I was originally planning something else tonight, but I got a wild idea and pursued it, and this diary is the result.
E.C.S.T.A.S.Y. — End Consumption, Save The Air & Sea, Y'all!
A support group and discussion forum for those who want to kick the habits of consumption that are damaging the world we live in.
The dominant culture tries to make people believe that more money and more consumption are the keys to a happier life. Yet according to recent findings, income beyond $60,000 a year does not add significantly to happiness.
You may be surprised to find out how far this goes. Keyword: Hunter/Gatherer.
Here are a few important links:
- Annie Leonard's crucial movie, The Story of Stuff.
- An invaluable tool for calculating the ecological footprint of your lifestyle, from the good folks at Redefining Progress. What's your score?
- The Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping
If you have a resource that should be included in ECSTASY diaries, please include the link and a few words about it in the comments.
Psychologist and Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman says millions of dollars won't buy you happiness, but a job that pays $60,000 a year might help.
Happiness levels increase up to the $60K mark, but "above that it's a flat line," he said.
"Money does not buy you experiential happiness but lack of money certainly buys you misery," he said. But the real trick, Kahneman said, is to spend time with people you like.
Source: http://edition.cnn.com/...
See also: http://www.princeton.edu/...
One could argue that the $60K figure should be adjusted for locality, for example the high cost of housing in New York and San Francisco. Since Kahneman's figure is an average, that has already been taken into account: national average income, national average costs, etc.
But let's look at another comparison. Prepare for a wild ride, and check your preconceived notions at the baggage claim.
First let's look at your average Domesticated Modern American.
For convenience we'll abbreviate that as DM (Domesticated Moderner), and we'll turn the abbreviation into a name, Doug Moore.
Doug can expect to live about 78 years. He'll start working at about age 18 (and here we count college as work, since it's part of an individual's strategy for subsistence). If he's lucky he'll retire at 65. In all, he will have worked a total of about 47 years.
A full time job is an 8-hour day. To this we'll add the typical 1/2 hour commute each way, making it effectively 9 hours. However, to be conservative, we won't add the time spent doing household chores: cooking, cleaning, paying the bills. We'll also give him two weeks' vacation per year, though that's being generous by today's standards.
A quick spreadsheet shows that Doug will have worked a total of 47 years in his life, a total of 105,750 hours.
If we assume he sleeps an average of 7 hours per night, then over the course of his life, the time not spent working or sleeping will add up to 378,240 hours. You can call that "free time" if you like.
Next let's look at your average Hunter/Gatherer.
For convenience we'll abbreviate that as H/G, and we'll turn the abbreviation into a name, Heather Greene (though realistically, how many H/Gs do you know who would have had modern American names?).
Heather lives in the times before agriculture. According to archaeologists, she can expect to live between 65 - 72 years. This may surprise you, but not only that, she can expect to be as tall as a modern human too: decreased lifespan and decreased height were adaptations to dietary changes brought about by agriculture right up to the 20th century. For point of comparison we'll list her lifespan at 68 years.
Heather can expect to be considered an adult in her tribe around age 12, and take on her share of the tribe's subsistence tasks at that age. We'll make the conservative assumption that her tribe doesn't do retirement, so she works all her adult life. This will add up to a total of 56 years of work.
So far, it appears that Doug has Heather beat by nine years of time doing something other than work. However, according to modern anthropological studies, H/G societies that still exist today, provide for their needs with an average of 4 hours of work per person per day. Yes, the 4-hour work day.
Thus, over the course of her working life, Heather can expect to work a total of 67,200 hours.
If we assume she also sleeps an average of 7 hours per night, then over the course of her life, the time not spent working or sleeping will add up to 354,740 hours.
A quick comparison shows that, over their lifespans, Heather works only 64% of the hours that Doug works, but she has 94% of the free time that Doug has.
Another way of looking at this is, Doug works 57% more hours than Heather during his life, but only has 7% more hours of free time.
This is an example of what's known in economics as declining marginal return.
And let's not forget that Doug's cooking, cleaning, and paying the bills occur during his "free time." Whatever amount of time he spends at those activities, his actual "free" time is proportionally less.
Should anyone think I'm indulging in the "noble savage" myth, I should mention where that phrase comes from.
The word "savage" comes from the French word "sauvage," which originally meant "one who lives in the wild." In Europe under the prevailing monarchies, the forests and other wild lands belonged to the titled nobility. Only they had the right to hunt, fish, and gather wild foods in the woods. Commoners who were found doing so on the nobles' lands could be (and often were) put to death for stealing.
When the first Europeans settled in the Americas, they discovered that the ordinary members of the various tribes had the same rights to hunt, fish, and gather in the tribes' forest territories, as did the tribes' leaders and their families. By analogy to modern times, this would be like discovering a country where everyone has the right to print their own money and use it freely.
The European settlers were surprised to find that the "commoners" of the tribes had the same rights to the forest as the European nobility. Thus the term "noble savage."
And it should not be lost on you that hunting and gathering, not to mention fishing, were considered privileges in Europe at the time.
All of which means what?
Doug might be a happy guy with $60,000 per year and modern conveniences, but Heather did pretty well herself despite zero dollars per year and a life most of us would call "primitive." In the balance between work and free time, thousands of years of "progress" hasn't made much of a difference.
In terms of Kahneman's other measure of happiness, spending time with people you like, chances are they came out about equal so far as their closest family and friends were concerned. Maybe Heather came out a bit ahead, since her entire extended family and all of her friends were within walking distance.
The moral of the story is: You can reduce your consumption levels much further than you think, and be much happier than you expect. If you're willing to go all the way, you might even regain control of your time.
For further reading in much more depth, go here:
http://tobyspeople.com/...
That's the Contents page for Thirty Theses by Jason Godesky. I'll have more to say about his ideas in the future. Though for next week, we might be getting back to measuring the inputs & outputs in your daily life.
ECSTASY diaries will appear most often on weekends and Wednesday evenings. All diaries dealing with the problems of living in a Consumerist society are potential candidates. If you think you've got something to contribute, please contact WarrenS and he'll schedule you in.
The next diary planned is expected on Sunday, March 28, when we will hear from from citisven on the subject of A Trip to the Dump.
The ECSTASY series thus far:
February 28: Introducing ECSTASY.
March 7: The Work of Julian Lee and Juliet Schor: Two Voices of Sanity.
March 10: G2Geek's Measure The Power.
March 14: Earthfire promoted Annie Leonard's appearance in Washington, DC
March 21: RL Miller tells us about Chickens