that tall. >> thank you. ..

book tv has put together a program on consumer is some featuring the clips of four officers speaking about their books on the topic. over the next hour to will hear from empowerment ceo anderson the church of stop shopping reverend billy, eduardo of "the new york times" and critic and leonard pitt and you can watch all the programs featured in the entirety on our web site, booktv.org she appeared on book tv after words in 2012. here is a portion of that interview. >> early on i guess it would have been clear that they would have consequences for you and your family. what were the things that you were most concerned about moving?

>> the biggest concern and i hate to admit as much as we want to take a stand on our we did believe in some of the stereotypes about poor service, poor quality, high prices, all that kind of stuff that impact the small and local businesses so that was the biggest concern is are we really going to live like this and expect these services to take a stand? so that was the biggest concern and we prepared ourselves for that. but the other piece was we've really did believe that we could find everything. we were just like here we get to spend a lot less money pointing to the level suburbs and we have a lot more money on the side of the economically deprived

community right down the street. we always assumed that there would be black owned a dry cleaners and grocery stores, not as big and probably not the same selection, may have to drive a little further, we assume all of that stuff was there that we just cannot living up to our duties of what was important. we had no idea that on the west side we wouldn't find those businesses owned by the people that live their like you would if you looked at the chinese business in chinatown or you go to greek town. we assumed the same would exist if you go to a black community you'd find a black owned businesses. so, we were shocked. the first come second and third day we really thought we would fail because there was no way

that we would be able to survive because there are so few businesses that represent the daily needs of a family. food, drug store, all that stuff. none of that in the black community. so, had we known the stark realities of how many were suffering from the zero representation i don't know that we would have engaged in this journey. we thought this part would be saddling for the not so great service or selection. we didn't know we would be able to find certain businesses or product at all. >> host: as you quoted in the book early on in the asian-american community at dollar circulates for 28 days and in the jewish community it circulates for 19 days and so tell me how you came to this

measure i believe it was in a report and what are the consequences in terms of the creation? >> guest: i hear those numbers and people are appalled but we have to think about what that actually means. it means hard earned wealth in the community. it immediately goes to a majority owned bank. or of that family cannot afford a bank account, the majority-owned checking catcher or something. let's say that he comes home with that cash that day he needs food. he's clean to go to that greek or italian known the market in his community and the money for that is going to go towards that family and that family at the end of the night puts their doors down and then drives to their suburb and spend that money in their community. it goes to that tax base to make

sure the streets are clean. the guy that need that money needs his streets cleaned to. the kids need better school. in the asian community with a greek own community or native american community, that persons hard earned wealth would go to an asian known to pinker or chinese owned bank. that bank invests in the chinese businesses in that community. when he gets his money and comes home he goes to the grocery store and that chinese owned grocery store invests in chinese business people that put their products on the shelf. everyone in that store is chinese and there are people from the outside community, too. so the money that they make is contributing to the local tax base, keeping the properties up and keeping the community programs in the schools funded. we don't have the benefit of all of those basic things in the black community.

the other piece the numbers don't represent is that that chinese kid gets to go to that chinese curse of a store and see that chinese owner and think i can be a business person. black kids can go their whole life and never see a business owner that looks like them. they go into the store and all the customers are black but when they go to apply for a job or they just look at the owner they will see someone who doesn't like them. that says to our kids you can shop here and live here but you are not entitled to be an owner not even your own community so that six hours is everything. it explains all the social crisis and why we don't have jobs and it explains why are our kids are choosing games over college and while the school systems are underfunded and dropping out of school and it explains everything. so, once we have learned that

out that, this is much less about pacifying the guilt and much more of a crusade and i think the more we keep pushing those numbers out the more we have chances like this to talk about these numbers in an intelligent way and instead of just talking about the end of their number populating in the jails if we are to and that discussion with stay for over six hours maybe there would be an american moment where we could say that is the reason the community suffers the way it does. all we need to give his support the business owners who invest in the employment in that community. but we don't feel like that number from about six hours is being talked about enough. so that was important for us to get those statistics out and not just the journey. >> host: it is poverty in the impoverished community.

