engaging, informative book that novice investors can get through without feeling overwhelmed. He offers information on many types of investments and uses his personal experiences as examples.

If you want to learn how reasonable people can be led into ridiculous investing schemes, I'd suggest:

Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles MacKay. You might not think that a book published in 1841 could be relevant today, but that's not the case. There's a priceless chapter about the Dutch tulip mania in the 1600s during which the value of tulip bulbs was greater than the value of gold (so much for the gold standard). Although the precise accuracy of MacKay's account has been questioned (what isn't?), the story will convince you that bubbles are nothing new.

However, if you want to consider an alternative investing plan, I'd suggest:

Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin, Joe Dominguez and, for the updated edition, Monique Tilford. I'm about to start reading the new version of the book, so my recommendation is based on having greatly appreciated the original which was written back in 1993. In fact, this title and Sugar Blues are the only books that I've purchased multiple times for myself but ended up giving away to friends. The authors ask you to think in terms of "life energy," i.e., calculate how much life energy you're required expend in order to earn a dollar. You'll find out that your hourly wage is less than you believe. You'll also find out a lot about how you relate to money.

If you want to rethink your relationship to money even further and you nurture "back to the land" fantasies as I do (and, in my case, they will remain fantasies, which is all for the best), consider this fine book:

The Good Life by Helen and Scott Nearing. I read this long ago, but one concept in particular will remain forever in my mind as an example of how to structure a thoughtful life: the Nearings advocated spending four hours a day earning a living, four hours serving the community, and four hours pursuing one's personal interests.

Further total disclosure: I don't follow all of the advice in the alternative books either, but much of it has been extremely valuable to me. Also, I haven't always made the best decisions, but, thanks in part to all of the authors mentioned, I've made some good ones.

The important point to remember is that if we're going to be thoughtful consumers, we need to understand the process we use to consume, then figure out a way to shape our lives financially so that we can find a greater meaning than what is provided by acquiring more and more stuff. This also requires asking ourselves:

What good is buying things that are supposed to be better for the planet if we really can't afford to buy anything at all? How can we be socially conscious if we're working two jobs and haven't an ounce of energy to devote to anything beyond our survival? What can we do to take control of our finances, as much as we possibly can, so that we can move on and live worthwhile and satisfying lives?

And that's my two cents. (Oh, come on. You knew it was coming.)

Hoarding: Clutter as Pathology

2009-08-06T21:49:00.000-07:00

For the last year or so I’ve been debating whether or not I should write a follow-up workbook to complement my book, Sorting It Out: One Disorganized Woman Solves the Problem of Too Much Stuff. During this time, I've searched the Amazon.com listings on occasion and watched as more and more books about uncluttering were being published. Today’s search revealed that there are 81,471 books that use the word “clutter” either in the title or somewhere in the book.

Of course, we can exclude from the list the obviously unrelated tomes such as Sidelobe Canceller Jamming Using Hot-Clutter, a naval post-graduate school report provided to the Pentagon; and Timber Management: A Quantitative Approach, written by a gentleman named Jerome L. Clutter; as well as plenty of others in which the word “clutter” just happens to appear in the text.

Let's even speculate wildly that ninety-five percent of the 81,471 books don’t have a thing to do with letting go of household clutter and getting organized. That would still leave over 4,000 books on the topic. Could there possibly be anything more to say that would be of value? It seems unlikely. As a result, even though the problem of clutter is clearly a hot topic for a substantial number of people, I’ve decided to pass on the opportunity to add to the clutter of uncluttering books.

However, I do want to take a moment to discuss the extreme form of hanging on to useless stuff: hoarding. This is a serious condition, as I was reminded recently by a fairly horrifying account from Ronni Bennett on her excellent blog, Time Goes By. She wrote about her grandmother, whom she barely knew, and the distressing discovery, when Grandma Hazel passed away, that she had been a hoarder.

I offered the following information in comments on Ronni’s blog; I’ve mentioned some of it here in the past, but it’s worth repeating in case you know someone who has a problem with the compulsive accumulation of clutter.

Hoarding is a condition that is not well understood today, especially by lay people, and it was understood even less in Ronni’s grandmother's time. But it is important, I think, to understand that it is a mental illness, not just "laziness" or a "lifestyle choice" as some people think.

The University of San Diego's Psychiatry Department estimates that hoarding affects 1.2 million people in the U.S., but it's difficult to know the extent because of the secrecy and shame associated with the disorder. Also, surprisingly, a hoarder may avoid revealing her situation by presenting herself to the world in a perfectly acceptable, conventional way (as Ronni’s grandmother did by always standing on the curb in front of her home to be picked up rather than allowing someone to come inside).

The Obsessive Compulsive Foundation devotes a portion of its website to hoarding. The Q&A page gives concise and useful information.

There is also a website called Children of Hoarders for adult children of parents or guardians who have or had this devastating problem. (See this 2001 post from the distraught daughter of a hoarder showing photos of her mother's home. This hoarder's home is relatively "organized," filled primarily with neat stacks of boxes and even some collections on display -- none of the seemingly random piles and bags of trash, garbage and the accompanying infestations often associated with hoarders' homes. Also, notice in the final photo that there's nothing unusual about the way her smiling mother looks.)

Although I sometimes teach workshops on uncluttering, I haven't had any personal experience dealing with hoarders. I do know of several people who have tried to help hoarder friends and family members and found it was a thankless task. Even professional intervention often fails completely, although that certainly doesn’t mean that help shouldn’t be sought.

If you read the disturbing story about Ronni’s grandmother, you’ll see that her isolation and loneliness helped her to hide her hoarding problem and added to the tragedy of how she lived during her mature years. After I read it, I was even more appreciative of my very sociable, well-liked eighty-seven-year-old mother and her beautiful, uncluttered little apartment. She's an inspiration.

