Simple Prosperity: Finding Real Wealth in a Sustainable Lifestyle

by David Wann

In his bestseller Affluenza , David Wann and his co-authors diagnosed the debilitating disease of over-consumption. In Simple Prosperity he shows readers how we can overcome this disease by investing in a variety of real wealth sources. To recapture a more abundant and sustainable lifestyle,

- Creating a richer life story through personal growth incentives
- Forming higher-yield friendships and stronger bonds through social capital
- Taking preventive healthcare measures to build up wellness reserves
- Balancing the biological budget through "greener" currency
- Caring for people, not just cars, to improve your neighborhood wealth index
- Resolving that pesky carbon conundrum through energy savings
- Celebrating instead of desecrating! Cultural prosperity futures value the earth as a sacred place

In our age of hedge fund hysteria, Simple Prosperity is a new way of investing that will save our sanity and the planet.

Genres: Nonfiction, Sustainability, Self Help, Environment, Philosophy, Finance, Politics

282 pages, Paperback

First published December 26, 2007

About the author

David Wann is an author, filmmaker, market gardener, amateur musician, father, husband and co-founder of a cohousing neighborhood in Colorado, where he's lived for 26 years, growing vegetables for 27 households. His non-fiction books include best-seller Affluenza; Superbia: 31 Ways to create Sustainable Suburbs; and Simple Prosperity: Finding Real Wealth in a Sustainable Lifestyle.

His new novel, Tickling the Bear, portrays a small band of colorful, purposeful change makers on the cusp of a new Era.

Reviews

[Betsy · Rating 1 out of 5]

We were very excited to read this book. The move to Indiana and the desire to simplify made us eager for advice. Unfortunately this book provides only bad jokes. It told us what we already knew - real food, real people (as opposed to those on tv), real activities - this is what to spend time on. Unfortunately the many anecdotes about people who found that this was a great way to live were totally unhelpful. Deep down, there was no deep down. This book never made us really think. Fipp made us stop reading it after a few chapters and I continued to skim to find "the answer". But alas, the books end was just as boring as the beginning. The one star is because the intro is fine to read and will give you the gist. I even remember that we liked it and it made us excited for the book. Pick it up in a book store and read that instead of buying.

[Inder · Rating 1 out of 5]

Okay, I don't think I can make it through this one. I love the idea of the book, but the tone!! Arrgh! Insufferably superior! I get it, David Wann, you're way better than the rest of us mindless consumers. You're practically a god of anti-capitalism. We should all kiss your dumpster-dived boots. But this is not a user-friendly approach to living a simpler, more sustainable lifestyle - more like an environmentally conscious version of S&M. Getting beat over the head with recycling bins isn't my cup of tea.

[Danielle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ended up purchasing this one from the earth day display in the bookstore at work; it's interesting, but not a whole lot of ideas new to me. Not so much of an action plan (Your Money or Your Life is a good one for that), as more of ways of thinking about your life other than the mainstream American way.

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read it pretty enthusiastically for the first half, finally getting tired of the preachiness and personal anecdotes. Just skimmed the rest of the book, hoping for (but not really finding) useful information to apply to a normal lifestyle. I was hoping it would be a life-changing read, which is how I read Jane Goodall's Harvest for Hope and Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. I do like the idea of the book and hope that super-consumers can make some life changes after reading it (if they pick it up at all).

[Ana · Rating 3 out of 5]

This had some great quotes and helpful info. I liked the general idea, but not so keen on the author's constant references to himself and the way he does things to live more greenly. I understand him wanting it to be sort of personal, but this was not a memoir. Him making it so personally was sort of like him giving a lot of advice rather than just some good examples to live more greemly. Otherwise overall good message.

[Desi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Decent amount of information on ways to cut back on spending and our negitive effect on the environment. Very wordy; it takes a while for him to flush out thoughts. Not a lot of new information, but you can tell that he is very passionate about his topic. Good information, not really worth owning personally.

[Melody Warnick · Rating 4 out of 5]

About eschewing the money-is-everything/never-slow-down lifestyle in favor of treating ourselves and the planet more humanely. I especially enjoyed the chapter about “the real wealth of neighborhoods,” which reminded me that having a sense of community and easy access to supermarkets and libraries is worth more per square foot than a bigger house or bigger yard.

