Fame & Fortune: Judith Levine
Author's year of 'no spending' yields startling results |
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Bankrate: You discovered a renewed appreciation for public spaces and resources such as libraries. What was it like to see them falling into disrepair?
Levine: Well, they're
not just falling; they're being pushed. That's an important part
of this book, which is that we get to decide as citizens. We are
not just consumers. The government is not something that we buy
by sending our taxes to it, and if we don't like it we want our
money back, we own it. We get to decide where our money goes, and
there is a direct connection between the amount of private consumption
and the amount of public investment. But public investment is not
just sending your money to those people over there; it's sending
your money to your own self so your own kids can go to a nice park
or for public transportation. Taxes are our way of participating
in important political decisions, and those are practical contributions
to the quality of everyone's lives.
Bankrate: In terms of happy endings, it turned out well for you and Paul as a couple.
Levine: It was an adventure, and it was fun to do it together. It was really nice for us as a couple. It was intimate. We didn't have that much to do; at the end of the day we would go and take a really long walk and wander back about 7:30 and make dinner. We didn't have places we had to be. Our adventure would be to walk over the bridge to Chinatown and get some greens and walk back.
Bankrate: Did you come away with a sense of optimism about this country?
Levine: I guess you hope that if I can see it, other people can see it. It seems to me that people are starting to feel like enough is enough. Now will they be able to give up their SUVs? I don't know. I do think that it shouldn't have to be an individual moral decision; you just should not be able to buy a gas-guzzler. There should be fuel emission standards that don't allow gas-guzzlers to be produced so that each person won't have to make their own moral decision. And that's really what public policy is about: trying to move public behavior in a way that's been agreed is in the positive direction. I am by temperament a pessimist; I'm a Jew (laughs). On the other hand, I'm an activist. If I were really pessimistic about politics, I couldn't get out of bed.
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