Yeah, the corporations get massive tax breaks, and city governments roll out the red carpets for sprawl-marts to come and pave more of the edge of town and undercut the local struggling independent businesses … it’s so frustrating.  But with the dip in petroleum availability beginning, world grain production stagnating rather than continuing to increase, and climate changing, it’s going to be a different world sooner or later. 

My little family has been on a trajectory of spending very little and working little, and having our debts paid off and part-time freedom is much more satisfying than full time chains and constant worrying on the treadmill of work-consume-dispose.  Partly we have been inspired by Springfield’s own poet-prophet Vachel Lindsay, and other crazy dervish types (Otman Baba, Qalandars, etc.) who found freedom and beauty in joyful poverty. 

Asalaam Alykum wa rah’matullah Hakim
Not to be a dick, but I find people talking about the upside of poverty kind of offensive. I’m all for simple living and all that, but being poor in America, like, REALLY poor, crushes a lot of people. Not just people who live "beyond their means" either. Now, for all I know, you may know well of what you speak, and fair enough; but I often find people from middle class backgrounds or better, who have a bailout plan, are big proponents of concepts like "joyful poverty". You made a fairly thoughtful statement and I don’t want this to come off as an attack, it’s just sort of a pet peeve of mine. I mean, even with the Qalandari, what do you want to bet that like the hippies in the 60s-70s or gutter punks in the 90s-today, a lot of them probably were slumming it and didn’t have to be there, or had a source of income that made going city to city in animal skins drinking and playing drums a doable thing? When you compare this to people who have to struggle to pay the basic bills and keep their kids fed and safe, it’s just not the same.
Your homie
Dave "Islamofascism Not Isis" Abdul-Muhayim

Dave, I hear you.  There are things about my life that are uncomfortable, and I’ll admit I do suckle at the teat of the State for more than just paved roads, emergency services, and police.  I also say, it sucks that being poor crushes a lot of people, and that the global economic-political setup is engineered to systematically so impoverish and crush so many people.  So what to do?  Consuming less is like trying to stop a river by sticking my hand in it.  Reduce, reuse, recycle, vote or stand on the sidewalk holding signs, and the planet-devouring machine grinds on.  How will we keep fed and warm when fossil fuels effectively run out?  What water will we drink?  How can we re-enliven the land and humanity at the same time? 

Hakim,

I agree that freedom from the rat-race is a good thing. Sometimes I think if I’d stayed in my hometown which is very small I might be living differently. Right now I just try to keep going and try to not think about it. (That head in the sand thing seems to work really well for a lot of people). And honestly, I have it pretty good. There are kids who don’t have backpacks or dinner or lunch money.

Have ya’ll heard the latest about the economic stimulus package isn’t a good idea because we’ll spend all our money on things made in China so the chinese economy will be stimulated instead of ours.
Laura