>> it is just an everyday fact but people don't think about it that much is that the black employers are by far that greatest. it's almost any the the to the highest in any ethnic group. so if there were more black owned businesses that were able to employ we could counter the unemployment. we would know the impact that could have on the community and folks that have better options to be more productive and have more pride in their community and have jobs to go to every day. so all of that is connected to the need to support the businesses, not just the need to recycle the wealth in the community when people are talking about okay that is local. why do you push by the lack?

i push because black businesses are employed by people. if we were in a place in america everybody was going out and employing the way that we should be, then i wouldn't need to make this protective pushed to support the businesses. but black unemployment is high. i have to separate the businesses is the fi want to counter black unemployment. so why choose as a consumer to spend my money on those businesses. >> you describe the prior to the experiment that you alluded to the sense that you and your husband had developed a dangerous sense of gratification and entitlement. can you talk about that from the place that now has an activist and some of these issues to that feeling? >> guest: it's funny and i am not alone in this and i hope that we wrote this out and that it gives other folks in our echelon that we have been able

to benefit from some opportunities that our brothers and sisters have not been able to i hope it makes sense because we are not be lonely people who feel this way then it seems as if we've been able to go to grade school and get great jobs and able to make money and own a home and get things to our children. that's what we are supposed to do. like the getting rich and being raped and murdered and house is being burned to the ground was so that i could have a nice car and go to the conferences and have martinis and talk about that stuff. it's like okay so now we have to reconcile that with our duty to the community. the reconcile is where we failed. it used to be this thing that we are pushing what we are fighting for to make it so that you can then go back and keep an

employee coming keep fighting, that is the part that we failed. what we've been doing with those opportunities and all of that welfare is that we do our best to spend it on businesses or products that are not representing a hour community to get i think this is what i say when it is probably the best economic achievement of my class is making sure that the families are absolutely well-educated because that is what we spend our money on to make sure that they are doing great, that our communities are suffering. wouldn't it be great if those class's would be responsible for creating our own? wouldn't that be a bitter legacy for us than just saying think you and now we are able to buy

and stay at hotels or what have you. so that is a conversation that we were having. we basically acknowledged that we were being very hypocritical that the movement had stalled basically because we hadn't been owning up to our responsibility to the edison now that i'm an activist and now that i've made that transition from corporate to the cause, you make a lot less money but -- >> host: working corporate america and you -- and all that stuff. we have the life. we've given all that up and treated it in, but the sense of empowerment and consciousness that i really do believe things can change in america you cannot put a price tag on that. so we created the foundation and we contribute to the foundation and we really do think that if the foundation were funded we could pick up on where the

experiment left off and actually create solutions even more partnered in the corporate sector so they could do more business. all kinds of wonderful things and possibilities are coming up so that i can do my responsibility and use that to work for my community and i could raise money for those business owners who could be the next capital investment so i am reconciling the duty to my community with all of the blessings that i have and also inspiring other to do the same thing. they aren't going to do what i did but they can look for some black owned products in the gross the store and they can go to a black owned hotel or bed-and-breakfast when they vacation and they can inspire organizations. these are things that are inspiring the experiment and i target the upper and middle class folks like us because

their teachers like me and number two because we have the money and number three, if we coalesce we can change. >> maggie & talking about the book our black year. you can see the entire appearance on the web site, booktv.org. we continued to block of programming on consumerism of activist and street performer reverend billy founder of the church of stop shopping to get he's the author of what would jesus by. >> the church of stop shopping went out across the country in 2005 if the film makers from super sized me, the film company. we started on buy nothing day

with a stone head of logos and we got on the to diesel buses and went out shopping. the sign to slow down shopping in the shopping season. and so, into the mall of america we took 100 from minnesota in the mall of america retook the central stage and they just thought that we were for some period of time they thought that we were a local christian church. [laughter] and then some text based person heard the stop shopping in the heart of the biggest mall of all time and we were hustled into the neighboring corn fields.

