RE: Becoming minimalist: when having fewer possessions means living a better life
I agree with the sentiment that Westerners are engrossed in a culture of rampant consumption. It's one thing to make the argument that people should have free choice to get what they want with their money, but really, to what extent are peoples desires influenced by the mass media and global culture surrounding them. Everywhere you turn someone is using something to 'enhance their life' that costs money.
Minimalism is the wrong approach. The more tools I collect, the more efficiently I can take care of myself and help others. My possessions are investments - I expect to attain value from them greater than what they cost me. Living 'minimally' is basically saying, "no, nothing you have to offer can help me."
What we need to do is approach the way we handle money as sincerely as we should choose what we value as a society. Every purchase has implications, for the consumer and the producer. If we consider money as a way to elect what we value, perhaps the monetary effort put into producing extravagant trivia like sports, reality TV, perfumes, fashion, and other gimmicks could be redirected to humanitarian efforts, and scientific reserach.
