Less Demand, More Being
I think severe economic contraction is coming soon. I hope I am wrong. I hope that my instincts regarding energy and commodity markets are absolutely wrong. However, if those instincts are correct, my fellow compatriots will need to learn how to live a fulfilling, productive, wonderful life with less consumption.
At some point, I want to write about the way we Americans are bamboozled into believing that consumption equates to happiness. In my personal experience, I can say that happiness requires no such level of consumption. When I was 22 years old, I managed to afford a small apartment in downtown Springfield while working part-time as a server at a small daytime lunch spot. In other words, I was making well below the poverty line in wages and tips and still found a way to make it all work. To be fair, I was carried by my parents’ health insurance at no cost to myself and the Great Recession resulted in a great reduction in prices.
As variable as that lifestyle may sound to career-path people, the point I am trying to make is that one does not need a lot of money or stuff to be happy. I would spend much of my free time going on “urban hikes” throughout the downtown area, reading material that I could find for free at the library, and journaling about the kind of life I wanted to live.
There’s an adage I’ve heard from several people: the more money you earn, the more money you spend. This is absolutely true. Today, I own a business with my spouse and we have financial resources available to us that many people do not. I got myself into the habit of spending and buying things from the Internet that felt like a good idea when I did it. This is the polar opposite of what I was doing when I was 22. I spent because I could.
As inflation has risen over the past several years, we have also felt the financial squeeze like everyone else. About a month ago, the walls really closed in. A few days ago, we decided to significantly reduce our spending. As dramatic as that sounds, I actually feel happy about it. In a way, I feel like I’m going back to those days in my early 20s in which I was very creative in making my life feel joyful, fulfilling, and productive without dollars being involved. Of course, we have more dollars available now than I did back then, so a great outcome from this mission of reducing our costs is going to be, hopefully, the build-up of a substantial savings account. In addition to living a good life on less money (and consumption of energy and materials), we will have more financial security - which is going to bring something priceless: peace of mind.
While the Iranian conflict is a terrible thing and I hope it ends soon, I also hope that this provides an opportunity for Americans to reflect on what truly matters and to adopt lifestyles that consume less energy and material while also finding joy. We’ve heard about the de-coupling of economic growth from greenhouse gas emissions. Maybe it’s time for a de-coupling of consumption from joy. Or maybe just a realization that it was never required, to begin with.