3 ms·

>You need to be rich (kind of) to be able to have a minimalist lifestyle. The same goes with reading. This is the second time I've seen someone make this claim

by voxl 6y ago

>You need to be rich (kind of) to be able to have a minimalist lifestyle. The same goes with reading. This is the second time I've seen someone make this claim and the second time I'll refute it: Minimalism is not a rich-specific ideology. Being minimal as benefits if you're poor, including making it much easier to move. Moreover, you might be "minimalist" without choice, merely because you can't afford to buy things. You could be angry at your lack of material possessions or you could temporarily embrace the ideology to help you get to a position where you can start collecting items that make you happy. Imagine you are poor and have a broken microwave, but you've been holding on to it. Why? Are you going to fix it? Likely not (at least not well, and its a dangerous thing to get wrong). Just throw it out or sell it for parts. Just because you are poor does not mean you should hold on to things that merely take up space.

lmm 6y ago
When you're poor you have to hold on to things that you might need, or that sort-of work. You keep your old phone with a broken screen because your current one might get stolen (or you might have to sell it). You keep a broken microwave because you can use it in a pinch (maybe it works if you hold the door shut, or if you angle the cord just so), or you might scavenge some parts from it, or you might have have to fix it as best you can even though that's dangerous. You can't afford the transaction costs of just selling everything.
CaptArmchair 6y ago
I think you're ignoring the complex dynamics that cause and compound poverty and to which a minimalist lifestyle is anything but an answer. Consider low education levels, unemployment, physical and mental health disabilities, having to to take care of live-in dependent family members, being a divorced parent with children straining your financial capabilities and so on and so on. A minimalist lifestyle is a conscious choice one makes, pursuing the idea that living with less "stuff" will help attain happiness. It is assumed that other important basic conditions - health, financial situation, education, access to employment,... - are already fulfilled as well in order to create the freedom to attain that goal. Minimalism as a golden hammer to dig yourself out of poverty is a proposition that doesn't even remotely begin to address the underlying causes of poverty. That broken microwave, for instance, might just work well enough to heat up frozen meals. If your household budget mostly goes to e.g. medical bills, rent, paying off student debt, childcare,... you'll hold on to that microwave for dear life.

by voxl 6y ago

lmm 6y ago

When you're poor you have to hold on to things that you might need, or that sort-of work. You keep your old phone with a broken screen because your current one might get stolen (or you might have to sell it). You keep a broken microwave because you can use it in a pinch (maybe it works if you hold the door shut, or if you angle the cord just so), or you might scavenge some parts from it, or you might have have to fix it as best you can even though that's dangerous. You can't afford the transaction costs of just selling everything.

CaptArmchair 6y ago

I think you're ignoring the complex dynamics that cause and compound poverty and to which a minimalist lifestyle is anything but an answer. Consider low education levels, unemployment, physical and mental health disabilities, having to to take care of live-in dependent family members, being a divorced parent with children straining your financial capabilities and so on and so on. A minimalist lifestyle is a conscious choice one makes, pursuing the idea that living with less "stuff" will help attain happiness. It is assumed that other important basic conditions - health, financial situation, education, access to employment,... - are already fulfilled as well in order to create the freedom to attain that goal. Minimalism as a golden hammer to dig yourself out of poverty is a proposition that doesn't even remotely begin to address the underlying causes of poverty. That broken microwave, for instance, might just work well enough to heat up frozen meals. If your household budget mostly goes to e.g. medical bills, rent, paying off student debt, childcare,... you'll hold on to that microwave for dear life.