[mindi · Rating 2 out of 5]

gave up after the first 100 pages and then skimmed to the end. don't plan on finishing.

nothing really new or enlightening, unless you're new to this concept of living a simple, sustainable life.

glad it was a library book, and not a purchase :)

[Rob · Rating 1 out of 5]

lots of good ideas but very preachy...thought i was back in church listening to a minister go on and on about how i should live my life...which is not to say, again, that i don't agree with him...it's just i avoid clubbing on my head

[Cathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am not even halfway thru and I'm having a hard time. I feel like the author has repeated himself so many times already and there are tons of anecdotes that seem peripheral at best. I'm not sure I am going to be able to make it all the way thru the book

[April · Rating 3 out of 5]

live simply. buy less (actually, buy better). do without the tv. green is good. yup, got it. am doing it.

it was ok, maybe even good, just felt like it sometimes waffled between bragging and kooky. of course, you'd pretty much have to, wouldn't you? aren't prophets kinda like that?

[Gina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish everyone in the United States would read this book.

[Jo · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars, maybe 3 if I'm feeling generous. I didn't hate it, but I only skimmed after a certain point because I've read all this stuff before. That's more my problem than the book's - if this is the first book you read about sustainability, downsizing, frugality, affluenza, etc it might be a great book.

I'm not sure though. I would probably advise reading all the other books he quoted instead. There are some great books he references that focus in on specific aspects like Your Money or Your Life, Last Child in the Woods, The Not So Big House, and Flow. This book tries to cover it all!

There are a lot of anecdotes and statistics thrown around. A lot. It's a bit exhausting.

And some of the author's prescriptions are overly optimistic/bullshit. For example, eat healthy foods and be well and don't worry about health insurance/long term care insurance - just make arrangements to pay the top-rated specialists you visit on a payment plan! If I'd done that I'd be paying off a $150,000+ bill for a medical condition I was unknowingly born with that no amount of healthy food and natural healing could've fixed. You can eat well and live a great life and still get cancer or dementia. So, NO. You might be lucky and get away with this, but health isn't just about being eco-virtuous and in touch with nature. Some of us need pills/inhalers/insulin/surgeries to survive and I'm pretty annoyed when people dismiss that.

I also took umbrage with the author's optimism about how far and fast women and minorities have gained political power. Um, NO. Maybe I wouldn't have been so sensitive to that if I hadn't been reading White Fragility at the same time, but this old white guy has no idea what he's talking about if he thinks that's true. (OK, he wrote this around 2007 and couldn't see into our dystopian current day situation - that's not his fault, but still, he had some major blindness to the realities of white men's dominance of political power.)

So, all I can say is your mileage may vary. I did get some useful reminders, including a much-needed attitude adjustment around gardening (it's supposed to be fun and enjoyable?! not an endless to do list and battle against weeds?) and reminder to choose my own priorities and play more.

Not the book I'd chose to read about these topics, although maybe it's a starting place for someone who wants a general overview and doesn't mind being told they aren't good enough if they love TV and take medicine every day.

ETA: PREACHY - that was the description that I was missing that other reviewers have right.

[Erksh · Rating 2 out of 5]

I did not enjoy this book. But at the same time, I can’t confidently say it is useless to everyone. I can’t even really say exactly what I found wrong with it.

My best guess is that I think the author is just a crappy writer. There may be other problems, but there is good content in this book, it’s just stitched together in such an ineffective way. I’m still not sure what this book is meant to be. Is it a personal handbook for change? Is it a treatise to society as a whole? Is it personal reflections? Or is it some kind of bizarre manifesto? It feels like each at different points.

Here’s what this book is comprised of:
40% idealistic talking points
35% personal stories
20% statistics
5% good stuff

The first part of the book, I liked very much. I love the idea of “affluenza”, the observations on ecological and socio-political states, and even the story of “where a t-shirt comes from” was, for me, a powerful message. Another example was the “left brain v right brain”; even if it’s not sound psychologically, it’s still a really potent metaphor. I found it effective because the first few chapters is when you traditionally would bring on the heavy statistics and idealism, to set the stage. They’re a good starting point, but here’s the thing: this book never moves past them. Up until the very end it still feels like it’s trying to sell you on the same list of points.

The talking points aren’t all bad. But a lot of them are pretty bad. Everything sounds like the same trite, boring, uninspired that’s been echoing since the 90’s. It’s cringeworthy how much TV is referenced as being bad by its mere essence. References to junk food, automated systems “steal[ing] the jobs of employees”, and asking “who has informal chats at the kitchen table?” just makes the author feel so out of date. It just got me wanting to ask the author:

Are you even one of us?

