Abstract

It's a Wonderful (Simplified) Life

When economists began checking twice to see how this year's American consumer answered the call to prime the fiscal pump with commercial Yuletide cheer, the news was less than festive. Holiday sales appeared to be the worst in several years, and may not even meet the 4.5 percent increase that some had predicted beforehand. In light of this newfound frugality, one wonders how many stockings were stuffed with the self-help tomes of what has become known as the voluntary simplicity movement. In the eighties, it holds, much of the U.S. went astray, indulging in a sybaritic romp of frivolous luxury consumption, frittering away time and money in wasteful habits and services, toiling in lucrative but ultimately unfulfilling jobs to pay for things people only thought they needed.