At the end of the day minimalist and frugal or pretty orthogonal. I think that is certainly true in the abstract, but I suspect in the average specific case mi

At the end of the day minimalist and frugal or pretty orthogonal. I think that is certainly true in the abstract, but I suspect in the average specific case minimalism correlates with saving money. For the average person, their biggest expense is their home. If you have less stuff and can comfortably live in a smaller place, there is a lot of saving there. Also, there is the lifetime cost issue. One good screwdriver may be expensive, but probably compares well with 10 crappy screwdrives that wear down or break that you buy over many years. I think the interesting part of the OP was the point that digitisation does enable a new kind of minimalism - one that does not require as much compromise as it did before. I can give up 10 bookscases worth of books without having to give up reading whatever I like, whenever I like. This was certainly not the case 30 years ago.