Thanks, Mom.

© 2009 Cynthia Friedlob

Photo credit: Matt Banks

FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Charity: Three Ways to Give

2009-08-01T23:28:00.000-07:00

My last post (Small Houses, No Houses) included some disturbing information about several tent cities that have been created by people who are homeless. Who would have imagined that in 2009 our society would have tent cities that look like something out of the 1930s? At least there are finally predictions that the economy is on the upswing again. Today, an LA Times article by Don Lee said:

"The worst recession since the Great Depression could be coming to an end shortly, with a fresh [economic] report raising hopes that a recovery may be stronger than previously projected."

I hope that optimistic prediction is right, but the current global financial mess still indicates that charitable giving is needed from any of us who can afford to give it. With that in mind, here are three ideas for giving -- our cash, our clutter or our time.

(1) Donate cash: Regular blog reader Sue Sorensen alerted me to an unusual project that's being initiated in Edmonds, Washington:

"A friend, Carol Schillios, runs a nonprofit organization that provides micro-loans to women in Third World countries and runs a craft training school in Africa for young women beggars. The Fabric of Life Foundation also has a fair trade boutique on Main Street in Edmonds, WA, where I live. You will be seeing a lot of Carol in the news later this week when she moves to the roof of the boutique to promote awareness that we can all be of service to the world in our own small ways. Carol will live in a tent on the roof [for one month to encourage] one million people to send her a dollar and tell her one small thing they're doing to help their community or the world."

All the donations to the charity are tax-deductible. Carol's already camping out and will begin blogging on Monday, August 3rd. You'll be able to go "Up On the Roof with Carol" to find out more about the progress of her unique fund-raising plan. Her seven-year old foundation is currently setting up credit unions, savings cooperatives and educational training opportunities in West Africa and Viet Nam, but in the past they have worked in other countries from Kenya to Thailand. Sounds worthwhile. I hope it doesn't rain very much in Edmonds!

(2) Unclutter your home: Sometimes the most obvious and familiar charities may get overlooked or taken for granted. Goodwill has been around for over one hundred years, providing not only well-stocked stores filled with our gently used household items, but also offering job training and employment placement to disadvantaged people who truly need this assistance.

Goodwill of Southern California ranks number nine in the top ten charities with the most consecutive four-star ratings from the very useful organization, Charity Navigator, "America's premier independent charity evaluator."

As I continue uncluttering with my 365 Item Toss challenge, I'll be hauling more useless stuff to Goodwill so that those things can become useful again in someone else's life.

(3) Give your time: There are many charities that appreciate volunteers, but if you happen to be a health care professional, Remote Area Medical, "pioneers of no-cost health care," needs your help. RAM was founded in 1985 as a "non-profit, volunteer, airborne relief corps dedicated to serving mankind by providing free health care, dental care, eye care, veterinary services, and technical and educational assistance to people in remote areas of the United States and the world." This amazing volunteer group now stages special short-term health care events and expeditions in both rural and urban locations, offering free medical attention to anyone who is "uninsured, under-insured, unemployed, or under-employed."

The health care crisis in this country surpasses the housing crisis in severity. These medical angels make a tremendous difference in the lives they touch. They'll be here in Los Angeles at the Forum in Inglewood from August 11-18th.

Is there something, one small thing, we all can do, no matter what our circumstances, that will make a difference? Here's a quote that will help us answer that question:

"A bone to the dog is not charity. Charity is the bone shared with the dog, when you are just as hungry as the dog."

Jack London

U.S. adventurer, author and sailor (1876 - 1916)

Photo Credit: Maggie Smith
FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Thanks to Laura Moncur's Motivational Quotations

Small Houses, No Houses

2009-07-26T17:52:00.000-07:00

In this economy, it should come as no surprise to anyone that, as a society, we are reconsidering what home ownership means. For the many people who are unable to make their mortgage payments or are dealing with foreclosure, owning a home may not be an option again for a very long time, if ever.

With property values depressed, even fortunate or frugal homeowners who aren't at risk are also reassessing the amount of space they need to live in to be comfortable. Is that big monthly payment for a 5000-square-foot home starting to look a bit pricey for a family of two? Is paying for the upkeep on a half-acre of land plus swimming pool feeling like it may not be worth it after all? If you've got two kids, is it really necessary to have six bedrooms, a den, a "great room" and a full finished basement? "Trading down" at the next opportunity to do so is starting to sound like a good idea to a lot of homeowners.

Of course, how much space you and your family need to live is a personal decision, but the previously popular belief that bigger equals better when it comes to houses has fallen out of favor. There are obvious advantages to this change of opinion, at least the way thoughtful consumers see it. Better use of natural resources and lower expenses that allow for better allocation of personal resources are two that come to mind immediately.

So, what's in the news about this enforced reassessment of how we're "supposed" to live?

Bankrate.com has an article entitled, New Realty Reality: Small Is the New Big, written by Jay MacDonald. The article says that we're getting a healthier perspective than we've had in a long time about what a home is:

"As Americans focused more and more on the financial appreciation of their address, many lost the thread of what makes a house a home in the first place.

. . . [Real estate expert Barbara] Corcoran says, 'When someone decided to renovate a kitchen, the first priority was, what changes would sell well, and the second priority was, what changes would we enjoy? People sacrificed many things they would personally enjoy for the sake of resale. I saw that over and over.'

". . . You don't have to own everything that you make use of. You don't need one room for exercise equipment, one room for a movie theater," says Marc Vassallo [co-author with architect Sarah Susanka of Not So Big Remodeling: Tailoring Your Home for the Way You Really Live.]

