New American Dream

Dear fellow bloggers,

If you:

a.) are concerned about the environment
b.) are an obsessive recycler
c.) freaking hate junk mail because it's a waste of your time and a waste of landfill space
d.) don't buy into the whole, "Oooh, I'm an American, my favortie activities include buying things and piling up credit card debt," mentality
e.) like organizing things like book swaps, clothing swaps, and other community building activities
f.) love the holidays because you get to spend time with loved ones, NOT because of the shopping mania
g.) want to meet other people who are into points a.-f.

you should definitely check out the New American Dream web site.

The New American Dream is an organization that promotes, well, a new "American Dream". In short, it's a web site full of resources for people who don't buy into American "consumerism". Most of our culture promotes buying things as a means to "finding yourself", giving you fulfillment, and making you happy. Television is full of commercials telling you how much happier you'd be with this new shiny car, that bigger house, a new flat screen television....the list goes on.

Well if you are like me, and you don't think that a new pair of shoes will really give your life more meaning, you might find this site a valuable resource. New American Dream offers information, web sites, contacts, petitions, and more to help you live your life in a more meaningful way, by spending time with the people you care about, doing things you enjoy, and overall improving your quality of life. It sounds cheesey, but seriously, do you really want to spend the rest of your life working 50-60 hours a week so you can pay off your credit cards, mortgages, and whatever other kind of debt we can manage to compile in your pursuit of shopping happiness? I don't!

You can set up an account on New Dream, post a picture, search for New Dreamers by location or interests, and send emails to other New Dreamers (kind of MySpaceish only without the pedophiles and annoying bands). This is really useful if you're trying to organize something in your neighborhood, say a food co-op, a yard sale (everyone on this site LOVES second-hand goods since it cuts down on waste from production and it's less expensive than shopping at the mall) or some kind of public event.


There are also discussion forums on lots of great topics. You can even find really good book reviews and local events.

The greatest, most wonderful feature of the New Dream web site is that they have a database of forms (both electronic and paper) that are addressed to the appropriate people/offices to remove yourself from junk mail lists! I removed myself from every single junk mail list that New Dream has listed and after about two months the amount of junk mail I received dropped, a lot. I hardly get any junk mail at all now, which makes me happy. It also keeps my recycling bin empty.

Take a look, and if you like the site let me know!