With the current sub-prime crisis in the USA and rising interest rates (and debt) throughout much of the Western World I have been reading up a lot lately on subject such as personal finance, voluntary simplicity, life designing and downshifting. Most of the literature out there tends to be from either an American or English writer and their focus is often on the home market. Reading ‘Affluenza’ it was nice to get an appreciation of where Australians stand in this landscape.

The book is not the best out there on the subject of ‘affluenza’ (or enoughness, etc, etc) but it is certainly worth a read and definitely if you are after an Australian perspective. It details the basics of the credit crisis, our continual ‘need’ for more and the fact that, despite our comparative wealth, humans are still not getting any happier.

The biggest problem with the book is that simplistic data is often used to draw much more complex conclusions than they actually allow. It is often said that you can use statistics to prove just about anything (or even to prove that both sides of an argument are correct) and personally I felt that that was just what was happening here. Although I have no doubt that many of the conclusions drawn in the book are correct or at least have enough data behind them to allow for these conclusions to be drawn I felt that often facts were pulled from thin air and that does not do the book any favours.

On the whole, if you are interested in the subject and are looking for an Australian perspective then this is a quick read but it doesn’t tell you anything groundbreaking. On the other hand, if you are new to the economic-psychology area and want something that is easily digestible and covers all the basic points then this is the book for you.

As one of Hamiltons downshifters, much of this book was not new. However its strength is in the Australian perspective and numbers that it brings.
Easy to read, and a very worthwhile read.

I found this book an exptremely interesting read. It focuses on our desire as individuals to consume and about the real costs of our conspicuous consumption over the last few decades. I found the book to be easy to read but very credible in the research conducted.

This is currently a topic I am very interested in and the book gave me some insight into ways to be more content with what I have and to consume less