". . . The 'Not So Big' movement advocates downsizing toward cozier, more enjoyable homes that emphasize quality over quantity."

Last week the Fort Worth Star-Telegram ran an article entitled, "For Some, Tiny Houses Are Just the Right Size," by Steve Campbell. It discusses "super-downsizing:"

". . . but that’s just the extreme edge of a growing movement away from suburban castles and into 'right-sized' homes that require less energy, upkeep and money. . .

". . . In a June survey by the National Association of Home Builders, 59 percent of respondents said they are building smaller homes . . ."

All this is good news for the small house builders. (Please see my 2007 post, Small House, Big Benefits? for examples of very small homes. Also, several months ago, Michael Janzan at Tiny House Design posted about his Tiny Simple House and the shotgun houses that inspired it.)

But you don't have to go "super-small" to rightsize into something that works. Habitat 15 is a Hollywood, CA, development that boasts fifteen townhouses on a 14,000 square foot lot:

"Design elements such as the irregular window placement are not merely some artistic statement. Their positioning on all the exterior walls, as well as on the roof in the form of skylights, is driven less by the aesthetic demands for symmetry and more by the need to draw light inside the homes, some of which are two stories tall, some of which are three. Lucky for the architects, the final result is functional and idiosyncratically arresting."

Not cheap, however, with prices from $590,000 to $849,000. Photo tour here.

In Eagle Rock, CA, just a brief freeway ride from Hollywood, fifteen "environmentally friendly, almost-townhouses" share a half-acre of land.

"'The buildings don’t share a common wall,' says architect Kevin Wronsky, who with brother Hardy also is the developer of the project, called Rock Row. 'There is five inches of space between each of them that is totally open.' The gaps allow each building to move independently of the others in an earthquake. Perhaps most important, the space serves as sound insulation, lessening how much noise transfers from one unit to the next.'"

Take a photo tour here. The units range from about 1300 to 1600 square feet and they're also expensive. However, if you can afford them, they have a special feature:

"With prices running $482,000 to $569,000, Rock Row has the first homes in Los Angeles under $500,000 to be LEED certified, winning a U.S. Green Building Council rating for green design and sustainable construction methods."

Obviously, one doesn't need to spend at the steep prices we still have in Los Angeles to find a suitable smaller home. Unless you're here in LA or New York or San Francisco, you'll undoubtedly be able to find or build a house at a smaller scale and more reasonable price that will serve you well.

If you want to buy a house. If you can afford to buy a house. There is nothing wrong with renting and it may offer benefits many of us haven't considered. According to a 2007 article in eFinanceDirectory that lists some of those benefits, thanks to the collapse of the housing bubble, people who bought houses in 1987 would have been better off investing their money in stocks from 1987 to 2007. Of course, between 2007 and today, the financial markets have taken such a beating that the average person might have done better stashing cash in a mattress.

The serious problem we face right now is that the economy has been so devastated that many people can't even afford to rent.

In April, Patrick Oppman of CNN.com wrote about a tent city in Seattle:

"Set up in the parking lot of a church near Seattle, Washington, the camp houses anywhere from 50 to 100 homeless people each day.

"Residents call it Nickelsville. The name takes a page from the infamous 'Hooverville' shantytowns of the Great Depression that were named for a president many thought did not care about their economic hardships. . . .

". . . 'In shelters, if you don't get there in time enough, you don't have your bed no more 'cause there are so many people trying to rush in to get it,' [a resident] says. 'Got a lotta people losing their homes. You don't want to go all the way to the bottom. Nickelsville is kind of a catch in between.'"

California's collapsed economy has resulted tent cities, too. Over a year ago, the BBC reported on a tent city in Ontario, forty miles east of LA.

You can listen here to an NPR report about the situation in our capital: "Sacramento's Tent Cities Still Bloom In Secret," by Ben Adler on today's "Weekend Edition."

See photos from an earlier NY Times story about the Fresno and Sacramento area tent cities here.

And, as I've always said, when a story makes it onto "Oprah," it's hit the mainstream. See Lisa Ling's report here about her trip to Sacramento.

We've come a long way from the days of the mandatory McMansion, from the peculiar concept of "starter houses," from rampant speculating because housing prices were "always" going to go up. Is that a bad thing? Not necessarily, if it forces us to be more realistic about our expectations rather than having feelings of entitlement that usually lead to very bad judgment. Is it a bad thing for the people who are affected personally by the mess we're in? Of course. And that's why remembering the importance of charitable giving at this critical time is important for those of us who are fortunate to have a roof over our heads – whether we rent it or own it. (I'll be talking more about charities in my next post.)

Meanwhile, I've been reminded of the cleverness of people who design for all kinds of challenging housing situations. Take a look at this unusual $5,000 "paper" house by a Swiss company called The Wall AG. These unique houses are stronger and more resilient than they may appear, just like the people who will live in them.

I feel certain that the strength and resiliency of our society will pull us through our current housing crisis. But I haven't dismissed the idea of hiding some cash in the mattress.

Photo credit: Salvatore Vuono

http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/

What Makes a House a Home? (2007)

How Much Space Do We Need? (2006)

Roots & Shoots & White Roofs

2009-07-18T16:40:00.000-07:00

Jane Goodall was interviewed in the LA Times today. I have always admired her dedication to her work, her sensitivity and her awareness of the interconnectedness of life on our small planet. Among her other accomplishments, she created Roots and Shoots, a non-profit organization for activist young people:

"Roots creep underground everywhere and make a firm foundation. Shoots seem very weak, but to reach the light, they can break open brick walls. Imagine that the brick walls are all the problems we have inflicted on our planet. Hundreds of thousands of roots & shoots, hundreds of thousands of young people around the world, can break through these walls. We CAN change the world."

