Am I misinterpreting something?

Think about the toll those long days at the office take on you physically and mentally, then multiply that by years and decades. By working less and having time to exercise and vacation more, you can vastly improve your overall health and substantially reduce, if not eliminate, your need for medical intervention.

In other words, the Amish are not individuals as you and I are. If we choose voluntary simplicity, we must find our own support group of like-minded people, but we would still live in the larger society, and as individuals. We cannot become like the Amish as individuals, and Amish individuals could not make it in larger society.

Very few of us would bear the controls on our lives that are natural to the paternalistic Amish. Most of us want to live our lives without being told what to do. The Amish do not have that choice and do not want it–at least, not within their closed community. They are very top-down in organization. But they do have clashes with the larger community (meaning their non-Amish neighbors and local governments), because they just want to be left alone and don’t want to have “us” complaining that their outhouses are polluting the groundwater, or that we can’t see their buggies on dark and rainy nights. In that regard, the group acts like an individual.

Finding the balance in the larger world is always a struggle, whether you are an individual wanting to simplify and free yourself of the controls of materialism, or are an Amish family who believes local neighbors interfere with your simple life.

We live in a culture that places high value on individualism, personal independence, and material goods as a demonstration of monetary success. Our cultural values alone make the “voluntary” aspect of simple living very difficult for us. The Amish, who value independence from a material world, live simply in our estimation but do not consciously choose it.

For a look at simple living from a Mennonite perspective, I recommend “Living More with Less,” by Doris Janzen Longacre. 1979, Herald Press, Scottdale, Pa. Her earlier cookbook, “More with Less Cookbook,” is found at many natural foods stores. It’s very practical and timeless, but rather demanding reading for the non-religious. The Amish are a strict Mennonite sect that broke away from the larger sect in the 18th Century.

My goal is to continue working in this materialistic society, save, save, save and then convert to a much simpler existence. I would like to have enough passive income so that my only responsibility each month is to walk to the mailbox to pick up checks. The only thing that freaks me out about this approach is access to good healthcare.

I was laid off and went back to finish a BA degree. I quickly found that many of my lifestyle choices were centered around shopping and spending money. My wife helped me over the hump and we have been simplifying ever since. This past year my wife left her job to raise our daughter and we didn’t need to change a single behavior to stay “in the black”. We are even talking about remodeling in the near future. I could not imagine how some of friends live with twice the income and they have no savings to speak of.

On top of all of the other benefits we have a breeze cleaning since there is so much less clutter.

And the social costs may end up being negligible — as you begin to lead a more balanced, examined life, you may find that your social networks begin to change. You’ll make new friends, and you won’t worry much about the ones who can’t deal with your “lifestyle choices.”

This does not preclude working, and does not require the labor of producing your own food. Those are both things that COULD result from choosing a life of Voluntary Simplicity, but lots of people work full time and don’t have a garden and still have lives that are relatively simple. Please don’t accidentally scare people from what can be a wonderful lifestyle!

It is much easier to live simply voluntarily if one is financially comfortable. As Seth points out, we are caught in a system that makes us hard to let go of jobs and such, even if we had money in the bank and could shrug off a 6-month layoff.

But one can still choose to live more simply and have a job. It takes disconnecting from the mindset of “having things.” Living “frugally” still sounds like a sacrifice, in that it focuses on the money (pinching the pennies) rather than focusing on the richness of a life unencumbered by desires for toys and vacations and lots of clothes.

For me, living simply is not living frugally. It’s about living in diffent relation to the entire world, not focusing on what is in my bankbook. I belong to a religion that practices simple living as a means for sharing the world’s resources (I’m a Quaker). I also belong to organizations that value sharing the world and saving it for all people and beings.

Living simply sometimes costs more, especially when one first begins practicing it–certainly buying fresh and organic produce and really good-quality food at a regular grocery store costs more than buying cheap food at WalMart. But over time the costs start to balance out. I pay more in groceries, but I seldom eat out and buy fewer clothes and toys (books are my weakness, so I stay out of bookstores as my discipline).

If you want support for living simply (rather than just frugally), look for groups like Simple Living in your area to find like-minded individuals. You don’t have to wear Birkenstocks or wear a tie-dyed T-shirt; you will find people exactly like yourself! My husband is a lawyer (makes it easy for me to talk about this, since I don’t feel financially pinched!). He wears suits to work and has never worn a pair of Birkenstocks. But he’s the one who has really gotten into growing food and making compost, and he reminds me to buy local produce in recyclable containers as an act of proper sharing of our world’s resources.

If you want to let go of the spending mindset, it helps to rid your life of TV commercials, advertising in general, rewards cards, etc. Eliminate shopping trips as a source of fun in themselves. Think about what you are about to spend money on and ask if you really need it. Then ask yourself if you will still remember the item next week if you don’t buy it now. There’s so much stuff I don’t buy just by consciously thinking about it for a few moments.

I usually prefer the term “simple living”. For me it’s about living a good life, not burdened by consumerism, in tune with my values, not taking up more than my share of resources. I was influenced by the book “Living More-with-Less” and by the Quaker Testimony of Simplicity.