Simple Prosperity

by David Wann

  8 Dave Tilford, “Why Consumption Matters,” Sierra Club, 2000, http://www.sierraclub.org/sustainable_consumption/tilford.asp.

  9 Associated Press, “Much Toxic Computer Waste Lands in Third World,” February 25, 2002, http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=10032.

  10 Alan Thein Durning and John C. Ryan, Stuff: The Secret Lives of Everyday Things, Northwest Environment Watch Report #4, Seattle, WA, 1997, 20-25.

  11 “Americans and Biodiversity: New Poll Shows Growing Awareness, Strong Support for Biodiversity,” March 2002 Poll conducted by Belden, Russenello, & Stewart for the Biodiversity Project. http://www.biodiversityproject.org/newsletters/news0102.htm#Americans.

  12 Global Footprint Network Web site, http://www.footprintnetwork.org/gfn_sub.php?content=national_footprints.

  Chapter 2. Evolutionary Income

  1 Darrin M. McMahon, “Happiness: A History” (New York, Atlantic Monthly Press 2006), 419.

  2 Cara Buckley, “A Man Down, a Train Arriving, and a Stranger Makes a Choice,” New York Times, January 3, 2007, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/03/nyregion/03life.html?th&emc=th.

  3 “Rising from Ruin: Two Towns Rebuild After Katrina” Posted: Thursday, November 3 at 10:12 pm CT by Sean Federico-O’Murchu http://risingfromruin.msnbc.com/2005/11/for_soldiers_mo.html#comments.

  4 Richard Ryan, in foreword to The High Price of Materialism.

  5 Tim Kasser, The High Price of Materialism (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2002).

  6 Thich Nhat Hanh, “Calming the Fearful Mind,” in Calming the Fearful Mind (Berkeley, CA: Parallax Press, 2005), 17.

  7 Richard Layard, lecture delivered at Brookings Institution, Washington DC, February 9, 2005, http://www.brookings.edu/comm/events/20050209happiness.htm.

  8 Ibid.

  9 John Geirland, “Go with the Flow,” Wired magazine interview with Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, September 1996 Issue 4.09, http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/4.09/czik.html.

  10 Claudia Wallis, Elizabeth Coady, et al., “The New Science of Happiness,” Time, January 17, 2005.

  11 Adam Phillips, Going Sane (New York; NY, HarperCollins 2005), 153, 158.

  12 Darrin M. McMahon, Happiness: A History (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2006), 64-65.

  13 Daniel H. Pink, A Whole New Mind: Moving From the Informational Age to the Conceptual Age (New York: Riverhead Books, 2005).

  14 Ibid.

  15 Ibid.

  16 Pamela Chang, “10 Most Hopeful Trends,” Yes! Magazine, March, 2006, http://www.yesmagazine.org/article.asp?ID=1402.

  Chapter 3. Personal Growth

  1 Allison Arthur, “Islanders Pay Homage to Reddick,” the Vashon Beachcomber Feb. 7, 2006, http://www.vashonbeachcomber.com/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=90&cat=23&id=&more.

  2 Jonathan Daniel, interview with author, January 11, 2006. The people have been fictionalized to avoid violating confidentiality.

  3 Ibid.

  4 Bode Miller, interview, 60 Minutes, July 16, 2006, http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/60minutes/main3415.shtml.

  Chapter 4. Mindful Money

  1 This passage is adapted from a Denver Post column.

  2 Bureau of Labor Statistics, http://www.bls.gov/cex/csxann04.pdf.

  3 Jim Merkel, Radical Simplicity (Gabriola Island, BC, Canada: New Society Publishers, 2003), 181.

  4 Ibid.

  5 Sandy Clark, e-mail communication with author, May 5, 2006.

  6 Shlomo Reifman, “The Cost of Living Extremely Well Index,” Forbes, October 9, 2006, http://www.forbes.com/

  Chapter 5. The Bonds of Social Capital

  1 Shankar Vedantam, “Social Isolation Growing in U.S., Study Says,” Washington Post, June 23, 2006, A3.

  2 Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community (NY: Simon & Schuster, 2001).

  3 The Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey, Saguaro Seminar Report, http://www.siliconvalleygives.org/communitysurvey/index.html.

