In the late 1940s, Americans’ spirits were high. We had pulled ourselves out of the Great Depression and the allies had just won World War II. The troops came back home and an incredible amount of them immediately started families. Suburban neighborh

By the 1990s, shopping had become second nature for middle-class America. The lifestyle of consumption had been passed down from generation to generation. A new study found that the average allowance (among those who receive allowance) given to children by their parents is fifty dollars a week. This practice is encouraging younger people to start habits of purchasing material goods at an excessive rate. When teenage girls are asked list their hobbies, “shopping” turns up on the majority of the lists. Shopping has indeed become a hobby in itself. In True Stories, a 1986 satirical film about a small rural town’s industrialization/modernization, David Byrne, writer and star, on the subject of shopping malls, says:

Through the 1950s, Americans were increasingly seeking a comfortable contention. Businesses beckoned consumers with flashy neon signs. Fast food restaurants and TV dinners made life more convenient. Automobiles were now available in a rainbow of colors. The average family was able to live a more “extravagant” life.

A rapid growing trend in America is that of voluntary simplicity. Voluntary simplicity is an alternative way of life to consumerism in which the participants minimize the material goods they own to the most meaningful items. Costs of living are cut down so they can work less, and often develop a closer relationship with other human beings and even nature.

Some topics in this essay:
Town Square, Ford Valdez”, War II, , Yuppies American, Japan Australia, Turnoff Week”, SUVs SUVs, David Byrne, True Stories, percent world’s, percent world’s population, world’s population, material objects, percent resources, “buy day”, shopping malls, solid waste, voluntary simplicity, eighty percent, store items,