And the answer is No. He doesn’t write like he’s trying to better the society he’s in, he writes like he’s outside of the society. His personal anecdotes don’t come across as “here’s a non-abstract example for you to further understand”, they all -ALL come across as “I’m so good at this, so it works for everyone.”

The end result is what I call “amishization”; it’s a bit of hyperbole, but it captures the primary point: give up everything. Wann claims that it’s not “giving up”, but it really is. By the end, his ideal life that he dances around consists of taking walks, hiking, going to parks, gardening. And this things are great, but (a) why should I do them? and (b) why should I do them instead of what I have currently? (e.g. Netflix, computer programming)



So I guess the reason I really didn’t like this book is that I don’t feel it brought anything new to the table. I’ve been courting this topic recently but I feel unfocused. I wanted a treatise, a proposal on what can change, what is given up in exchange, and what -if anything- can be kept?

When Wann gets to the point where he’s saying “The most valuable leisure equipment is free- our minds and bodies”, I wanted to just yell I HAVE A FREAKIN’ SMART PHONE. Have you seen one of these? "Conversation is an art" OH MY GOD DO YOU LIVE IN A CAVE.

It’s not so much the points being made as much as it is how they’re made. If you want me to give up this small rectangle that I can look up any piece of information, that I can use to navigate around anywhere, that I can use to order pizza ready to be picked up as soon as I get there, you’d better give a damn good explanation as to why the alternative is better. And he doesn’t. It feels like he writes as if the readers are already familiar with everything he��s saying and that he’s just reviewing it.

That’s why I say that the author is a crappy writer. After this book I feel just as unfocused, if not moreso. There were very small parts that I would come across that, to me, seemed like massive topics condensed into one sentence (e.g. “feeling good [healthy] generates its own value”). All of the stuff that actually interested me was shoved aside to make room for more humble-bragging and statistics.



Here’s where I’m going to give my two cents on the issue. I’ll keep it short because I am not the one who has written a book on the matter, but it is pertinent to what I think the author did wrong.

The biggest hindrance to “affluenza” is what I like to call “jetpack syndrome”. Everybody wants a jetpack. Even if we know that it would be impractical and irresponsible to buy one, we still want one because they look so cool. That’s how “affluenza” is (at least for me); I look at the things that I would be giving up if I were to simplify, and it feels like I’m giving up a jetpack, and worse still, everyone around me would still have one. Seeing someone who has a new phone, or car, or video game system, or what have you makes us want one too, because those things are cool.

The effort, then, should be to address this syndrome. You have to argue that something else is more important. That you DO give something up, but you gain something else; here's what you gain, here's why it's good. Saying gardening “feels right” is not convincing, and stating that “when the garden becomes a lifestyle” just makes me come back with “why should it?”

That’s why this book isn’t any of those things (guidebook, etc) I listed earlier, though it has elements of each. What it ultimately comes down to is Wann putting his own experience up on a pedestal, as though it should be worshipped (not his in particular, just in essence). I want what you as the author have distilled down to what everyone should know, not just every single thought you have on the topic as if you are some kind of prophet.


I know it sounds like nitpicking, but the result is that the book ends out being about the author instead of about the topic. What I mean is this: he’s not writing it for the person who loves Netflix & microwave dinners; he’s writing it for someone who lives exactly the way he does. He’s writing it for himself.

I could be wrong. It could be more that it feels “preachy” because part of me doesn’t want to accept the answer. But even if that were the case, then I’d say that the book still does a horrid job. At very least, it proposes what I guess are good goals on a large scale, but that’s really easy. The hard part is the minutia, the every day. The pragmatic solution. And this book, for that, just does a crap job.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very personal and heartfelt book based largely around the choices and effects of the choices that the author had made over his life. Having read a few works in the general genre it didn't provide me with tons of new information or content. Yet I still learned and I have a greater respect for gardening at the very least.
I think this is an ideal book if your new to the idea of personal sustainability or looking for a personal story about how someone made the choice to step out of the mold our consumeristic society wants us in. The author is not someone banishing society, he just deliberating focusing on the most important aspects of society. I think that something we can all strive for a bit more in our day to day.

[Andrew Ferraro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simple Prosperity was a very interesting and informative novel. This is not a novel I would usually read but I am glad I read it. Wann made very compelling points regarding the fact that people are mixing wants with needs. He offered solutions to fix this problem. The solutions would help us live happier lifestyles and help the earth. Wann was very repetitive in this novel but I think it made his message more powerful, emphasizing the level of importance. I would recommend this novel to a friend because I thought that the information was important and needed to be said.

