Last week, National
Public Radio interviewed
several of those experts of
the variety who like to
think about the ways economic
trends effect the way
people live and vice versa.
Reporter Robert Siegel interviewed
people like urbanist
Richard Florida and
historian David Kennedy
and author William Greider
about how they thought
the current recession will
change lifestyles in the future.
Florida, who is the author
of several books on the
``Creative Class,’’ including
``Rise of the Creative Class’’
and ``Flight of the Creative
Class,’’ also addressed the
post-recession future in a
piece in The Atlantic magazine.
He points to the late
1800s when America’s economic,
cultural and literal
landscape was dotted by
small mercantile towns
pieced together by a patchwork
of productive farmland.
That was at the beginning
of the Long
Depression, which began in
the 1870s and ended near
the turn of the 20th century,
when the America landscape
was less about small
mill towns, and more about
industrial powerhouses like
Cleveland, Detroit, Buffalo
and Pittsburgh.
He also describes the
way the Great Depression
of the 1930s put into motion
the rise of suburbs.
On NPR, he repeated his
theory that home ownership
will no longer figure to
heavily into the American
dream. At the same time,
the rental experience will
change substantially for
the better.
My favorite theory came
from Greider, the author of
``Come Home America.’’ He
told NPR that, after the recession,
people will ``drive
smaller cars and live larger
lives.’’
How lovely. How simply
optimistic. And how mottoworthy.
Driving a smaller car
can mean literally driving a
smaller, more fuel-efficient
car, of course. But it can
also be a metaphor for reining
in all types of excessive
and even destructive consumption
and consumerism,
especially when you
pair it with the goal of living
a larger life.
For as long as I can remember,
the idea of a larger
life was about reaching
for something (literally
some thing) bigger and better.
Bigger house, bigger
car, zippier car, even bigger
house, new furniture, newer
furniture. Living life to
its fullest could be quantified
by how much you spent,
even if you had to dip way,
way, way into the plastic to
do it.
This ``new normal’’ probably
won’t look like that.
Harvard economist Kenneth
Rogoff told NPR that
the current crisis is not unlike
an economic heart attack.
It’s not a bad analogy,
I suppose, except that most
of us committed sins akin
to eating the odd French fry
or spending a little too
much time in front of the
tube. The real cause was
the years and years of cocaine-
crack-and-Red-Bullfueled
cash feeding frenzy
called credit default swaps,
toxic assets and mortgagebacked
securities. In this
analogy, I guess the world
is a conjoined twin, one of
whom eats a little too much
fast food, while the other
one parties like Lindsay
Lohan.
No matter. We’ve had
our wake-up call, and we
get to decide what the new
normal looks like. Are we
going to party to the bitter
end? Are we going to snap
like a rubber band in the
opposite direction and become
a nation of ascetics?
Or are we going to be
like the person whose heart
attack sends us to yoga
class, teaches us to reevaluate
where we spend both
our money and our time,
and turns out to be the best
thing that ever happened?
For all our sakes, I hope
we’re the latter.
I hope we all find smaller
cars and larger lives.
Elizabeth Trever Buchinger
is planting a victory
garden as soon as the
ground thaws.
You can connect with her
at www.moremindfulfamily.
wordpress.com or by email
at
Villagewordsmith@gmail.
com.
This Wonderful Life
April 16, 2009
This Wonderful Life
Smaller car, larger lives
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