The one story that made the book worth reading for me, was Erik Richardson’s story “The Economics of Time”. He lays out how lessons of economics, such as scarcity, opportunity cost, diminishing marginal utility, depreciating assets and investment versus consumption relate to the ideas of simple(r) living. Here’s just one paragraph from it:

By spending your time – from the declining bank account – on something other than just making more money, or getting more “stuff”, which translates into the same thing, you are investing in an asset that is becoming more and more scarce every year. That’s the very essence of a good, profit-maximizing investment. We don’t need to switch to some different way of thinking; we just need to do a better job of following through on the type of thinking that’s already built into our modern way of life.

I really appreciate how he ties together traditional economic principles with the principles of simpler living. It’s probably the best argument for simple living I’ve read. I wish I had come up with it myself.

If you have the slightest bit of interest in these kinds of ideas, I recommend to you to read this book. It’s published by Easton Studio Press for Simple Living America, and the companion website is www.getsatisfied.org.

This is a great resource for people who are finding themselves dissatisfied with the life they lead and who wonder if there is more to life that living paycheck to paycheck and chasing after the latest new shiny object. Without resorting to religion, that is.

If that resonates just a tiny bit with you, head over to www.getsatisfied.org and look around. I think you’ll like what you find.