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SOME THOUGHTS ON SIMPLE LIVING
I've read in several places that "downshifting" and Voluntary Simplicity are considered "top trends" these days. Can the idea of living within your means - or as many simple living people do, below their means - by reducing consumption be such a radical concept that it is considered a "trend" if people do it? I guess so...at first I guess I thought it was radical but now as I continue along the journey, it seems only more and more natural to do so. We as a society have become such consumerites that the idea of not buying stuff does indeed seem radical. Recently, I watched a Canadian news program (W5 maybe?) which compared Canadian taxes to U.S. taxes, and what it does to the buying dollar. It was not the tax issue so much as the family they used for comparison that interested me. A Canadian family earning $95,000 with 2 or 3 children (I forget), was compared to an American family earning roughly the same amount, with a similar number of children. The program's question was, "Why is the American family thriving while the Canadian family is just barely getting by?", and of course it was because we are more highly taxed in Canada. Well, I just about choked! How could it be that they were just barely getting by??? That is more than double, in fact almost triple, the income that I, my husband, and our three children live on! In the program, they mentioned the amount of their mortgage and it was less than $10,000 higher than ours. Somehow I feel that their problem is not with the amount they are taxed so much as their lifestyle and spending choices. I feel sorry for these people, because they work very hard - a lot of overtime was mentioned - and then curse the government for taking so much of their money when in fact they could easily live within that income and enjoy their lives more, if they were willing to rethink their attitude toward money and spending - needs versus wants. Some people may think that we live "in poverty" - I wonder what their idea of NOT living in poverty is? Being in debt to the eyeballs, just so we have enough stuff that society doesn't think we live in poverty? Working long hours just to maintain, replace and replenish the stuff that we don't have time to enjoy? I say, scrap that thought - as long as we are happy, what does it matter if we don't conform to your notion of prosperity? Money and things don't buy joy and love. I wonder what these people think poverty means. It certainly sounds demeaning, a life with little dignity. I feel fairly prosperous actually; we know many people who live on far less than we do. Yet their quality of life is really no less than ours. Myself, I have never actually seen real poverty in person, not up close anyway. I don't know what it is like to have no food, rags for clothes, no home and little hope. I have seen television coverage of people who live like this; it is a sad reality for all too many people. So I wonder, how can *anyone* consider us to be impoverished when we have a roof over our heads, clothes on our backs and food on the table - no less and in fact far more than than we need? We do not, however, indulge in wasteful excess. It is those who overconsume the earth's resources who are to be ashamed about their lifestyles. |