we went to bentonville and exercised the world headquarters front door and we had a revival in texas and we finally ended up on christmas day in disneyland in anaheim and california where we were jumped in front of mickey mouse and snow white and so forth in their annual christmas parade. while we were going across the country i try to keep the pasturing of reverend billy going using my wife's raspberry i would computer back to people as they confessed to me and your all of course welcome to come to reverendbilly.org and confess

your shopping sins. i have included three things from "what would jesus buy." i have learned of an evil brewing in the heart of the neighborhood of what i hear of the of babylon is trying to set up shop in the race a glowing symbol of freedom. be our guest. as opposed to be my guest. the hour guest. those are letters. it's in the tradition of toys r us. these people are brilliant. b r guest is planning to buy the club in new york city. i hope this is only see him tempting me with feedback

shopocolypse. we were only a know - what this point. disney is buying the pyramid club. i shouted this allowed just now and calls caused them to start moaning maybe we should turn them out and come back. we could be back in a day and a half we were pummeled already on just the second day we had been pummeled at the steady drumbeat of the identical details. all across the country i don't know if i could do it. all right. there will be no second pyramid club. we cannot replace the dust and the silver walls in and back room. this is the inner sanctum and

the national treasure. yes. we will come and saying if you call us and and by the way, check out of the critique of the pyramid. in mexico there is a developed nation and the undeveloped nation. it forces its idea on the ever so the nation is paralyzed by being assigned a future that never arrived. that's what we have going on now in our city new york. the chain stores coming in with the developers paying off the future that freezes us in the culture. call us and we will rock for the pyramid. mine is an unholy confession bigot i am in love with my swiffer on the disposable ma pads and the 360-degree rotating handle, the dispose of devotee

of the ball. help me. [laughter] signed dirty girl, baltimore. [laughter] i know. i have had a neurotic thing for the disinfectant and really cheap motel rooms. i've caught somebody signal and i think the buses parked next to. i think i am pulling it right out of those carcinogenic rooms of pleasure. my little secret and preachers have so many of them is that i want to check into that place right now. let's work through those. it's how we learn. [laughter] how often do you plans yourself of your commercial web site

where you can click and by d audio. buy the tickets sliding scale, what did you say, $10 to $10,000? this is bullshit. this is a commercial enterprise. we're is the hypocrisy that is grossing me out. what do you have to see for yourself when you say don't buy their stuff, by my stuff, reverend. congratulations. you went to jail and then you bragged about it and sold of video images of eight. hell on a novel of you. you are just as sick as starbucks. you use the same victims. shame on you. try going back to when you started. were you charging for cds back then? did you have ten to $10,000? when did they evil commercial

expect you to put that mirror up to see what you can see, suzanne good morning. of course you are raising questions we discussed in the stop shopping group. for years we were a neighborhood political group, still are, doing fundraisers or painting billboards of the transnational as we became better known and we are still celebrating the tenth anniversary since i started on the sidewalks. we are faced with a whole set of questions that we didn't have. we are commercially informed

sometimes but it's easy to see that we are not industrial celebrities, are we, spreading the message over some of the commercial systems on the strategies and avenues as something that we have accepted and continue to explore. my teacher did it and we are making a movie now. we make the public statements this day and age and start with our friends at the radio centers but today i will be preaching on the drive time radio shouting into a cell phone and deciding the turnpike on pennsylvania shopping stop shopping, stop shopping denver and the choir will be harmonized in the background on the bus. and maybe they will.

a how is everybody? i've got this microphone on my crotch here. [laughter] one of the sacrifices you make when you want to preach out to people. on c-span amen. [laughter] i know who i'm talking to. [laughter] you are on a couch and you have smoked some grass and you accidentally come to the porter square bookstore and this is the church of stop shopping, amen. [laughter] i hope this is a good trip for

you. when are you preaching again? >> 7.6 seconds. we have to come back. let's come back to boston. it's always such a wonderful experience. it's like halfway to the stars where frederick douglass preached. i'm going to jump into the last part of the book where there is a long reconstruction of the end i call it the letter from disneyland jail. i wrote this after nigh was arrested. after we jumped in front of me ki and do fi and snow white and

what they call me in st. usa. we had research main street u.s.a. and our one month of coming across the country we had been to so many mean streets that was shattered with a glowing fluorescent sweatshop fuel will st. fuel wal-mart outside of town with a $7.18 per hour working at the counters. so i'm writing this in the disneyland jail and i start from -- i back up and start from before we come into the theme park that is now a part of our landscape.

