Piece Description

Theodore Roszak’s 1968 book: The Making of a Counter Culture is considered one of the seminal works on that much-ballyhood era, the 1960’s.  Now, 40 years later, he turns his learned eye to the impact the same generation, the Boomers, is having on Aging. His new book is: The Making of an Elder Culture: Reflections on the Future of America’s Most Audacious Generation”.

Will they bring the values of a “corporate economy” with them, in which the strongest survive? Or will they embrace the values of traditional elder culture, when people value companionship and support over competition? 

Then … Americans have always had “a complicated relationship with frugality,” says Lauren Weber, author of “In Cheap We Trust: The Story of a Misunderstood American Virtue,” we often admire the ideal, rather than embracing the practice.  

But, while writing her book she practiced what she preached by eating dried beans instead of canned (they’re cheaper) and scoured the city for the cheapest writing room- a place where writers can pay a small fee to have Internet access and a quiet place to work. If that’s not major enough, she even encourages readers on her website, to find her book at the library instead of buying it from a local bookstore.

In this conversation with Mike Cuthbert they discuss the notion of the good life being a simple life, and our ongoing national debate about whether it’s better to spend or to save.