Economy and Society

Juliet B. Schor’s Plenitude: The New Economics of True Wealth


“Austerity” is a watchword in the media these days in both domestic and international economic news. The recent downturn, the story goes, has meant that governments can no longer sustain entitlement obligations or take on any more debt. So too must citizens reduce their expectations and assume more personal responsibility, accepting less in return.

In her book Plenitude: The New Economics of True Wealth, economist and sociologist Juliet B. Schor presents a different narrative, one that suggests the current environment is an opportunity to live a more satisfactory, which is to say richer, life. She offers a solution to the “work-and-spend” dilemma of modern consumerism she initially described in her 1992 bestseller “The Overworked American: The Unexpected Decline of Leisure” and continued in the follow up “The Overspent American: Why We Want What We Don’t Need” of 1999. Her thesis rests on four principles: freeing up time by reducing work hours outside the home, shifting that free time to more self-provisioning, developing low cost, low impact but high satisfaction consumption, and reinvesting in community and other forms of social capital.

Why “Business As Usual” No Longer Works

One of Schor’s main assertions is that we must find another way to define wealth and well-being because, in a phrase, there is no alternative. The supposedly endless cycle of material expansion that fueled economic growth as part of what historian Lizabeth Cohen calls the “consumers’ republic” of the postwar era has been exhausted in America at least. Double-digit unemployment, evaporating home equity, and eroding pension balances have taken the gloss off the consumer spending that accounted for between two-thirds and 70 percent of the US economy in recent years.

But more than that, business as usual (or as Schor refers to it “BAU”) has run into another, less malleable barrier: the environment. Mainstream economics has by and large failed to account for the environmental effects (so-called externalities) of growth, a charge many progressives will no doubt find familiar. In particular, Schor debunks the Environmental Kuznets Curve that projects a bell-shaped ratio of economics to environment, that poor nations pollute until they reach a certain level of wealth, which they then use to buy ecological amelioration. The math has never worked in reality, Schor asserts, as every scientifically accepted measure of environmental degradation continues to rise, threatening impending disaster.

Whether anyone not already attuned to Schor’s sensibility will be persuaded by “Plenitude” is debatable. Going back to the Progressive Era, “the good life” in America has been defined by the potential of an unlimited horizon of material comfort, a central ideological construct of modernity that is still hegemonic despite the strains of recent contradictions. Even those who embrace choices such as conscientious consumption of both the green and blue varieties may not be able to picture themselves canning vegetables and living in DIY yurts, two of Schor’s examples of the new economics of plenitude (which seem like very old-fashioned economics to me).

Indeed, the fundamentals of plenitude are largely compatible with austerity. Working less and therefore spending less seem to go hand in hand in either scenario, and we must take it on faith that because they are of our own choosing we will somehow enjoy them more. Of the four principles, the reactivation of community seems to be the most compelling. And to give Schor her due, many of the tactics of plenitude she describes are being practiced in local communities, such as Detroit and other inner cities, that have been abandoned by consumer society and left to their own devices. In that regard, “plenitude” may be in store for us all.

3 comments to Juliet B. Schor’s Plenitude: The New Economics of True Wealth

  • […] of environmental impact, the “environmental Kuznets curve” purportedly proves that, at least in theory, as a country grows in economic terms, certain environmental pollutants […]

  • Preethi Narayanan

    Dear Mr. Vince Carducci

    Eternal Bhoomi, is a quarterly magazine which is committed to offering holistic and cutting edge perspectives on sustainability by renowned writers and thinkers from around the world as well as practical ideas and examples of earth conscious living. The Bhoomi magazine is brought out by Bhoomi Network, a not-for-profit organization committed to education and action for sustainable living.

    At present some of our contributors include The Dalai Lama, Vandana Shiva, Satish Kumar of Resurgence, Jonathon Porritt, Helena Norberg Hodge to name a few. Our website http://www.bhoomimagazine.org will give you an idea of Bhoomi’s work till now.

    In the last 2 years, Eternal Bhoomi has been sent to 4000 school and college Libraries as well as to many others. Feedback from teachers around the country that they appreciate articles from the Bhoomi Magazine and use them for discussions in their classes does motivate us to keep bringing it out. As a magazine without commercial ads, we survive in a gift culture where several authors, artists and photographers give us gifts of their work.

    In every issue the Bhoomi magazine has focused on themes like Food, Ecological Sanity, Rethinking Education, Gaia – Our living Earth, Community and Commons and so on. In addition, we cover articles that share holistic perspectives on earth consciousness and sustainability as well as stories that offer positive and practical ideas for transitioning to
    eco-wise living.

    As a well known publication, we would be happy if you can support us by allowing us to reprint the article (http://www.deliberatelyconsidered.com/2011/01/book-review-%E2%80%9Cplenitude-the-new-economics-of-true-wealth%E2%80%9D-by-juliet-b-schor/) in our next issue. If yes, please let us know details of credits that need to be given.

    Looking forward to hearing from you…

    Preethi Narayanan

    Bhoomi Network

  • Vince Carducci

    Yes that would be fine. As far as credits, you should credit Deliberately Considered and its editor and publisher, Jeffrey Goldfarb, as the original source. My byline is “Vince Carducci is Dean of Undergraduate Studies at College for Creative Studies in Detroit.” Also you might want to note that a video of Juliet Schor’s work “New Economics 101, the True Wealth of the New Economy,” is available from the Media Education Foundation http://www.mediaed.org/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=166

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