When asked what just one person could do to help, she suggested that we all could ". . . spend just a little bit of time learning about the consequences of the choices you make each day – what you buy, what you eat, what you wear, how you interact with people and animals – and start consciously making choices that would be beneficial rather than harmful."

In other words, be thoughtful consumers.

Over the last several months of my blogging hiatus, I've read many news stories that I thought warranted a Thoughtful Consumer blog post. I found that I missed the opportunity to write about those topics that you, my readers, and I seem to agree are interesting. Reading the Jane Goodall interview made me decide to make time to return to blogging. The posts may be briefer and they may be sporadic, but I hope you'll enjoy continuing to ponder with me some of these issues, from architecture to advertising to clutter and whatever else affects us as consumers.

I also don't think anyone is ever too old to qualify as a "shoot" that can break down some of those brick walls of problems we face.

Retired Air Force colonel and chemical engineer Ronald Savin is a perfect example. In 2006, he invented a type of reflective paint that was recently used by the Anaheim Hilton Hotel on its roof. It creates a "blindingly white" surface that "deflects nearly 85% of the heat that hits it, reducing the surface temperature by as much as 50 degrees. That means less energy is needed to cool the hotel's interior, cutting air-conditioning costs and carbon emissions."

Savin was inspired by a documentary on the History Channel about recycling rubber.

"His Hyperglass top coat is designed like a Rice Krispies treat. Glass 'microspheres,' which are used to lighten airplane parts and bowling balls, are suspended in a paint that includes Teflon. The whiter the titanium dioxide tint, the more heat bounces off. Underneath, his Hyperflex primer serves as an insulation layer that also helps prevent water damage and erosion. And because it uses powdered recycled rubber, it helps address another thorny environmental issue: the millions of tires discarded annually in the U.S."

Although Savin's unique paint is a recent invention, the concept of using white roofs to save energy is not new. But the realization of its potential positive effect on curbing global warming is resulting in the idea slowly picking up steam (see a 2008 LA Times article).

An ABC Channel 7 News blog recent post about white roofs reported:

"Several states have already started to push white or light-colored roofs. Four years ago, California made it law that all new flat roofs be white. In July [2009], the state will demand that any new roofs that slope (including homes) be light or white. Georgia and Florida, among others, offer incentives for white roofs."

In May, Energy Secretary Steven Chu advocated white roofs to fight global warming.

In addition to the links above, you can take a look at a related Thoughtful Consumer post from 2008 (Green White Roofs) that provides more information about the topic.

Such a simple solution, at least for those of us in the Sun Belt. If you need a new roof, this will give you an opportunity to save money on your air conditioning bills and do some good for the planet.

Cool.

© 2009 Cynthia Friedlob

Illustration Credit: Viktor Ignatenko

Thoughtful Hiatus

2009-03-13T21:22:00.000-07:00

Dear Readers,

The Thoughtful Consumer is going to take a break from blogging.

This is my 115th blog post since the blog's inception on August 3, 2006.

I've written about everything from the small house movement to the effects of advertising on our consumer habits to the problems charities are facing in these difficult times.

While researching my posts, I’ve learned about guerrilla gardening, blood diamonds, the global water crisis and many other topics that I’ve found fascinating.

I’ve even been inspired to create the 365 Item Toss Uncluttering Challenge – and I am following through with it! [3/14 update: I'll report my progress periodically in the comments section of that post.]

I've thoroughly enjoyed sharing this blog with you and I want to thank you for the support you've given to it and to me. A special thank-you is due to those of you who subscribed and formed the core of my readership. All of your comments and e-mails have been greatly appreciated and have reassured me that the blog has served a useful purpose in your lives.

However, recently I’ve had to re-examine the ways in which I use my time. As regular readers know, I’ve been writing occasional radio essays for “Experience Talks” on KPFK-FM in Los Angeles/Santa Barbara. I’m now exploring further opportunities to write and produce for radio. I have other writing projects that I'm pursuing and artwork that I want to create. I’m also continuing to teach writing. There aren’t enough hours in the day for all of this!

So, because it’s important to me not to short-change the quality of "The Thoughtful Consumer" blog posts, I've reluctantly decided that it’s time to give blogging a rest.

If you’d like to be informed in the future about what I’m doing, please go to my website at http://www.cynthiafriedlob.com/. The "radio" page is updated whenever a new essay is scheduled for broadcast. I also have a "news" page on the website to let you know of any other interesting developments.

If you’d like to be added to my mailing list so that I can contact you directly, please e-mail me at cynthiafriedlob at yahoo dot com (that’s the “spam-bot avoider” version of my address!).

Thank you again for reading this blog. It's been a great experience writing it!

Best wishes,

Cynthia Friedlob

[3/14 update: I will continue to respond to comments on any of the blog posts, so please don't hesitate to share your thoughts. You can scroll down this page to see all of the previous posts listed by category. Please search through them and enjoy!]

Photo credit: Kirill Kurashov

Thoughtful Education

2009-02-16T21:36:00.000-08:00

There are times when we may feel that the whole world has landed in a hand-basket and it's headed . . . south. The darkest of those times also may make us feel that we're powerless to do anything about it. Of course, that's wrong.

Margaret Mead said, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." Those of you who read this blog are part of that thoughtful group, a group which has gathered a sizable number of members over the years and continues to grow as we learn more about sustainable living.