  4 Malcolm Gladwell, The Tipping Point (Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 2000), 56-58.

  5 Martin Buber, I and Thou, trans. Ronald Gregor Smith (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1958), 26.

  6 Dean Ornish, in Imagine by Williamson. “Health,” in Imagine: What America Could Be in the 21st Century, by Marianne Williamson (Emmaus, PA: Daybreak, 2000), 50.

  7 Ibid.

  8 Dean Ornish, Love & Survival: The Scientific Basis for the Healing Power of Intimacy (New York: HarperCollins, 1998), 35.

  9 Ibid.

  10 Ibid.

  11 Daniel Goleman, Social Intelligence: The New Science of Social Relationships (New York: Bantam Books, 2006), 227.

  12 Ornish.

  13 Goleman, 9.

  Chapter 6. Time Affluence

  1 Jonathan Rowe, “Wasted Work, Wasted Time,” in Take Back Your Time: Fighting Overwork and Time Poverty in America, ed. John de Graaf (San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2003), 58-65.

  2 Ibid.

  3 Henry David Thoreau, “Life Without Principle,” in Civil Disobedience, Solitude and Life Without Principle (Amherst, NY, Prometheus Books, 1998), 13.

  4 Rowe, 58-65.

  5 David Wann, “Haste Makes Waste,” in Take Back Your Time, ed. de Graaf, 58-65.

  6 Robert Bernstein, “The Speed Trap,” in Take Back Your Time, ed. de Graaf, 103.

  7 Beringer Founders’ Estate “Living 5 to 9,” http://www.living5to9.com/5to9/page/time_truths.jsp.

  8 Vicki Robin, “The Time Cost of Stuff,” Take Back Your Time, ed. de Graaf, 135-36.

  9 Ibid.

  10 Survey commissioned by Beringer Founders’ Estate wines and conducted by Harris Interactive.

  11 Poll commissioned by the Center for a New American Dream and conducted in August 2003 by Widmeyer Research & Polling of Washington DC. This information is based on a nationally representative telephone study.

  12 John de Graaf, interview with author, December 12, 2006.

  13 Ibid.

  14 Benjamin Hunicutt, “When We Had the Time,” in Take Back Your Time, ed. de Graaf, 118-19.

  15 Carol Ostram, “Jobs to Share,” in Take Back Your Time, ed. de Graaf, 146-53.

  16 Ibid.

  17 Lore Rosenthal, interview with author, January 15, 2007.

  18 John de Graaf, interview with author, December 12, 2006.

  19 Wendell Berry, The Unsettling of America (San Francisco, Sierra Club Book’s, 3rd Edition, 1996).

  Chapter 7. The Stocks of Wellness

  1 Dean Ornish, in “Health,” Imagine, ed. Williamson, 46, and Dean Ornish, interview, in Healing and Mind by Bill Moyers (New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing, 1993), 99.

  2 Jim Merkel, conversation with author, August 2005.

  3 Dean Ornish, in “Health,” in Imagine, Williamson.

  4 James Jill, conversation with author, September 2006.

  5 Marco Visscher, “You Do What You Eat,” Ode magazine, no. 26, September 2005, http://www.odemagazine.com/article.php?aID=4143.

  6 Ibid.

  7 Marco Visscher, “Unhappy Meal,” Ode magazine, no. 4, May 2004, http://www.odemagazine.com/article.php?aID=3685.

  8 Ibid.

  9 Brian McBrindle, “Pediatric Cardiologist Warns of Childhood Obesity Epidemic, Toronto Sun, April 27, 2006, http://torontosun.com/News/OtherNews/2006/04/27/1553084-sun.html.

  10 N. R. Kleinfeld, “Bad Blood: Living at an Epicenter of Diabetes, Defiance and Despair, New York Times, January 10, 2006, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/10/nyregion/nyregionspecial5/10diabetes.html?th&emc=th.

  11 Marc Santora, “Bad Blood: East Meets West, Adding Pounds and Peril,” New York Times, January 12, 2006, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/12/nyregion/nyregionspecial5/12diabetes.html.

  12 N. R. Kleinfeld, “Bad Blood: Diabetes and Its Awful Toll Quietly Emerge as a Crisis,” New York Times, January 9, 2006, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/09/nyregion/nyregionspecial5/09diabetes.html.