from the distance of new york and during the tour across the country, the magic castle with the two legged animals and a glowing tuxedos have always loomed on the western horizon as we traveled closer the upcoming invasion of disneyland became to seem less funny and more serious and threatening. for one thing there was the atmosphere of suburban california, this white christmas where i am now. this is the land of ronald reagan and john wayne and is along with lynchburg virginia the cultural epicenter of america's apocalyptic end game. this is the land of the repeatedly announced values that it turns out cannot be

experienced because the land has been to make direct experience in possible. the physical world here only allows a what? shopping and surfing. they must shoot into the local action movies into the immigrant vigilantes' and apocalyptic christianity. miki has the imagination of the air here off of this offer and we felt this had power in this disney, launched we felt how that power was summoning in envy shopocalypse.

this morning our camera person and one of the super sized me people but the native to the sparks we drove into the parking lot with in the parking lot of disneyland. can't see the magic castle yet for the famous concrete matterhorn that looms over mean st usa. it is unbelievable to us that every single stop shopping singer got an earlier that day down in the backpacks and persons that makes us smile. disneyland is a designated terrorist target they say. in the landmarks of america it is up there with leader liberty -- lady liberty and the act of

homeland security pity this a, as we stand in the first of those two lines in the entrance rituals, the security folks search the suitcase and say buy something. music rising from the source and 100 feature forms going back, the train sales over and undeniably there is excitement here in disneyland and the people well, this is christmas day and its pact and a very crowded and used to be closed on christmas. so many families have decided to spend christmas in disneyland. one of them said it used to be closed and sacred days and of course now the church of retail and joost magic has moved into all of the holy days on the calendar as we move up into the second line the music closes in and around us.

the great media corporation is stalking us. the company with the power to convene the congress and extended the copy written life to 80 years is singing to less. someday my prince will come. that means he wasn't a premature ejaculator the theme from the musketeers and what's this? ragtime cementing a doll, mysterious choirs evoking the winter wonderland seems for the thousands fanning themselves with mickey mouse shaped fans in their bermuda shorts.

in the ticket window shut in our face. a thai europe looking lady is announcing that the park is closed. katrina get on the radio to the choir director. this cannot happen. we are all on airplanes tomorrow morning, not to mention if reverend billy is stuck at the gate when you're out the 2,000 of the everyone's per head ticket and the tour is gone. we could go back to the econ lodge and make a french film. this is crazy. she says know it is overcapacity of no one else is allowed until later tonight. and maybe not even then. >> can watch the entire event on

the web site, booktv.org. up next in the block of programming on consumerism in america is at wargo porter a member of the editorial board who appeared on after words to discuss his book the price of everything solving the mystery of why we pay what we do. here is a bit of that program. >> you're new book is entitled the price of everything solving why we pay what we do. it serves as an interesting premise so much of economics relies on the concept of people do things that make economic sense to them. they weigh the cost of benefits and compare and contrast and a decade ago i think most economists would have said there is no mystery to why people pay what they pay rational people doing what rational people do. why is there any mystery to what we pay about things? >> i would say in fact that promise has been proven wrong and that the idea of the perfect

rationality is in fact incorrect and that there are all sorts of other things going on, psychological quirks that we are not aware of that kind of like deciding how we allocate our money and why we pay what we do. so for instance there is a great piece of research done by some psychologists at the university of new mexico that studied these tips paid to lap dancers -- >> host: this is probably the first time lap dancing has been mentioned on c-span, so i think some sort of award should be given. >> it was much higher but substantially higher and this was going on without anybody knowing. the patrons did not know this but something was happening to them either it was a smell or the way that the mood for

something that was leading them to pay more to be willing to pay more for that experience. and so, clearly this wasn't like some rational decision to pay more for this particular dance. >> so this is falling to the realm of what is now called behavioral economics. this a greater appreciation for the rational feelings of resentment or psychology. are you locating this book and that sort of tradition? >> i find the behavioral economics fascinating that the book is not quite all about these. it's maybe one rationing and sometimes we make extremely rational decisions that we are going to do this rather than that or go to school rather than not. but sometimes there are all these other variables that we