For most of us, the first step we take as members of this group is unloading all the excess stuff we've acquired that we now realize we don't need. Recently there was an article in Real Simple online that provided a number of basic suggestions for places to donate used goods; it's worth a look in case you're not familiar with a few of the charities mentioned. I'm working on my own 365 Item Toss uncluttering challenge, so about once a week things get hauled away to be donated or trashed.

But sometimes cash is king, as they say on Wall Street (fewer people are left there to say much of anything now). And sometimes very little cash is all that's required to get very important things accomplished.

I'm particularly concerned about the horrible state of our school systems. Here in California, the situation is positively dire, but I know there are schools throughout our country that are insufficiently staffed and have few or no resources for students. This is ridiculous, in my mind. But in addition to us voting out the people who put such a low priority on education, there are many charities that give us an opportunity to help teachers and kids directly with small donations. Here are just a few:

Donors Choose

RAFT - Resource Area for Teaching

Adopt A Classroom

If you want to reach out internationally, investigate these charities:

One Laptop Per Child

The National Christina Foundation

Please click on these links to see what wonderful work these groups are doing. There are many other worthwhile organizations devoted to education, some undoubtedly in your local area.

We need well-educated children who will grow up understanding how to keep their life priorities straight, how to live in a global society, how to think creatively, how to be thoughtful consumers.

Then, in the future, maybe the world won't have to take another ride in the ol' hand-basket.

© 2009 Cynthia Friedlob
Photo credit: Steve Woods

Alternative Housing: Unusual Choices and Emergency Shelters

2009-01-28T00:06:00.001-08:00

I've written in the past about small houses and alternative housing structures (see: Small House, Big Benefits; Prefab and Modular Housing: Solutions to the World's Housing Crisis?; and Alternative Housing: From Small to Quirky). Here's more information I'd like to share with you.

WebUrbanist has an eight-part series on "Crazy Houses" that includes a few small homes we've already seen along with others we haven't (rev: see credit below for photo at left). The series includes links to some "Crazy Condos" that are worth a look. A search through their architecture archives will turn up some outrageous homes of all sizes and shapes. Not all are suited for the socially and environmentally conscious builder or buyer, but it's always interesting to see extreme houses and take away the ideas that could work for the rest of us. The post on 16 Excellent Temporary Emergency Shelter Designs should be mandatory reading for any group or agency working on housing people after a natural disaster.

A post on Gizmodo features a five thousand dollar "paper" house that accommodates eight people in about 400 square feet. Nigeria and Angola have placed orders for the house. The blog refers to it as "the world's swankiest hobo pad" and many who commented made fun of the feature that allows for slaughtering animals on the veranda. Reading the comments revealed how little many people know of the housing needs in third world countries (and, sadly, in some rural parts of our own country).

But the concept of alternative housing goes beyond innovative design or unusual building materials. During this time of economic crisis, several generations of a family may end up living together; people may rent out rooms in their homes to get extra income; and some "planned communities" are now more appealing because of the extra emotional and financial support they offer. We'll explore these options further in another post.

On the Radio: Mortgage Meltdown

2009-01-18T19:27:00.000-08:00

If you'd like to take a break from watching the inaugural festivities on Tuesday, please tune in "Experience Talks" from 2:00 - 3:00 p.m. Pacific Time on KPFK-FM, Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, or streaming live on the web. If you're glued all day to your television or computer (or out in the freezing cold in D.C.!), you can always listen to a podcast later.

You'll hear an interesting show featuring Christopher Kennedy Lawford, son of President John Kennedy's sister, Patricia, and her husband, actor Peter Lawford. He'll be discussing his latest book, Moments of Clarity.

Also on the show will be Fabrice Florin, founder of NewsTrust.net, a social news network that helps find and share good journalism online.

And, at the end of the show, you'll hear my essay about the mortgage meltdown.

Click here for more information. And thanks for listening!

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day: Service

2009-01-18T17:14:00.000-08:00

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was first observed as a federal holiday in 1986. In 1994, President Bill Clinton signed into law the King Holiday and Service Act, challenging Americans to transform the day into one of citizen action and volunteer service in honor of Dr. King. The results are annual service activities across the nation.

If you’d like to find out what’s going on in your community or around the country, you can sign on to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service website which has over 11,400 projects registered. The slogan for the day is, “Make it a day on, not a day off.”

Even if you can’t sign up for a volunteer project in your neighborhood, there is one charitable thing that I know you can do: spend the day packing up your unnecessary clothes, dishes, toys and everything else you can get your hands on and take it all to your local charity shop a.s.a.p. There’s not much good economic news out there and, as I’ve discussed in the past, if you have any extra stuff around your home, this is definitely the time to let it go. Plenty of people who have never done so before are now turning to charities for help, so the demand for goods is high.

I’ve started my own weekend purge of extra stuff in order to donate as an act of service and to stay on track to complete my 365 Item Toss Challenge. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, click here.) I’ve gathered up everything from extra office supplies to a few old videotapes to a bunch of perfectly serviceable old clothing to more candle holders than anyone should own -- 43 items so far and there will be more to add tomorrow. I’ll post the entire list at the end of the year, but I already know that I am not going to miss a single thing that I’m giving away and this is from a household that has pared down quite efficiently over the last few years. If you take a look around your home, I’ll bet that you’ll find some opportunities to be charitable, too. And you’ll reap the rewards of a less cluttered home.

The holiday also prompted me to wonder what opportunities for service on a larger scale are available to us. Fortunately, some programs that started back in the sixties have expanded the work they do. If you’d like to accept the challenge that President-elect Obama has put forth to make service a part of our daily lives, check out the Corporation for National Community Service to learn more about AmeriCorps, AmeriCorps VISTA, SeniorCorps, other programs and special initiatives. There are many other charities that could use your help, too. Scroll down the blog to take a look at the list I’ve posted on the right side of the page. You probably have favorite charities of your own that might appreciate some volunteer help.

