I am sitting in my living room. Immediately to my right is my dining room. In my dining room are, variously, a box holding my wedding gown…from 1988, a box of stuffed animals and a 3 foot tall Tigger, a remote control car still in the box (these even though my youngest son is a senior in high school), the cat carrier, two rolling footstools and two Cannondale road bikes. Of course I also have a dining room table, china cabinet, and 6 chairs. There are also 3 stacks of boxes, a bookcase and a settee that belonged to my grandmother.  Although I’ve rarely been accused of being neat, I’m not usually living in such chaos. It’s just that I’ve recently moved, downsized to be precise, and I’m trying to fit more than 20 years of family stuff into a house no bigger than the one I moved to just after wearing that wedding dress all those years ago. 

I am among those who are reducing their lifestyle. Why? Well, it’s a cost savings obviously; a smaller place will cost me less money monthly to light and heat. My monthly payment is lower and the maintenance is significantly less on a smaller home, so it’s less work. I’m headed for an empty nest as my youngest son graduates from high school so we no longer need as much room as we used to come the fall, so there’s that as well.

It feels like there’s more to it though. After a lifetime of always feeling as though I needed to have just a little more than enough-just in case, everything from extra towels and sheets to a back up bottle of laundry detergent and a pound of butter in the freezer, I’m now running leaner. We have very little storage space now, no extra closets, no garage and so we’re operating on just having what’s necessary, I’m letting go.

Is it part of the new economy? Yes, that’s some of it, and I’m not alone. On a recent Zogby Interactive survey 29% of Americans report they are driving less as a result of the recession, 5% have downsized their home, 19% are bringing their lunch, 38% have reduced or eliminated going out to dinner, 19% are renting movies, and 34% have changed their travel plans.

So, yes, for myself and plenty others, that’s part of it, but there’s something else I’ve found, it’s freeing to have less. I have less to be responsible for. I donated, sold or gave away plenty, and threw out a fair amount of just plain junk that we’ve carried from house to house over the years. And the result is that I feel better. There’s less to be responsible for, fewer things to maintain, fewer moving parts, and fewer broken ones.

Will I continue to live a smaller life? Have less of a footprint here on earth? Yes, I think I will. Will you? Are you now? Did you always live a sparse lifestyle and you’re glad to see so many of us are catching up? Anyone want to buy a “vintage” wedding gown?

Karen Scott is Managing Editor and co-Director of Project Management at Zogby International. She has two sons, one is a sophomore at Pennsylvania State University (We Are-Penn State!) and one, as mentioned above is a senior in high school. Her life has been full of surprises, among them are the fact that her wedding dress (pictured here) lasted longer than the marriage did, and while she knew she was a (young)  Woodstocker, upon further examination, it seems as though she might have become a Secular Spiritualist while no one was looking.

ZogbyFeaturedContributor Uncategorized animals, economy, international, lifestyle, marriage, media, recession, travel, work, zogby

by Rebecca Wittman

Well, not quite, but they appear to more concerned with humane issues than their elders. In two areas Zogby has polled – circuses and farm animals – New Globals appear ready to consider animals as beings worthy of empathy and consideration.

On Using Animals in Circuses

A majority of New Globals are opposed to using exotic animals like elephants, tigers, and bears in circuses, in fact, they are nearly one and a half times as likely as any other age group to feel that way – 51% under 30 opposed vs. an average of 38% over 30 who are opposed. And it isn’t just exotic animals they object to, they are also more likely than those over 30 to object to using domesticated animals like horses, cats, and dogs as circus acts (49% New Globals object vs. an average of 27% over 30 who object).

And when weighing two arguments about the treatment of animals used in circus acts, one postulating humane treatment (care by trained professionals who understand the animals’ needs and reinforcing natural behaviors as acts) and one postulating inhumane treatment (cramped cages, chaining, forced to perform unnatural behaviors), agreement with the notion that animals in circuses are treated inhumanely decreases with age, with New Globals (56%) most likely to agree that animals are treated inhumanely, while those over 65 are  the least likely to agree (36%).

