Simple living

Jim Coggins

Simple Living

The lead article in this issue is different from the usual articles in the Herald. It is taken from a secular magazine, and it is not written from a particularly Christian viewpoint. Yet, when I first saw it, I was convinced we should carry it. It explains, more clearly than any other article I have seen, where we are financially. It helps us to see ourselves as we really are, and it even dares to raise the issue of greed. I hope it will help us to think about the issue of money.

As we were preparing this issue of the Herald, I came across the October 28, 1996 issue of Maclean's magazine. The lead story, "Cashing Out", was a fascinating look at a new North American trend. An increasing number of North Americans, it seems, are choosing to simplify their lifestyles and trade in large salaries for more leisure time. Some of this "personal downsizing" has come about because of job loss, but some of it comes from a deliberate choice, and some who lose their jobs choose not to return to the rat race.

The movement is fuelled by a number of influential books: Living the Simple Life by former California real estate agent Elaine St. James, Simple Abundance by Washington writer Sarah Ban Breathnach, Your Money or Your Life by Seattle writers Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez, Working Harder Isn't Working by B.C. therapist Bruce O'Hara, Penturbia: Where Real Estate Will Boom After the Crash of Suburbia by professor Jack Lessinger, On Heading Home: On Starting a New Life in a Country Place by Lawrence Scanlan of Kingston, Ont. and How to Survive Without a Salary by former Canadian government bureaucrat Charles Long. There are, as well, magazines called Simple Living and Adbusters (which satirizes the advertising industry and promotes "Buy Nothing Day").

The trend to simple living has several significant aspects:

  • For the first time in centuries, people are moving out of the cities and into the country, where houses are cheaper and and the living is simpler.
  • This is made possible because the same technology that causes job loss also allows people to work out of their homes (via the internet, for instance); 15% of Canadians are now self-employed, and 10% work out of their homes.
  • Some people are using a barter economy to replace money. They often do this through co-operatives in which people contribute their work skills in exchange for other work skills--a carpenter builds a doghouse for a dog breeder, who gives a dog to a dentist, who does dental work for the carpenter.
  • People are choosing to not buy certain consumer goods (sometimes saving their money for retirement or education instead) and are deciding to "take the commercialism out of holidays such as Christmas".

    Some examples may illustrate the general trend. A Vancouver couple with two jobs, a two-hour daily commute, a $300,000 house, a combined income of $120,000 and no money left over at the end of the month, moved to a beautiful, $100,000 country house in the Maritimes, from which they run an internet consulting business on the simple life. A government bureaucrat quit his job to become a freelance writer, living in a self-built stone house on a 100-acre property in the country; for a while, he and his wife did without running water, indoor plumbing, theatre tickets, exotic vacations and even a telephone.

    I confess that the trend to simple living holds some attraction for me. I can certainly applaud some statements from those cashing out: "Maybe the whole purpose of life is not to acquire possessions"; "Suddenly you preceive you have a greater purpose in life than material gain"; "What I'm trying to do is work less so I can spend time in my garden or swimming and volunteering--those things that feed our soul." Isn't it we Christians who have been urging people to spend less time making money and more time loving their families? And haven't we Christians been trying to decommercialize Christmas for years?

    However, three factors cause me to have some hesitation about the trend to simple living. The first is that the individuals who are choosing to move to a "simpler life in the country" are mainly well-educated and well-off. They have capital that they can live off if necessary, they have the money and skill to start their own businesses, and they work in the "information industries" that allow them to work out of their homes. Moreover, many of them are making money "selling" the simple lifestyle to other city-dwellers. Moreover, these people remind me of entrepreneurs in the late Middle Ages, who tended to get rich, buy a title and move to a country estate. It's a form of early retirement available only to the wealthy.

    Second, we Christians agree that it is wrong to worship money and that there is "a greater purpose in life". However, while I see a movement away from money, I see no evidence that the trend is moving toward a worship of the true God. Rather, the movement seems to have switched its worship from the god of money to the god of a simple lifestyle.

    Third, I am not convinced that the trend is less selfish or self-centred than the worship of money was. One of those cashing out observed, "What it is about is control and freedom." That is hardly altruism. Similarly, I have no great admiration for those who use the barter system as a means to avoid paying tax on income, and then collect higher government benefits because they are "poor". It is one thing to give up luxuries in order to love other people who are more needy than we are; it is quite another to choose to buy the luxury of a country estate and a "simple" lifestyle.

    I think God approves of wealth--He created material blessings for our benefit. I think God also would prefer that we live simpler lifestyles. I know He does not want us to worship (find our meaning) in money or in a particular lifestyle. I also know He wants us to have lifestyles focussed on worshipping Him and loving other people.

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