I’m hopeful that soon we’ll see a significant change in the way we view ourselves in this society. We’re not just consumers, as advertisers would like us to believe; we are citizens, with all the benefits and responsibilities that entails.

So, if you’re struggling to make ends meet or feel like you’re on a treadmill without a moment to catch your breath, it’s okay to ask for and accept help. The whole point of a society is that we’re all in it together. Sometimes the most you can give is a smile to the grocery clerk or a hug to your kids.

But if you’re among the fortunate, and are honest with yourself, you'll agree that there’s enough to go around for everyone. Together, we can help re-write the lyrics to that famous old Billie Holiday song, “God Bless the Child.” Ms. Holiday and her partner, Arthur Hertzog, Jr., wrote, “Them that’s got shall get.” Let’s change that to, “Them that’s got shall give.”

© 2009 Cynthia Friedlob

The Power of Marketing to Kids

2009-01-07T21:42:00.000-08:00

I know that the holidays are a big deal when you're a kid. But I'm also an advocate of parents knowing where to draw the line when it comes to gifts. (Easy for me to say; I'm not a parent!)

Yet, every child wants something special -- maybe a pricey bicycle, an expensive musical instrument, or a hard-to-find toy. So every parent who can afford to, and many who can't, do their very best to accommodate their children's wishes. In holidays long past, parents might buy the item second-hand and that often was just as satisfying as one that was brand new.

Today, techno-toys (anything from computers to fancy phones to game machines) seem to top the list for a lot of kids. Because technology changes so rapidly, second-hand goods in this category are usually going to be outdated and not an adequate substitute. Also because of the rapid changes, many new technology-based gifts will require expensive upgrades, usually more quickly than parents expect. You can also bet that they'll get discarded more quickly than parents expect, too, when the next new toy comes along.

So I was interested to read a blog post by my favorite marketing guru, Seth Godin, called "When Marketing Goes Nuclear" and watch the associated video showing the reactions of various kids, each opening a gift that turns out to be a Nintendo Wii. According to Seth, the video shows what happens when "scarcity plus Christmas plus social pressure plus greed plus kids = critical mass." He found the video disturbing; I'm on the fence about it. I would hope that some kids would be equally excited to find a less expensive gift that they also wanted, but maybe that's no longer realistic thinking.

When did marketing to kids take over to the point that "every" kid wants the same thing, and wants it desperately? Does it go all the way back to Tickle Me Elmo? Cabbage Patch Kids? Shirley Temple dolls? When did a techno-toy become the most important thing to have? Are girls and boys equally excited about them? At what age does the techno-toy desire kick in?

I've got a million more questions.

What do you think of the video?

© 2009 Cynthia Friedlob
Photo credit: Davide Guglielmo

An Unclutterer Challenge: The 365 Item Toss

2009-01-01T15:31:00.000-08:00

It's the dawn of a new year and a new opportunity for all of us to become more thoughtful about our consumer habits. The collapsing economy has made things look pretty bleak, so most of us are probably doing a pretty fair job of cutting back on unnecessary spending. However, there's a tendency during times of economic insecurity to want to hold on to stuff we already own, even if much of it is clutter. What if we need it someday? How can we sell it now when we won't get the best price for it? If we'd just fix it up a little bit, it would be perfectly fine to use.

That's faulty thinking. Hanging on to clutter will do nothing to improve our lives, but if we let it go, not only will we benefit, but other people who need the usable stuff will benefit, too. I wrote a post six months ago called Embracing Charity in Tough Economic Times in which I talked about the importance of letting go of unnecessary things even when times are difficult. Take a look if you'd like a little boost for your motivation.

Also six months ago, Dave Bruno started his 100 Thing Challenge on his blog to see just how much less he could live with -- in his case cutting back to 100 things. He has a few special rules that give him a little flexibility (for example, underwear and socks don't count, nor do shared family items like the dining room table), but the overall idea is to simplify his life to the point that he can live comfortably with a minimum amount of stuff.

In spite of its enormous appeal to me, cutting back to 100 things seems pretty daunting at this time in my life. So I've come up with an alternative that's less drastic: I'm going to challenge myself to dispose of 365 things over the course of the next year. Obviously, that's one thing a day, although I'll bag up a bunch of stuff to donate at one time, so I won't be driving to my local charity drop-off every single day. I'll have a few "rules," too:

1. General trash doesn't count. The only things that count are individual items that are tossed (something useless that's been sitting around for awhile due to my inertia), or items that are donated or sold.

2. Handing things off to friends or relatives counts only if they really want the items or the items belonged to them and were left here.

3. Following Dave's lead, if I do buy something new, I'll throw away the old thing first.

4. I will count as one item tossed the entire box of old tax papers I will be able to shred once this year's taxes are filed. All the effort involved in disposing of that much paper should be worth something. These are the only papers I will count because I would otherwise reach 365 Things Tossed in a couple hours of paper purging.

5. I may need to modify or add to these rules as I get the process started, but I vow not to violate the spirit of the challenge.

I'll mention my progress occasionally in my usual blog posts on various consumer issues throughout this year. If any of you would like to join me in this challenge, please do so. If you feel like commenting on your progress, I'd enjoy hearing about it.

And, to close with something for you to ponder further, here's a bit of dialogue from Garrison Keillor's 2007 book, Pontoon, set, of course, in Lake Wobegon, featuring a feisty character named Evelyn talking to her daughter, Barbara, whom she didn't want to burden after her death:

"When I die," Evelyn told her, "I want you to be able to sweep out the place, take the sheets off the bed and the clothes out of the closet, clean out the medicine chest, and hang out a For Sale sign. Two hours and you'll be rid of me. I'm a pilgrim. I travel light."

