I can kind of understand where these types of articles are coming from but I wish people would stop framing them as some sort of generational paradigm shift in

I can kind of understand where these types of articles are coming from but I wish people would stop framing them as some sort of generational paradigm shift in living. It's simply a response to a changed set of incentives. Cheap consumables + high property values + cheap travel + low job security = consumerist minimalism makes sense This isn't about "cognitive freedom" it's about low interest rates (causing high house prices), low tariff trade (meaning dirt cheap manufactured consumables) and the corporate culture of treating labor as disposable (frankly: due to union destruction) meaning you have to be able to move often. Assuming all of those things reversed and: * High tariff trade means that you can't just buy a new Bangladeshi-sewn wardrobe for $200. * Suddenly you can buy a huge house relatively cheaply because of a drop in house prices. * The "job for life" becomes a thing again. Then again, consumerist minimalism would make much less sense.