are not contemplating that come into our decisions. since there are things just to go back to this idea of why we pay what we do for certain goods and services that are not necessarily rational i would point to the use of the prices as the signal of the value. this might be odd but it's still probably rational in the sense that you think that you are getting the best for your money when you buy a bottle of wine you think it's better than the $50 a bottle of wine just because it costs 100 not 50. or there's another interesting experiment done by the psychologists which proved this point. he did this little experiment in which he gave a bunch of students placebo pills but to one extent he told them it was

worth $2.50 a pop and the other group that they were worth 10 cents. the group that got the more expensive reported much greater than those that got the sheep pills so the price was playing a function in the brain waves. >> host: i do want to get into them, but one of the premises that you focus in on is the way the different societies and different geographic areas and the decisions people make about what to pay for things or the value they put on things for going to vary greatly in economists would have told you that things are universal. everybody and everywhere because they are rational economic factors regard similar activities and the prices on them to a similar degree not that they would pay the exact amount or that they would think about it in similar ways. but if you have an interesting

and a professional background of that has given you sort of experience working with different cultures and viewing sort of first hand the different types of prices and values that people place on things can you talk a little bit about that? the personal background you grew up -- i grew up in arizona but i left when i was six and i grew up in mexico until i left college. and since then i've been a correspondent in japan and the united kingdom and in brazil and the united states so yes i have had a little bit of an experience of how the prices work. >> think back to some of the things that stand out take brazil for example. >> when i arrived in brazil i was arriving from the u.k. where i lived alone with a refrigerator about this size and i could only fit little bits.

my first experience going to the supermarket was you can only buy things and enormous quantities. if i wanted oranges i had to buy a crate full. the same with potatoes and onions and milk only came in these containers and i didn't know this because i was a riding in brazil soon after the inflation had been more or less pained but after years of the hyperinflation. hyperinflation meant that people went and bought and spend their wages the minute they got it because if you waited for a day it would be worth half as much so there would be the enormous shopping expeditions on payday and they would just buy 100 oranges or 50 onions so that led to these retailers and companies to package everything and it's

funny because i went back to brazil years later and you could see some of the sizes have come down because of the price stability. >> host: you say that the price we put on things says a lot about who we are and the central claim of the book is every choice we make is shaped by the prices of the options laid out before us that we assess to be the relative cost measured against the benefits which again seemed obvious but it works its way out in very different ways and lead by talking about garbage and we have this phrase one man's race is another man's gold and there's money to be made in recycling.

talk about the way that you use this differential attitude towards garbage and waste in different cultures and what that means. >> one thing i mentioned is the idea of how our attitude to waste and as a society would be a function of our stage of development. so i point to the fact that china might be a very dirty place today but it's because the price they pay for this and pollution and for all of the environmental consequences of this very fast and cold growth that they are engaged in right now is that their state of development less important and less relevant than providing jobs to millions and millions of farmers that are being displaced. right now their calculation in the societies that the pollution is important it as they move up the environmental or the economic ladder this the choice

will change because adding an extra edge of will not be as worth it for adding this extra chunk of pollution and they would become a little bit more like us. >> we pay people to take your garbage away and buried somewhere and in other countries they pay even more and putting a high price then causes people to me be recycled more and then and some other places people will spend their day going through garbage savitt is a resource for them because they feel they can lie in it. >> there is a hypothetical girl in india making a living and i think she doesn't realize that she is also treating a way. it's what she has. so this makes sense she is

making a living out of that. >> you could look at it and say yes this makes sense we have a lot of money. there is obviously material that can be extracted from recycling and reuse and somebody else that has a utility for somebody else and in a world of trade we should be doing that and of course larry summers, the former president of harvard and white house economic adviser got himself in a little bit of trouble as he wanted to do by pointing this out. what was all but about? >> this was in the early 90's we were about to engage in the first senate. i'm not sure that he wrote and he signed this memo that suggested that it made sense for the countries to export their garbage to what countries.

