SAN FRANCISCO Group's rejection of consumerism is catching on

The San Francisco Chronicle reports:

For Shawn Rosenmoss, the deal-breaker was a drill bit.

John Perry's worst temptation was a plumber's snake for his clogged drain.

Sarah Pelmas and Matt Eddy succumbed to the siren song of new white paint.

But aside from the occasional hardware crises, the Compact -- an ever-growing group who have vowed not to buy anything new except food, medicine and underwear -- is going strong on its first anniversary.

The Compact originated in December 2005 at a San Francisco dinner party, where guests decided to take recycling one step further and go for a year without new purchases. Consumerism, they said, is destroying the world and most of us already own far more than we need.

They called themselves the Compact as a semi-joking reference to the solemn commitment of the Mayflower pilgrims, but the concept is being taken quite seriously and has quickly spread.

They've been featured in newspapers across the United States and Europe and on the "Today" show, "Good Morning America," "CBS Evening News," TV news in China and Poland, and countless shock-jock radio programs. They were offered book contracts and at least two TV reality shows, all of which they turned down because it seemed contrary to the Compact principles.

Almost 3,000 people from six continents have joined the Compact group on Yahoo, and chapters have sprung up around the globe from Alabama to New Zealand.

This elitist group is for mass unemployment and a return to the dark ages.How progressive.