Did you know that the average American spends one
year of his or her life watching TV commercials, that every year in
this country 1.3 million acres are blacktopped, and that each day,
nine square miles of rural land are turned over to development?
Americans overconsume, yet remain unhappy, according to statistics
in All Consuming Passion: Waking Up from the American Dream. This
23-page booklet about America’s habits of consumption,
environmental track record, population trends and values is the
latest publication of the New Road Map Foundation, a Seattle-based
nonprofit group dedicated to helping people obtain “financial
sanity.” The group is best known for Your Money or Your Life, a
best-selling book advocating voluntary simplicity. The foundation’s
board members, all of whom try to follow the book’s prescription
for a self-sufficient life, include Bernie Siegel, author of Love,
Medicine & Miracles, and Paul Wachtel, author of The Poverty of
Affluence. All proceeds from All Consuming Passion, as well as from
Your Money or Your Life, are donated to groups across the country
working for sustainability. Booklets are $1 from the New Road Map
Foundation, P.O. Box 15981, Seattle, WA 98115
(206/527-0437).
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline A passion for less.
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