When you get down to the basics, we're all pilgrims. So, here's to a simpler, saner year for all of us as we work toward travelling as lightly as we can!

Photo Credit: Mauro Rodrigues

Discardia Returns, Just in Time

2008-12-18T13:39:00.000-08:00

I've mentioned Discardia in a previous post, but this is definitely the right time for a reminder.

Discardia was the creation of proud "web geek" Dinah Sanders on December 25, 2002, during what must have been a particularly interesting Christmas holiday experience for her. Here's the short explanation (although I highly recommend that you click on the link and read the full story):

"Discardia is celebrated by getting rid of stuff and ideas you no longer need. It's about letting go, abdicating from obligation and guilt, being true to the self you are now. Discardia is the time to get rid of things that no longer add value to your life, shed bad habits, let go of emotional baggage and generally lighten your load."

Discardia is a seasonal holiday, celebrated four times each year during the days between the solstices & equinoxes and their following new moons. So, the winter Discardia of 2008 begins on December 21st. For those who are looking for a simplified holiday season, keeping in mind the Discardian principle of letting go of stuff rather than acquiring more could be very helpful.

Discardia also reminds us that this is supposed to be a season of joy not obligation. So if you're feeling particularly stressed, this is a good time to remember the spirit of the season. Cutting back not only on shopping for gifts, but also on demands on your time and energy, will make the holidays something you anticipate happily rather than something that causes anxiety or even dread.

Whatever holiday you'll be celebrating, I offer my best wishes for health, happiness and peace.

"Experience Talks" Radio Essay

2008-12-14T16:51:00.000-08:00

My next radio essay, "Juxtapositions," will be on the December 16th broadcast of "Experience Talks" at 2:00 p.m. on KPFK-FM, the Los Angeles and Santa Barbara Pacifica Network affiliate station. (We were pre-empted for pledge breaks and election coverage last month.) The essay is about the extreme disparity of wealth in our multi-cultural City of Angels.

You'll hear the essay at the end of the show, which will feature interviews with musicians Andy Hill and Renee Safier, and with author and elder card specialist Stella Mora Henry. You can listen to the show streaming live online or as a podcast after the broadcast. If you're in the LA area, just tune your radio to 90.7 FM.

I was delighted recently to have been made an official part of the "Experience Talks" team, so I'm now included on the Our Team page of the show's website.

I hope you'll have a chance to listen and, as always, you are welcome to share your thoughts here in comments.

Simple, Uncluttered Holidays

2008-12-13T19:59:00.000-08:00

On a quest for a simplified, uncluttered holiday season? You've undoubtedly figured out that it would help to minimize the decorating, share the holiday meal preparation, and make sure that you don't over commit yourself to social events. But what about gifts?

If you're determined that your holiday gifts won't be a hassle to buy or create clutter for you, your family or friends, check out Jeri Dansky's terrific Clutter-Free Gift Guide. You won't find a better assortment of ideas anywhere for gifts for everyone on your list. You'll also find an excerpt from an excellent article by San Francisco Chronicle columnist Jon Carroll about the "malaise of materialism."

Of course, there's also regifting, an option I wrote about in my previous post.

If you're really committed to cutting back on your gift-giving, you might want to investigate "Buy Nothing Christmas" and help spread the idea from Canada to the U.S.A. Here's the background story of this movement (and, yes, the idea also works for those who celebrate a secular rather than a religious holiday):

"Buy Nothing Christmas is a national initiative started by Canadian Mennonites who offer a prophetic 'no' to the patterns of over-consumption of middle-class North Americans. They are inviting Christians (and others) all over Canada to join a movement to de-commercialize Christmas and re-design a Christian lifestyle that is richer in meaning, smaller in impact upon the earth, and greater in giving to people less-privileged."

But what if you buy a few gifts -- can you still participate?

"Definitely. We are all going to have to buy some things. When you do buy things, we encourage you to remember principles like buying locally, fairly-traded, environmentally friendly packaging, recycling or re-using, buying things that last, and so on. The main aim of this campaign is not to save money (although that can be a side benefit), it's not to slow down the pace of Christmas (although that can be a side benefit), it is to challenge our over-consumptive lifestyle and how it affects global disparities and the earth. So, even though you might buy a few things at Christmas, it's important to think in these global economic terms."

If you'd like a few chuckles about how totally insane consumerism has become at this time of year, check out Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping. The "Reverend" (a character created by NY performance artist Bill Talen) has been around since 1996, but now he has a gospel choir and a group of "true believers" assisting him in his mission:

"The Church of Stop Shopping is a project of The Immediate Life, a New York based arts organization using theater, humor, and grassroots organizing to advance individuals and communities towards a more equitable future - starting today. We partner with citizens, grassroots organizations and progressive visionaries to produce dynamic, informed public campaigns that enact our core values - participatory democracy, ecological sustainability, and the preservation of vibrant communities and local economies."

Academy Award nominated documentarian Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me) produced a docu-comedy feature for The Church of Stop Shopping entitled, What Would Jesus Buy? The promotional tag is, "The movie Santa doesn't want you to see!"

I don't agree with that. I think Santa is probably tired of having to act jolly while he lugs around tons of excess stuff that we don't need or even want. He deserves a break -- he's one of those rare public figures in big business who isn't being indicted or asking for a bailout.

© 2008 Cynthia Friedlob

National Regifting Day

2008-12-10T21:17:00.000-08:00

There are other holidays around this time of year and I'm not just talking about Hanukkah.

