Curing Affluenza with Richard Denniss, Chief Economist at The Australia Institute

SubjectACT

A decade ago, a book called Affluenza by the Australia Institute's Clive Hamilton and Richard Denniss sent shockwaves through the cultural landscape, with an analysis of Australian culture rarely talked about at the time. It described a vast proportion of Australians who, while earning well than enough to live on, finding themselves feeling poor and unhappy. Instead of trying to increase our leisure time and thereby earn less than we might, we opt instead to earn more so we can buy more things. This was due to an emphasis on owning products of status and state-of-the-art technology bringing about a fulfilling life, rather than the old-fashioned values of creativity and family, to name a few. Richard Denniss is back a decade later to tackle the plague of affluenza in Australian culture, and the diagnosis isn't good. He believes we not only recognise ours as a consumerist culture, but embrace it, believing we are propelling the economy to unprecedented heights of growth. Our propensity to replace rather than repair, to throw away perfectly good gear to keep up with the times, and generally embrace the purchase of goods over services, not only damages public life but also trashes the environment. But rather than lay the blame at the feet of immoral individuals, Denniss believes serious cultural shifts need to occur if we are to increase leisure time, improve our environmental impact and end the anxious need to buy more stuff. Richard Denniss is Chief Economist at The Australia Institute. His new book, "Curing Affluenza", is available at all good books stores and also through The Australia Institute website: http://www.tai.org.au/ Photo is of cover of the book, designed by Tristan Main. It is published by Black Inc. This program was aired on 13th November, 2017. Join us each weekday morning at 8:30am on 2XX FM 98.3 SubjectACT for local current affairs, or stream on 2xxfm.org.au/listen. Find this and other episodes in podcast form on Soundcloud or the iTunes Store. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter. Subscribe to 2XX via www.2xxfm.org.au/support-2xx/subscribe/