  13 Daniel Lorber, in conversation with author, February 10, 2007.

  14 Marian Burros, “P
roducers Agree to Send Healthier Foods to Schools,” New York Times, October 7, 2006, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/07/education/07snack.html?th&emc=th.

  15 MSNBC Staff and Reuters, “Midnight Munchies Linked to Sleeping Pills, Ambien Users Report Short-Term Memory Loss, Uncontrollable Binge Eating,” MSNBC, March 15, 2006, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11835999/.

  16 Stephanie Saul, “Some Sleeping Pill Users Range Far Beyond Bed,” New York Times, March 8, 2006, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/08/business/08ambien.html.

  17 Ibid.

  18 Frontline, PBS, interview took place on January 9, 2004, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/diet/interviews/willett.html.

  19 Robert Bazell, “Diabetes Pill Works—But Is It Worth the Cost? MSNBC, September 26, 2006, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15001746/wid/11915773?GT1=8506.

  20 Ibid.

  21 Richard Corliss, Michael D. Lemonick, et al., “How to Live to be 100,” Time, August 30, 2004, 34-42.

  22 Dan Buettner, “The Secrets of Long Life,” National Geographic, November 2005.

  23 “15 Ways to Live Longer,” Forbes.com, April 28, 2006, http://www.forbes.com/2006/04/28/cx_vg_0501featslide2_print.html.

  Chapter 8. The Currency of Nature

  1 Richard Louv, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder (New York: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2005), 45.

  2 Robert Greenway, “The Wilderness Effect and Ecopsychology,” in Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth, Healing the Mind (San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1995), 128-29.

  3 Richard Louv, “A Dialogue on Getting Kids Outside,” San Diego Union-Tribune, September 26, 2006, http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/louv/20060926-9999-lz1e26louv.html.

  4 Louv, Last Child in the Woods, 48.

  Chapter 9. Precious Work and Play

  1 Associated Press, “PlayStation 3 Customers Attacked: Robberies, Beatings, Shootings Reported in the Waiting Lines, November 17, 2006, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15764297/.

  2 Christopher Maag, “Surfing in Cleveland, Before Brown Water Freezes,” New York Times, December 10, 2006, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/10/us/10surf.html&OQ.

  3 Diane Ackerman, Deep Play (New York: Random House, 1999).

  4 Ibid.

  5 Phil Lohre, conversation with author, December 22, 2007.

  6 “Mob Football,” Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mob_Football. Various contributors to Wikipedia (uncited).

  7 Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (New York: HarperPerennial, 1991).

  8 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, http://www.bls.gov/cex/csxann04.pdf.

  9 John de Graaf, Take Back Your Time Web site, www.timeday.org.

  10 Sam Roberts, “Fatter, Taller, and Thirstier Americans,” New York Times, Dec. 15, 2006, A27, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/15/us/15census.html?ei=5088&en=0854d746f02031e3&ex=1323838800&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&pagewanted=print.

  11 Studs Terkel, Working (New York: Random House, 1974), xxiv.

  12 Bob Black, “Why Work?” Yes! Magazine, Summer 2001, http://www.yesmagazine.org/article.asp?ID=406.

  13 Goleman.

  14 Ibid.

  15 Reuters, “Stay-at-Home Mom Would Be a High-Paying Job,” May 3, 2006, http://cc.msn.com/cache.aspx?q=4964969232412&lang=en-US&mkt=en-US&FORM=CVRE.

  16 “Are We Happy Yet?” Pew Research Center, February 13, 2006, http://pewresearch.org/social/pack.php?PackID=1.

  17 Associated Press, “NYC’s Oldest Bartender Still Going Strong at 90,” August 22, 2006, http://msnbc.msn.com/id/14462796/?GT1=8404.

  18 Edward Deci, http://www.oncourseworkshop.com/Motivation004.htm.

  19 Lance Secretan, “The Spirit of Work,” in Imagine, ed. Williamson, 123-33.

  20 Csikszentmihalyi.

  Chapter 10. The Real Wealth of Neighborhoods

  1 Blanche Evans, “Neighborhood More Important Than the House, Survey Finds,” Realty Times, October 24, 2006, http://realtytimes.com/rtapages/20051012_homepages.htm.

  2 Jay Walljasper, “America’s 10 Most Enlightened Towns,” Utne Reader, May/June 1997, 43.

  3 Joel Kotkin keynote address, 2006 California American Planning Association Conference, Orange County, CA, October 23, 2006.