[Holly McIntyre · Rating 3 out of 5]

The ideas presented in this book ten years ago have now become common knowledge among those of us who seek to live smaller. Still, it is a good overview of the why and how of consuming less and living better.

[Julia · Rating 3 out of 5]

不錯的一本書, 可以讓生活在物質欲的我們, 稍微冷靜的想一下自己究竟在幹嘛? 有時候難免看到東西便宜就下手, 但買了沒有使用, 不只白浪費一筆錢, 而是讓這個產品平白被製造、運送、堆置、丟棄, 似乎也是在加速資源耗竭.
但是, 看到這本書最後二章, 不知道是我累了還是作者累了, 怎麼覺得變得不知所云, 所以評價就變成普通了!

[Elaine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Despite being 10 years old I found a lot of value still in this book. It focuses on a shifting of mindset which forces you to think about the true cost of convince and availability.

[Huong · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ones need to live in an intentional community to believe what’ve been said in this book. Fortunately, there are some around.

[Yu-Tong Kuo]

裡面的東西感覺都屬於常識，所以對我的幫助不大>_<

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think that this is the natural follow up to other eco-community related books that I've been reading recently such as "Eat Pray Love", "Omnivore's Dilemma", "Deep Economy" and "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle"-- and I'd say that while I'm glad that I read this, it wasn't as ground-breaking as I'd hoped it would be.

What I liked: David Wann does the one thing that many other books that talk about sustainability, light carbon footprints and local food movements fail to do: provide specific, realistic, tactical actions that one can take to directly impact their surroundings and lifestyle. I get tired of reading that we must all take drastic steps to help positively impact the environment, and want to know what those should be (besides all the obvious ones about composting, farmers markets and lightbulbs that we've all been beaten over the head with). David has put many/all of these into effect into his life (so it's not like he's preaching what he does not practice), and while I'm not quite ready to live as extremely as he does, I appreciate that there are finally some suggestions that provide ideas and motivational goals of things to reach for.

What I didn't like as much: I think that David built this so much off of his own lifestyle and surroundings that it begins to feel (after a while) that this is not as thoroughly researched of a book as it could have been. It seems like he had some data, but mostly said "let me share with the world what I have done and they can emulate me". While, as I noted above, I like many of his ideas, I think that this book could have been more powerful and more engaging if he had done significantly more research into other organizations, other ideas, other people's activities, and just more data and evidence. I also got a bit tired of him constantly referring back to his life and his neighborhood as 'the example'. I appreciate that he feels that his community has much to teach, but if that was his premise, then he should have framed this book in a different way- more of an autobiography of his/his community's experience.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent book, but it makes the all too common mistake of preaching to the small crowd of people already living this way.

In my opinion a book like this should reach out to people who may not know how they can really make a difference, might not know how to go about making changes, or why they should. It should focus on discussing the very real benefits of simplyfying, helping people understand what a huge impact small changes can make, what those small changes look like, and especially describing what true benefits they can expect to feel from doing so.

This fellow and the people he lauds most are the ones willing to live below the poverty line. Chapter 4 provides a small, uppity discussion of how people who make a good living can help. It is titled "How High-Income Households Can Help Save the World". This chapter begins with a mocking dissection of how he visited a site and entered his household income into a Forbes calculator and what advice it provided him. He then gives an apology "for being glib here" and then goes on to give a few judgemental bits of advice about what people who have some money can do to make changes and help. One preachy chapter that spends its time judging people for making a good income and says little about what those people can do.

Huge, huge mistake.

Those who want to live a more mainstream life with means to invest in real energy saving technologies, who have the space for a backyard garden, who are willing and eager to be taught about how things you own end up owning YOU should have been his audience. Books like this should be a bridge. The entire book should have focused on relating to the people not already doing the things he describes... get involved in your HOA and encourage neighborhood gardening, get backyard chicken coops approved, make solar power a reality, make a promise to buy nothing new for a year, etc.

I need to write a book.

[Willy · Rating 2 out of 5]

A criticism I have for this book is that for those of us who “make Earth Day everyday” there is very little new information or inspiration. We already understand local food, drive less, eat simple foods, understand the importance of community, we don’t shop the big box stores, etc On second thought, I realize that his underlying replacing fear with love and hope, might represent a new idea for many people.