Yes, National Regifting Day is coming up on December 18th, the Thursday before Christmas. The folks at Regiftable.com have created this holiday "in honor of holiday office parties and the 'unique' gifts exchanged at them." According to their research, "4 in 10 regifters (41%) target coworkers as the recipients of their regifts."

The website offers free customizable gift tags you can print. They've even conducted surveys to discover how people feel about regifting. Here are a few of the survey results:

"The majority of people (62%) say they regift because they think the item is something the recipient would really like; this is up from 53% who answered similarly in 2005.

"More than 4 in 10 people (42%) say that they regift to save money; this is up 27% since 2005 when only 33% claimed to regift for monetary reasons.

"More than half (60%) of Americans think regifting is becoming more accepted."

Those were the results last year -- pre-financial meltdown. I expect that there will be more regifting going on this year in an effort to save money. And there's nothing wrong with that as long as you follow some important regifting rules. The Motley Fool has a useful article and list, greatly condensed here:

Don't confuse "barely used" with "brand-spankin' new.”

Do not pass off items that were clearly purchased for you.

Don't declare, "It's vintage!" when it's really just plain bedraggled.

Do keep a flow chart of gifting so you don’t regift the original giver.

Triple-check for all telltale regifting signs such as gift tags stuck in the bottom of the box.

Give with good intentions, as if the gift were new.

But the final rule is the most important one that we should remember:

Give it away anyway. Even if the item isn't in perfect condition, someone, somewhere will be delighted to have it. Pass it on to a family member who would enjoy it or hand it over to your favorite charity.

You might be feeling a bit strapped for cash this holiday season, but it's still likely that there's something (more likely, plenty of somethings) you already own that you can let go. With so many people struggling through lay-offs, cut-backs, foreclosures and other difficulties, now is the perfect time to "pay it forward."

© 2008 Cynthia Friedlob

The Angry Consumer: Black Friday Death at Wal-Mart

2008-11-28T13:11:00.001-08:00

At five a.m. today, a 34-year-old Wal-Mart employee was trampled to death by bargain-hunting shoppers in Long Island, New York.

An AP report said:

"'He was bum-rushed by 200 people,' co-worker Jimmy Overby, 43, told the Daily News. "They took the doors off the hinges. He was trampled and killed in front of me. They took me down too. . . . I literally had to fight people off my back.

". . . A police statement said . . . shoppers 'physically broke down the doors, knocking [the worker] to the ground.' A metal portion of the door was crumpled like an accordion. "

. . . [Before police temporarily shut down the store], eager shoppers streamed past emergency crews as they worked furiously to save the worker's life."

Several other people were injured, including a 28-year-old pregnant woman who was knocked to the floor. She was taken to the hospital for observation.

The NY Daily News reported:

"'They were working on him, but you could see he was dead,' said Halcyon Alexander, 29. 'People were still coming through.'

"Only a few stopped."

An updated AP report added:

"'This crowd was out of control,' said Nassau police spokesman Lt. Michael Fleming. He described the scene as 'utter chaos.'

"Dozens of store employees trying to fight their way out to help the man were also getting trampled by the crowd, Fleming said. Witnesses said that even as the worker lay on the ground, shoppers streamed into the store, stepping over him.

"Kimberly Cribbs, who witnessed the stampede, said shoppers were acting like 'savages.'"

These were not people in a country ravaged by war or natural disaster, desperately trying to get food or water to keep themselves and their families alive; these people were clawing their way into a mega-store to get cheap prices on stuff. Savages, indeed.

Police are reviewing the store security videos and it is possible that there may be criminal charges brought against some shoppers.

But when does our society get indicted for making a $400 TV more valuable than a human life?

© 2008 Cynthia Friedlob

Continued . . .

At 4:30 this afternoon, the LA Times online reported that two people were shot to death at a Toys 'R' Us in Palm Desert, California. According to the Times, it was apparently "a personal dispute between two groups of shoppers."

Buy Nothing Day - November 28th

2008-11-23T21:16:00.001-08:00

November 28, 2008, is Buy Nothing Day, an annual observance promoted by Adbusters Media Foundation, publisher of Adbusters Magazine:

"Based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Adbusters is a not-for-profit, reader-supported, 120,000-circulation magazine concerned about the erosion of our physical and cultural environments by commercial forces. . . We want a world in which the economy and ecology resonate in balance. We try to coax people from spectator to participant in this quest. We want folks to get mad about corporate disinformation, injustices in the global economy, and any industry that pollutes our physical or mental commons."

Check out the history of Buy Nothing Day here.

So, how do you participate in Buy Nothing Day? Buy nothing on November 28th, "Black Friday," the day after Thanksgiving and traditionally one of the biggest shopping days of the year.

Buying nothing for one day is a stuff consumption fast; it's not meant to prevent us from shopping ever again, but simply to make us aware of how much shopping we do, often without even thinking about it. And this is definitely the time to think about it.

We're in the midst of a financial meltdown and the entire structure of our society needs to be reconsidered. We can't continue to buy mindlessly (the personal financial losses of many people make that idea impossible anyway) and we can't continue to deplete Earth's natural resources mindlessly either.

We need to convert our consumption-oriented society into one that is much more nurturing and service-oriented. It will take some very wise leaders to figure out the specifics of how this will work, but it will also require a general shift in thinking so that people no longer value excessive possessions at all costs. We're seeing right now what those costs are and they're too high.

So let's hold off on shopping for just one day. Pay attention to how it feels. Watch the news and see if the crowds descend on the malls like crazed locusts or see if things are not quite as frantic as usual because of the failing economy.

Maybe spend the day thinking of ways that you can change your own buying habits and help nudge the world in a new direction that will benefit everyone on our small planet.

All you have to do to get started is buy nothing.