  4 Dan Chiras and David Wann, Superbia! 31 Ways to Create Sustainable Neighborhoods (Gabriola Island, BC, Canada: New Society Publishers, 2003), 144.

  5 “Designing a Great Neighborhood: Lessons from the Holiday Neighborhood,” a TV program produced by David Wann for the Sustainable Futures Society. March 2005.

  Chapter 11. Higher Returns on Investment

  1 Jerry Mander, Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television (New York: William Morrow, 1978), 118.

  2 Donella H. Meadows, Dennis Meadows, and Jorgen Randers, Beyond the Limits (Post Mills, VT: Chelsea Green, 1992), 216.

  3 Mario Kamenetzky, in “Human Needs and Aspirations,” in Real-life Economics: Understanding Wealth Creation (London: Routledge Publishing, 1992), 181.

  4 Manfred Max-Neef. Real Life Economics, Manfred Max-Neef and Paul Ekins, editors.

  5 Conversation with author, Terry Gips, June 2006.

  6 Sarah Mahoney, “How Love Keeps Us Healthy,” Prevention, http://health.msn.com/womenshealth/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100123218.

  7 University of California-Berkeley, “Monkey Diet Is Richer in Vitamins and Minerals than Human Diet, UC Berkeley Anthropologist Discovers,” news release, May 18, 1999.

  8 “Rethinking Your Drinking,” Ode magazine, November 24, 2005, http://www.odemagazine.com/news.php?nID=646&a=true.

  Chapter 12. Energy Savings

  1 “Oilman, The Long Fingers of Petroleum,” Energy Bulletin, March 16, 2005, http://www.energybulletin.net/.

  2 Daniel Gilbert, “If Only Gay Sex Caused Global Warming,” Los Angeles Times, July 2, 2006, http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-op-gilbert2jul0217788831.story.

  3 Worldwatch Institute, http://www.worldwatch.org/node/1480.

  4 Http://www.iea.org/.

  5 Charles Fishman, “How Many Lightbulbs Does It Take to Change the World?” Fast Company magazine, no. 108, September 2006, 74.

  6 Amory B. Lovins, “More Profit with Less Carbon,” Scientific American, September 2005, 74-82.

  7 Jerry Adler, “Going Green: With Windmills, Low-Energy Homes, New Forms of Recycling and Fuel-Efficient Cars, Americans Are Taking Conservation into Their Own Hands.” Newsweek, July 17, 2006, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13768213/site/newsweek/.

  8 Lovins.

  9 Ibid.

  Chapter 13. The Benefits of Right-Sizing

  1 Graphic, “This New House,” Mother Jones, March/April 2005, 26.

  2 M. P. Dunleavy, “The Hidden Costs of Too Much Stuff,” MSN Money Central, http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/SavingandDebt/P43217.asp?special=0403life.

  3 Http://www.littlehouseonasmallplanet.com/.

  4 Jordan Rosenfeld, “No Place Like Home,” Metroactive magazine, December 7, 2005, http://www.metroactive.com/bohemian/12.07.05/creative-0549.html.

  5 Nathan Fox, “This New House,” Mother Jones, March/April 2005, 26.

  6 Rosenfeld.

  7 Christopher Soloman, “For Many Homeowners, Less Is So Much More,” MSN Real Estate, http://realestate.msn.com/loans/Article.aspx?cp-documentid=353659>1=7929.

  8 Joseph Florence, “Global Wind Power Expands in 2006,” Eco-Economy Indicator (e-mail bulletin), June 28, 2006.

  9 Dan Chiras, The Homeowner’s Guide to Renewable Energy (Gabrio La Island, Canada: New Society Publishers, 2006).

  10 Mark Clayton, “As TVs Grow, So Do Electric Bills,” Christian Science Monitor, June 16, 2005, http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0616/p13s02-stct.html.

  Chapter 14. Trimming the Fat

  1 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, http://www.bls.gov/opub/uscs/reflections.pdf.

  2 Http://www.eataboutit.com/ez-gicolgan.htm.

  3 Joan Gussow, This Organic Life: Confessions of a Suburban Homesteader (White River Junction, VT:
Chelsea Green Publishing, 2002).