Get a load of this shite.
Voluntary Poverty is a far more fundamental and effective way to decrease consumption and impact while increasing connection and improving life all around. Our family of four lives on about $7000 a year (less this year) and our lives are more enjoyable, fuller, richer, healthier, more inspiring to others, and more interesting to ourselves. (Note: for comparison, the poverty level as set by the government for a family of four is around $22,000). This is nothing new of course; sages and mystics have been sharing the joys and even the necessity of voluntary poverty and simplicity for eons. This article is simply my two cents as a modern day American.
That’s what I’ve been doing wrong! I haven’t been capitalizing it!
Technically not much in this Mother Earth News article is actually wrong – this guy is doing much the same thing I am, he’s just being much (much much) more self-righteous about it. I moved out because I couldn’t take the bullshit anymore: He apparently reinvented the Peace Corps…
We are connected in our community. We are free to do our “work” and host community dinners, help neighbors start gardens, offer art classes for kids, make murals, orchestrate community improvement projects, distribute food and clothing, host workshops…We also have a network around our home that can help tend our place (gardens, animals) when we are away. It’s also amazing what shows up when you are available to receive, use, and share it: our little Be the Change project gives away over $200,000 worth of clothing each year from donations from the Common Threads program of the Patagonia company.
And of course there’s a lovely big dollop of White Guilt on top…
[M]y wife and I are white, well-educated, healthy, American citizens who were raised in loving families. In every way in this time and place we have the world at our fingertips – we were born on third base. And, because we know what our American corporate and consumerist lifestyles do to people on the other side of the tracks – be they in our country or, more commonly these days, abroad – we feel a responsibility to blah, blah, blah.
Yuppies. There goes the neighborhood.
H/T to Landlady.
That bunch can live any way they like, obviously, but I totally reject the idea that there is anything wrong with my using whatever I earn for whatever purpose I choose for myself. My purchase of things doesn’t damage anyone else, and in fact enriches everyone who works and saves… and would do so even more in a truly free market. I don’t have any problem with any sort of “consumerism,” as long as people are spending their own money, honestly earned.
I also notice the guy is short on details about how a family of four lives on $7,000 a year.
I don’t mean “details” like “we participate in the gift economy.” I mean details like do you or don’t you have health insurance? Have you got a trust fund or other emergency money to bail you out? What’s the breakdown on your monthly budget? How much goes to food, utilities, etc. Are you receiving government benefits you don’t count as income? Specifically where have you cut expenses? What do you perceive as your biggest vulnerabilities? Etc.
I suspect there’s a trust fund or an inheritance somewhere in the picture. But if not, Mr Starry-Eyed I-Love-Poverty is going to get a hard smack upside the head if one of his kids needs major surgery or a crucial vehicle gets totaled.
I’ve also been voluntarily poor. As Joel knows, it has its rewards. It can also get very old, very fast. Even moreso when you have children, I expect.
Claire & MamaLiberty… I hate it when I’m late reading this stuff because I know that when I look at the comments, you guys will have stolen my thunder. :^)
BTW I actually read the electronic version of Mother Earth news downloaded from our library (free for members) because some times there actually is information I can use. The only problem is that one has to wade through a lot of fecal mater like this article to get to the useful information.
Owns land,
SevenEleven grand annual income (plus “gift economy”), chose not to have electricity (apparently uses a steam-powered laptop and whatever his ‘Net connection is)…Poverty Boy doesn’t know what being poor really is. Wish I could get a job teaching people how to be broke.
[grin] What can I say, MJR… it is great to be retired, and it doesn’t hurt that I get up at 4 AM. LOL Early bird gets the worm, sort of.
Anyway, the thing that gets stuck in my craw about “voluntary poverty” is that is it so seldom actaully voluntary at all. After a lifetime theft of most of my productivity (like the rest of us), the “system” is set up so that it’s almost impossible for me to engage in much of any activity to create wealth/income. I am indeed glad I don’t have children to worry about.
Almost hate to admit it, but I used to write for “Mother Earth News” back in the 60s. I quit because they got ever more shrill with the envirowhacko stuff, and besides they didn’t pay much. I quit reading it about then too.
I can still recall a revenue agent (sitting in NEW YORK CITY) telling me on the phone – “Well, if you ever have any money – we’ll probably find out about it – and we’ll take care of the matter then.”
‘Voluntary Poverty’ – sounds better than ‘stubborn’ (or chickenshit – six of one…). The best way to pull it off is – as Tom Waits says in one of his songs – is to have family where they pay you never to come home!