one of the arguments he said is that in the poor countries, exporting something that decreases your odds of getting profit by some tiny amount isn't going to matter that much when you were under the mortality rate of like one in 100 or tannin 100. and this caused an enormous uproar but it just sounded bad. and i would also add that if we could discount corruption this would be a better argument but in some countries this kind of attitude towards this willingness it doesn't really have to deal with a social chollet and it's not like the people of the poor countries are deciding democratically that they want to make this trade. it's the regime that represents

it so it is for us and the space process. >> this highlights something. you are not a trained -- you don't have a phd. >> i'm a physicist actually. >> we both in the printing a lot about economics and talking to a lot of economists and they have pretty strange world views sometimes. in other words in his realm of thinking it makes perfect sense to think that way and if you were a sociologist or a human this is a very strange way. and i think this is something that i don't want to say economists get themselves into trouble but we have seen that the systems when we let economists that believe in this too much rub things and the federal reserve, housing markets this often leads to issues because it is not simply about putting a price on something and letting the markets work.

there are so many other considerations that matter. do you think this continues to be a blind spot for many people in the economics profession? >> yes. they are meant to have this. and i think -- i won't say there are big blind spots that want to jump out at me most are that the prices always allocate resources but they are always right for that week can't second-guess them and to my mind what happened in the housing market is all you need to prove that this is incorrect. the other is the notion of utility we strive for the narrow quantity that embodies our guelph in some way and this quantity does not count all sorts of things like social connections and social norms

that would work. i don't think that it's like economic tests. >> eduardo porter. the entire interview can be found at booktv.org. the final portion for the block of programs on consumerism features activist annie leonard how our obsession with stuff is teaching the planet >> so it was a fascinating experience because over the years that this group net and they met four times and each time we were invited to practice communicating about our work and it was incredible. the thing we learned as we don't give each other authentic feedback. we cannot solve connect without feedback and the only thing anybody told me is that i talk too fast. no one told me that it was

unintelligible. no one told the any of this. so, each time in the gathering's we practiced different ways of talking about that and on the final time because they kept saying. on the third time they said we give the people never learn how to talk about these issues in a way that regular people want to talk to you so i get the word for the most improved to get on the final time i made this big sheet of paper and they start at the beginning so i drew a mountain and i said first there's extraction and production and i just ran through this story of stuff off the top of my head and i was kind of joking. and they said keep working on this and so some of the people invited me to speak at another conference and over the next two years i gave that talk dozens of times and it was an incredible experience because absent that feedback i never would have stood up there and drawn

cartoons and told jokes. i was getting through to people in a way that i never could have there was a useful experience. i finally gave the talk so many times i thought i will throw up if i give this again today and i can't do that. but i need to do it so i decided to make a film and every time i gave the talk someone would raise their hand and say to you have a film on this but i said if i ever have 1i will tell you so i had eight shoebox full of names and i had a friend who might be here and she filled me giving the talk and we took it to the studios which is yet another fabulous communicated storyteller. they were so funny at first base that i want to make a film about how the materials move to the economy. but then they saw the talk and they said that is about a lot more so they came up with a bunch of different ideas about how to make the film.

in the funding proposals we were making money for it we felt the success of the 50,000 people. we got that in four hours. we put it up on the internet for free and we were really lucky when we decided to make the film the all pitched in like crazy so we could make the film so we didn't need to recoup money so we could put it on the internet for free with the commonplace and instead of just inviting people to run with it it has been on national television and it's been translated in different languages and curriculums have been based on it and a puppet show in south africa and pakistan and it's just amazing. so that was december of 2007. we've now talked to over 8 million people into wondered 20 of the countries and territories. [applause] it's been amazing. we can go on to the analytics and see the map of the world.

it's pretty much everywhere except a couple countries. it's been truly amazing and for me the response has added to my hope and optimism about the situation. they took the temperature of the public and we found out there are millions of people who agree it isn't just us. it's like lots and lots of people want to see our society on a different path. and it's tapped into the growing sense we get e-mails from people that say i knew that i just didn't know how to say it or i knew a piece of it. but i didn't understand how it fit into the whole system. my favorite is when i got an e-mail from a fourth grader in minnesota and she said the film was totally awesome and she had

six flushing emoticons' and i got an e-mail from an oxford economics professor using it in his post graduates economics class is and he said there is an expression to enclose the loophole and the story of stuff encloses the ocean in a bowl. we have relied on getting the word out on the incredible network of friends and allies and the media has been fascinating in terms of the diversity pitted one of the things they told me in that group is i wasn't providing the point for people to enter if they were not already involved in the conversation so i worked on providing a range of points and it worked. recently i was profiled and a filipino and high and perry list capitalist journal and in one of martha stewart's magazines in the same months. so while i'm enormously encouraged by the response,