On Treatment of Farm Animals

In a 2005 PETA poll, Zogby spoke with 300 15 to 23 year olds and discovered that humane issues were as likely or more likely to generate a move to vegetarianism than were personal or health issues.

Stop eating meat if. . .	Higher inclination			Lower inclination			Not sure
	Total	Very	Some-what	Total	Slightly	Not at all
If you saw videos that showed that farm and slaughterhouse workers often abuse animals for fun, such as by throwing chickens against walls and stomping on their heads	67	44	23	32	9	23	1
If you knew that a vegetarian diet could prevent heart disease and cancer	62	34	28	38	17	21	–
If you knew that cruelty to animals on factory farms, such as castrating male pigs without any painkillers and slicing the beaks off of fully conscious chickens, was routine	60	37	23	40	15	25	0
If you knew it would help you lose weight	49	27	22	51	17	34	0

So, New Globals may be the turning point in realizing better treatment for animals and an understanding that they deserve respect as individuals with intrinsic value outside their usefulness to humans. Here’s hoping so!

ZogbyFeaturedContributor consumption, culture, first globals, future animals, health, video, work, zogby

Welcome to this week’s edition of Top Question Tuesday. Last week’s winning question asked about your feelings regarding breastfeeding in public and private locations. We’ll put this question on an upcoming interactive survey and blog about the results soon.

This week’s user-submitted survey questions are below. The questions are shortened to save space on our blog post, but these are the basic ideas. Take a look though and then vote for the question you’d most like to see on the next Zogby Interactive survey. As a reminder, if you’d like to submit a question to be considered for a Zogby survey, use the “contact us” box on the right of the page. And if you’d like to join Zogby’s interactive panel to answer questions similar to these, click here.

1. Which of the following is the primary way you contact your Congressional representatives – in-person meetings (such as townhalls), phone calls, emails, letters, another way, or do you not contact your Congressional representatives?

2. Do you believe that anonymous internet bloggers should be required to reveal their identity if they post defamatory or untrue statements about another person on a website?

3. Do you strongly agree, somewhat agree, somewhat disagree or strongly disagree with the following statement: humans are animals.

Katy Uncategorized animals, internet, Top Question Tuesday, zogby

From the moment he was sworn in as the nation’s 44th President, President Barack Obama made clear his resolve to get right down to work to deal directly with a huge order of both the United States’ and the rest of the world’s emergencies and predicaments.

Despite the scope and depth of these crises, he has promised solutions for the withering economy and two abysmal wars that have created far more bad than good. With plans laid forth to create and save millions of jobs, repair our image as aggressive hardliners through diplomacy and talk of shifting to soft power — and perhaps to take inspiration from European models of social welfare through leading Congress to pass Universal Healthcare — Obama has shown the kind of determination to meet these problems head-on and to change business-as-usual in Washington by fostering an atmosphere of bipartisanship and consensus.

Even with all of this, the President showed no display of hesitancy when we saw him speak before Chief Justice Roberts had a chance to finish the ritual. But since he created such a aura of hope, there have been some difficulties with problematic Cabinet appointments, a Republican Party that is more ready to revert to ideology than be cooperative, and now in this new era of lightening-fast news cycles and exceedingly high expectations, to face questions as to whether or not his presidency has already failed. That question comes from respected economist Martin Wolf in the Financial Times.

And so with reality in full gear, the public awaits the President’s stimulus plan to kick in. He has a comfortable job approval rating (67%), but a slight majority with public approval of the stimulus bill (51%), both according to Gallup, and we all wonder what he thinks now of his ability to accomplish ushering us into a new era?

Looking at history makes it even more interesting.

Read more…

Jeremy politics animals, economy, health, history, ideology, Obama, war, work, zogby