hi elmatador-
i have been enjoying your discourse on poverty and the return of nations to their natural size.
some may find my own story interesting. the short version: i grew up in middle class america during the 'hippie' years and embraced what i believed was a core belief at the time. I made a decision to create a life that had a lot of free time, meaning time i did not have to spend at work, even if it meant having little money. i accomplished this by living very modestly, inheriting a small amount of money, and being fortunate enough to buy a house deep in a recession, when property values were down. (like now!) now in my 50s, i live in a beautiful rural place and spend my time writing, reading, gardening, doing chores... i live officially below the poverty line and want for nothing.
why am i sharing this? because i want people to know there is a lot of room for countries like the US to return to their natural size without its people having to live in abject poverty. not everybody will be able to be as fortunate as i have been. i am well-educated, grew up in a small stable, had only a small mortgage that i paid off in ten years.
if even a moderate number of americans chose to live the way i do, there would be a lot more resources to go around, and i suspect, a lot more happier people. to some this may sound like heresy, but in my case, i have been happy being downwardly mobile.
the only thing that seems to be out of reach for me are capital letters. (pun intended). i ended up here on silicon investor thinking i could make easy money during the dot.com era. alas, i came in late and very naive and ten years later am about where i started, and consider myself lucky! still, i enjoy listening in on the conversations, and very occasionally, contributing.
all the best,
-dan |
