Wealth, Consumption, and Minimalism

Wealth, Consumption, and Minimalism

We live in a world of diminishing wealth. No, really. I am not talking about what you think I am. Of course, I can look around my comfortable lifestyle and see overwhelming abundance. I can glance at my bank accounts and realize that I indeed have more than enough. Doesn’t that sound like wealth? Am I not living in one of the richest countries in the world?

Even those in some of the poorest neighborhoods in the United States are still miles ahead of certain third world countries engulfed in both economic and political turmoil.

Yet , it feels like a crisis.

Wealth and Money

Wealth is not about money after you reach the basics. After you have a secure source of food, clothing, and shelter, the connection starts to fray. Although you may feel like you are climbing the ladder when surrounded by luxury, you have traveled no further up the happiness scale.

I would argue that true wealth is more connected to purpose, identity, and the unique connections we make. Those are the things that make us rich. And on a less personal scale, wealth is community, and social change, and making a difference.

These are things that can’t be bought, or bid on, or secured. They take self examination, hard work, and a certain amount of humility.

They cannot be purchased

Consumption is not the Solution

So we consume. Because we mistake material riches and toys for wealth. And we run ever faster on the hedonic treadmill because there is a hole in our life. A hole that can only be filled with true wealth.

The kind that comes from hard internal and external work. You cannot buy purpose. Money will never define your identity. Connections based on affluence are often unstable and weak. Being part of a community takes selflessness. Not selfishness.

True Wealth Breeds Minimalism

True wealth means understanding that spending will never be the thing that makes you happy. Being able to understand what enough really means releases you from spendiness. Wealth is understanding your innate enoughness.

This breeds minimalism. When you realize that you don’t need another shirt, or tie, or car, or house. Why waste the world’s resources when others are so profoundly in need of them? Why clutter the world with more plastic and disposable items and pollutants?

Those things will not make you happier.

Why even build more wealth if it will just sit around somewhere in a bank account and grow without ever fulfilling its purpose? Why shoot for eight figures when you only need seven?

Final Thoughts

I think we have mistaken wealth for money. I think we have divorced ourselves from our purpose, identity, and connections by spending. We have tried to solve with cash something that is not a fiscal problem.

So we over consume to fill a hole.

Instead, maybe we need to build better lives. Lives that will naturally turn towards minimalism or under consumption.

I think it will be better for us individually as well as for the world as a whole.