To be fair, Wann may reach an audience not previously indoctrinated in the religion of environmentalism, of which I am a strong disciple. I would like to live in a world where fear is lessened and where sustainability is a reality. In the end, Wann subscribes to the same conclusion as many of the other environmental optimists, once we wake up and smell the proverbial coffee, and decrease consumption (albeit drastically) we will be on the track to sustainability. I live in a conservative community, I daily see people driving many unnecessary miles, eating more calories at a single sitting than is recommended for the entire day. I remain unconvinced that Americans want a sustainable world or are willing to work decrease Affluenza.

[Jess Dollar · Rating 3 out of 5]

First half was surprisingly engaging. I admit I didn't read the last three chapters as they seemed boring to me and I had gotten what I felt like was the main point of the book.
It's nice to read of others that are turning away from our consumer culture and being satisfied with less. I am much happier in my small house on 3 acres than I was in my big house in a subdivision. Once you get off the crazy train and stop spending money on STUFF life gets a lot simpler and options open up for more meaningful experiences.
I totally disagreed with his vegetarian propaganda and especially his citing of Ancel Keys. Ancel Keys and his shoddy science are partly to blame for our obesity epidemic. It was also laughable when he warned against palm and coconut oils because they have saturated fat and that eggs aren't healthy! Ha!
Despite that misinformation, the overall theme of the book was good: stop buying into the discontent that advertising and consumer culture propagate to make you buy stuff. Instead, do stuff that will actually raise your happiness: hang out with friends, keep your expenses low, eat good food, and get out in nature.

[Warren · Rating 1 out of 5]

I thought this was going to be an interesting read since 'sustainability' was a topic that I am excited about. However, it turned out to be the rantings of a crotchety old hippie. (That became evident in Ch. 15 when he griped about movie theater loudness and needing government regulation on advertisements.) I didn't really get into this book. In fact, I thought about abandoning the reading after the first several chapters. The only redeeming value was that there were some suggestions on how to live more sustainability in the second half of the book. There were a lot of facts and the content was didactic to the point that it feels like he's wagging his fingers at you like a good scolding. There was nothing written that was ground breaking. It all seems to be common sense to someone who's been trying to lifestyle already. (I just read the other reviews and it seems to be the consensus.)

[Miz Lizzie · Rating 3 out of 5]

How to live more simply and save the planet. David Wann is preaching to the choir for this reader. As such, I just skimmed the first two chapters which were devoted to convincing the reader that changes really have to be made for our ultimate survival as a species. Already there. I was more interested in what actions to take. Nothing there I wasn't already familiar with (and in some cases doing or have done) but Wann's stories and examples are inspiring. Published just before the recession hit, the book is both somewhat prophetic and more optimistic than it might be if published now. It did make me depressed (again) to be living in a place that is so out of touch with these ideas that my own actions have been set back considerably. Still, I did like this: I realized that we are wasting our time if we expel hope from our everyday lives, because without it, we can't win.

[Wendy · Rating 2 out of 5]

As others have said, this doesn't have anything new for people who are already familiar with the ideas of "real" community and sustainability, and even though it was published (edit) in 2007, this already feels very dated. It just makes me want to get out my copies of the Tightwad Gazette books for some reading along the same lines that is more practical, funnier, and--if you can believe it--less self-congratulatory than this book.

ETA: I finished it, and it never really got better... what's with the 1950s worship? And the railing against prescription drugs? They're not all for lifestyle-related diseases.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

from the library c2007 busy at the library
copy suggested reading list

ch1 taking stock
ch2 evolutionary income
PERSONAL ASSETS
ch3 parsonal growth
ch4 mindful money
ch5 the bonds of social capital
ch6 time affluence
ch7 the stocks of wellness
ch8 the currency of nature
ch9 precious work and play

PUBLIC AND CULTURAL ASSETS
CH 10 the real wealth of neighborhoods
ch11 higher returns on investment
ch12 energy savings
ch13 the benefits ofr right sizing
ch14 trimming the fat
ch15 infinite information

THROUGH CH17
neighborhoods

suggested reading

[Martin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not what I was expecting. Lacks depth and originality and is way too personal considering how it was sold. A lot of his points are valid, but this is not a valuable book to me. I feel as if I now know way more about David Wann than I really want to know. His extended family, friends and neighbors (in the community he designed himself!) may be great people but hearing about them was not why I picked up the book.