there is one piece of the response that does worry me. i've been going all over the country sharing this story of stuff and as you know from seeing it, it lays out a pretty broad systemic problem. it's not like a little problem line pointing to. i cannot tell you how often in the public event that universities and conferences someone raises their hand and says what can i buy differently to solve this problem or people less what can i do and i like to see what people were thinking in different parts of the country. sometimes i push and push and the answer is days stock in this kump consumer part of yourself i can carry my own bag and all of this as an individual or a consumer to be i think that we should definitely do all those things and that is great but not in the category of thinking

systemic change. those are kind of like flossing your teeth and washing your hands after you use that we let those are things you do as you grow up and become a responsible adult to you should do those things but they don't take the place of political action. and what i've come to see is that there are different parts of last and the citizens part of our self and that consumer part of our salties spoken to and validated and nurtured from the number one to be anyone that has a kid would know that it's from a number one why our kids and grown-ups, too can recognize different brands of blue jeans and so does and more than the city council members are putting it i've come to see that the consumer part of yourself is over developed in just the citizens part has atrophied. the citizen part, the community park and the idea instead of saying what can i buy differently why not say what can we collectively do to solve this problem at its root because that is what it's going to take.

when people raise their hand and say what can i buy differently i say that the solutions we need are not for sale has even whole foods. the solutions are in the communities and in the civil society by the engaging that citizen action mosul. when people ask me what they should do on some level i didn't care. just start doing something to engage in that level. get to know your neighbor. 46% of people in the united states do not know their next-door neighbor's name. get to know your neighbor, invite them over for dinner. i told my daughter some statistics that most people in the united states during the entire year she said you mean most people don't have people over three months and i said we are not the average padilla i want to if we engage that partly because it's what we need to shift the balance of power so that we can get the country back

on track but also because it is more fun. i've been doing a lot of reading about this emerging happiness and it turns out that things that make us the most happy across the cultures and age groups and income brackets are not that new flat screen television or pair of boots the things that make us the most happy are the quality of the social relationships are coming together with others around the shared goal and they are having a sense of meaning beyond yourself. those are the top three in every study people have looked about. that is after the basic needs are met and that is assuming you have a roof over your head. after a point more stuff doesn't make it happy and actually undermines our happiness because we are working and watching these things getting and maintaining and repairing to and upgrading and untangling the courts. so we are taking that time away

from engaging in the civil society a community. so for me that is great because how lucky we are that the one thing that we most need to engage the civil society in the democracy in this country is also the thing that makes us most happy. that is so great. it will be more fun as we on plug from that and engage in the community. that is the one thing that worries me the most and that is what i want to ask all of us to lead. if we cannot read and teach that in berkeley then how can we possibly call honor of their people to do it to the we have a good head start with the tradition of activism here and sometimes i think we are living on our reputation and it's time to get involved in the communities and back and forth in the civil societies and in the local planning and other democratic in the government's here in berkeley so that we can turn it around and engage

nationally as well. [applause] won the final fought and then i will take questions and answers. people often ask me to life and we are going to change, are we going to be able to change? right now we are using 1.5 planets for the resources to begin i was giving a talk recently 1.3 or 1.6. anything over one is a problem. so the network says we are using 1.5 worth of resources. the actually marks the day each year when we have used that year's worth of the biological planet and that was september 25th. each year it is currently year and earlier and that is not a good trajectory. we are definitely going to change. you cannot use 1.5 of what you have indefinitely. we are definitely going to change the of the question isn't if we are going to change but

how. are we going to change by design or by desalt? either way it's going to be hard work and things are going to look a lot different but if we change by design, if we are proactive and if we invent the solutions and if we are intentional and intelligent and compassionate it's going to be a lot better than if we dig our heels in and say the american way of life is not negotiable. we are still going to change because we are still against those ecological senate's hard but if we change by default it's been to be a lot more violent and it's going to be a lot uglier and a lot worse. ..