Now back to the main issue which is your book review. Thank you for taking the time to review the book. You’ve given me an excellent idea as to its contents. I am an accumulator. My issue is not nearly as extreme as many I know but it is still enough to warrant my trying to stem the flow of funds toward things and redirect them toward things that I really value. I’ve never read Peter Walsh’s books but I’ve learned a lot from watching him on various television programs.

However, it’s one thing to engage in voluntary streamlining. It’s another to be forced, as many are today, into doing with “less” because they simply have limited financial choices.

True, we don’t need as much stuff as we might think, etc. But there comes a point where we don’t have enough to actually enjoy the life we envision.

An example: A family with say two kids who are under strong financial restraints due to loss of job and no near-term employment options who has used up its savings. The parents can no longer afford even the basic school activities for the kids. This changes the whole social dynamic for those kids and not in a positive way, when they can no longer engage in sports and other activities cause their parents literally cannot afford it.

And what about single people or couples whose income is so severely reduced that they cannot afford even one night out a month to eat out with friends. Nor can they afford to entertain someone more than once a month and then not in the way the friends are accustomed. You can no longer literally afford to socialize with a lot of people once your income is severely reduced or non-existent.

The long-term effects of involuntary streamlining are very very tough in the social area. Something very few people talk about. And we’re not talking about wealthy folks hanging out with other folks. We’re talking real people with middle-class lives. The other issue is that you often get left out of things when it becomes clear that you can no longer afford to do them with others.

This world where people stay home and watch DVDs and play board games as Trent talks about? That simply is NOT the social life of many people, especially in cities, around the country. Even with free events, when you can no longer afford tickets to a play, musical, music event, etc., you can no longer hang out with certain people. And they move on to the friends who can share those things with them.

This kind of loss, of socializing opportunities, is the downside of “less” that people rarely talk about but that is very destructive to one’s social life in the aftermath of job/income loss.

Plus, a lot of people simply don’t want to know you once you’re unemployed. They’re afraid it’s catching.