“You need much less than you think.”
We’d like to invite you to subscribe to and support our weekly Inside Minimalism series, which offers exclusive essays by our dedicated team of writers on simple living.
Your first month is completely free.
Stimulate the Economy Like a Minimalist
Improving the economy through individual, intentional decisions
By The Minimalists
If everyone immediately stopped spending their money, our economy would crash. This goes without saying. Consequently, one of the biggest (supposed) arguments many people have against minimalism is that if everyone became a minimalist, then we’d all be doomed: the financial system as it stands today would collapse, and no longer would we have the wealth necessary to purchase cheap plastic shit from Walmart.
There are several problems with this point of view, some obvious, some a bit more abstruse.
First, no informed person would argue that we should stop spending money or that we must stop consuming. Consumption is not the problem; consumerism is the problem. Consumerism is compulsory, vapid, pernicious, impulsive, unfocused, misguided. Worst of all, it is seductive: consumerism’s shiny facade promises more than it can possibly deliver, because love, happiness, contentment, and satisfaction are all internal feelings that cannot be commodified, and the truth is that once our basic needs are met, the acquisition of trinkets does little for our lifelong well-being.
Using consumerism to stimulate the economy is like fixing a cracked mirror with a hammer. It only worsens the problem. Yes, trade is an important part of any society. Circumventing consumerism, however, doesn’t imply that minimalists sidestep commerce. Rather, minimalism is predicated on intentionality, which means we spend our money more deliberately.
Minimalists invest in experiences over possessions. Travel, indie concerts, vacations, community theater, etc.: we can all spend money without acquiring new material things.
Minimalists buy new possessions carefully. To do so we must ask better questions, like, Will this thing add value to my life?
Minimalists support local businesses. Local, indie shops tend to be less motivated by profit. Sure, they need to make money to keep the lights on, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but earning a buck usually isn’t the primary concern of the local bookstore, restauranteur, or bike shop. They are in business because they are passionate about their product or service, and they want to share that passion with their patrons. Passion begets greater quality and better service, which makes the money they earn well deserved.
Ultimately, minimalists aren’t interested in “stimulating” the economy. Stimulation is ephemeral. We’d rather improve our economy’s long-term health by making better individual decisions about consumption, getting involved in our community, and supporting local businesses who care. If more people do this, we’ll build a stronger economy, one that’s predicated on personal responsibility and community interaction, not a false sense of urgency and the mindless stockpiling of junk we never needed in the first place.
Minimalism and Behavioral Economics
How insights from Economics can help you lead a more considered life
By Luke Arundel
Making lifestyle changes is difficult. While many people feel that there is something missing in their lives, and they would like to take steps to change this, the path forward is often not clear-cut. Thankfully, one field that has emerged in recent decades to help with this is Behavioral Economics. While traditional Economics worked off the assumption that people were perfectly rational and could be expected to maximize their satisfaction, or their utility to use the language of Economists, Behavioral Economics has incorporated ideas from psychology to give us a more clear and accurate understanding of how people make decisions.
As a student of Economics, I was happy to discover how some of the principles and theories from Behavioral Economics can be applied to help people live happier, more meaningful lives, and how these ideas often echo ancient wisdom. For example, it incorporates the commonly referred to idea of hedonic adaption, or the aspiration treadmill. As people’s endowments increase, so do their aspirations, in a continuous cycle. This concept has been discussed by Eric Angner, in his introductory book on Behavioral Economics. He points to Seneca, the Stoic philosopher, who identified this problem millennia before economists formalized it, when he said that:
“Excessive prosperity does indeed create greed in men, and never are desires so well controlled that they vanish once satisfied.”
There are a wide range of explanations for behavior like this, and in this discussion we will avoid going into more technical details, such as the endowment effect, however, it is worth considering framing effects. This is the idea, perhaps obvious to anyone outside of Economics, that how people value things depends on how their options are framed, and what reference points they use.
If you measure yourself against other people’s achievements, you can set yourself up to be disappointed. Part of the reason that increasing your income has a limited relationship to your happiness is because you begin to compare yourself to richer people. Your reference point changes, as the people you compare yourself to changes, and consequently you don’t feel significantly happier despite an increase in income.
So, there are two key takeaways from this. Firstly, that you should be careful about who you compare yourself to, and you should consider the impact that making comparisons has on your happiness. Of course, comparison can be helpful, but perhaps it is better to compare your achievements and habits to your former self as a way of tracking progress, rather than comparing yourself to someone else. Secondly, understanding the idea of the aspiration treadmill, or hedonic adaption, should demonstrate that you should carefully consider the goals you are pursuing, such as boosting your income or buying a new car. How likely you are to adapt to your newfound success. Will you truly be in a better place than when you undertook the endeavor?
A Little More of Less
A few other articles we think you might enjoy…
Anti-Fragility as We Train Ourselves to Improve by Leo Babauta
Looking Past the Likes by Julia Ubbenga
Get Rid of Paper Clutter By Asking 2 Simple Questions by Courtney Carver
Are any of your friends interested in minimalism or living simply?
If so, please invite them to subscribe.