 Fame
& Fortune: Judith Levine
Author's year of 'no spending' yields
startling results
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Could you go an entire year without buying anything
but the bare essentials? That's exactly what New York author and
social activist Judith Levine and her partner, Paul Cillo, did in
2004. Disgusted with the pervasive overconsumption in America today,
from deficit spending in Washington to record bankruptcies and consumer
debt, Levine drew a personal line in the sand and simply stopped
spending for anything other than the barest of necessities.
Imagine a year without visiting a restaurant, going
to a movie, buying new clothes or having a drink with friends; a
life without Q-tips, Starbucks, DSL or HBO. Could you do it? What
would you discover in the process? In "Not
Buying It: My Year Without Shopping," Levine chronicles
the couple's cold-turkey withdrawal from the consumer herd and the
surprises that awaited them far from the bright display lights.
They visited with Simple Living Magazine gurus who have forged a
lifestyle out of living on next to nothing. They depended on libraries,
free concerts and public transportation, only to find public infrastructures
crumbling at every turn.
Far from inspiring some back-to-the-earth manifesto, Levine's adventure opened her eyes to the true value of shopping as a social exchange where different cultures get to know one another.
In the end, she concludes that we Americans don't desire too much; we desire too little, in part because we have believed the fears that fuel the marketing machine. "We've been so brainwashed to believe there's not enough to go around that we can't even imagine what we might want," she writes.
Bankrate spoke with Levine about her year as a nonshopper.
Bankrate: Was living for a year without spending as radical as it sounds?
Judith Levine: Well, a friend of mine compared this to having children: Before the fact, you think, 'Oh my God, I'll never go out for a beer for 18 years; my whole life is going to be overwhelmed.' But once you make the big decisions, the small ones just fall into place. You don't necessarily feel that you're making sacrifices or compromises all the time. A great majority of people think they can't afford everything they need, and that includes rich people. There are very few Americans who feel that they have everything they need. That just can't be true, right?
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