Welcome to Affluenza

Hello, fellow consumers! Ready to take a long, hard look at what we consume, why we consume it, how much of it we consume, and whether or not we should be consuming so much of it? These are the major questions raised by the authors of Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic - this year's selection for Longview's Common Reading Project.

Over the next 14 weeks, classes across the curriculum - English, math, psychology, history, etc. - will be reading, discussing, and writing about Affluenza. And so will I. Each week (I'll try for Wednesdays, but some weeks it will probably be Thursdays or Fridays...), I'll write a short post on one of the topics addressed by the authors. I'll have quotes and statistics from other research sources, as well as links to finding those and other relevant resources through the Longview Library webpage. 

Since one of the authors' main objectives is to get us to examine our consumption habits, I'll also be telling you how each week's topic applies to my life and asking you all to think and write about how the topics apply to your life. (But please don't feel you have to share more than you're comfortable sharing - I know that personal finance issues can be very, well, 'personal'...) I'll also keep you up-to-date on Affluenza-related events planned for the semester, such as guest speakers, book discussion groups, even a fashion show in April!

So, Longview, let's get reading, thinking, and writing! Like the green button I'm wearing right now says, "Affluenza - do you have it?"