Goodbye Bland Affluence

[AmpedNow]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123992073614326997.html

A small sign of the times: USA Today this week ran an article about a Michigan family that, under financial pressure, decided to give up credit cards, satellite television, high-tech toys and restaurant dining, to live on a 40-acre farm and become more self-sufficient. The Wojtowicz family—36-year-old Patrick, his wife Melissa, 37, and their 15-year-old daughter Gabrielle—have become, in the words of reporter Judy Keen, "21st century homesteaders," raising pigs and chickens, planning a garden and installing a wood furnace.

Mr. Wojtowicz was a truck driver frustrated by long hauls that kept him away from his family, and worried about a shrinking salary. His wife was self-employed and worked at home. They worked hard and had things but, Mr. Wojtowicz said, there was a "void." "We started analyzing what it was that we were really missing. We were missing being around each other." So he gave up his job and now works the land his father left him near Alma, Mich. His economic plan was pretty simple: "As long as we can keep decreasing our bills we can keep making less money."

[Big Media]

I dunno about raising pigs and shit but I have though about cutting up the credit cards, cutting off the cable, the phones, and the Internet and doing old school things to occupy my time... like reading a book, passing the ball around with the kids, going to the park, etc.

Then, Deadliest Catch's season premier came on and I snapped back into reality.

[AmpedNow]

When you grow up poor, you realize that the kind of people who romanticize this lifestyle has never wanted for anything, because they have no frame of reference to how miserable it is to never being able to afford things you need, much less want.

They can have it. I like the toys and restaurants I never could have and visit back then.



If it's what they really want for themselves, that's one thing. And I realize that all of this "stuff" isn't needed. But to suggest that people will shun technology and go live in a commune is just crazy.

[Scott Reppert]

I dunno about raising pigs and shit...

You only have to raise the one and the other follows naturally.

There are only two things that go on my credit card: gasoline and internet purchases through PayPal. I would have to keep either the tv or the phone to continue internet access, but aside from all that...I could give it up.

The bottom line here is: if the part of your life that really matters is in order, then the "rest of the stuff" won't get out of order...

[AmpedNow]

The bottom line here is: if the part of your life that really matters is in order, then the "rest of the stuff" won't get out of order...

Amen.

But the stuff is still nice to have.

[Scott Reppert]

But the stuff is still nice to have.

Absolutely!

I'm just saying that you give a baseball player that has his priorities straight and his life in order $20 million (Tony Gwynn) and he'll use it to take care of himself, his family, and probably use part of to MAKE MORE than the $20 million he originally received. Do the same thing with a baseball player that has no priorities, boundaries, principles or solidified family home life (Derek Bell) and it'll be gone in a year.

I'm just applying it to us. Normal folk. On a smaller scale. For the time being...