The medium chill

[puglogic]

Groovy article, RF. I believe you can have any kind of life you want, as long as you're willing to let go of the attitude that there's only the poor and the wealthy and you have to choose one life or the other here. If you're utterly convinced that because of "this economy" (i.e. the one you see on the news) you have no real choices, then this article is going to look absurd and self-congratulatory.

There are a hundred microeconomies in every place you could possibly live in North America, a thousand ways to make money, a million ways to live your life, but the price of admission is you've got to choose to live in the micro, not the macro. That often requires turning off the gd TV & radio, ceasing to listen to the news tell you "how bad it is out there," plan what you want your life to be like, and get creative to build it. For most people, that's just too much work. I see people scrambling to denigrate my husband and I for our simple lifestyle, trying to find some reason why we're just "lucky" to be able to make ends meet, pay our health insurance, and live a good life.

We had to move to a smaller community, for example, where the cost of living was lower. I cut my working hours in half to be able to grow a lot of our food. For the most part, we get by on one car. No iPhone, no iPad, no Kindle, no GPS, no Netflix, no TiVo, no K-cup of coffee in the morning. For a while, I fell asleep every night with the YMOYL list of "100 things you can do to save money" open on my chest - I lived by it.

I agree with bagelgirl that attitudes and priorities define your life. And not a day goes by that I don't bless the day I found SL, which has been a life saver, and enabler of our "medium chill."

Needless to say, I think he's spot on {shrug}

[mm1970]

Living below your means is key. But everybody, especially young people with children (I'm thinking of my own adult sons), wants bigger and better. Then they have to work harder to support that lifestyle. I think it is something that a lot of people don't really "get" until they are older, which is a shame. Spending and keeping up with the Joneses is such a waste. But here in SoCal, you really have to get your mind around the idea of "less is more" because "more" is all around you, the "dangling carrot." I have been into the VS movement since 1998, and I still struggle with not wanting "more" sometimes. That is why I love these forums because they ground me.

Too true. I am in Santa Barbara. On one hand, lots of people cannot afford homes and most that can - can only afford small ones. OTOH, people are trying to stretch it into bigger places, plus they like their SUVs and toys and stuff.

[ApatheticNoMore]

herbgeek, yea you speak my reality

let go of the attitude that there's only the poor and the wealthy and you have to choose one life or the other here.

It's mostly based on the people I've spoken too. I haven't seen a happy medium, I haven't found a model (not locally I mean). It wasn't just based on talking to high paid people, but also those who have often not known where their next meal is coming from at times (yea but again, I don't really want that). So no I don't unequivocally say black swans don't exist, but darned if I know exactly what to do to find one.

In fact such conversations led me to the thought that giving up a lot of bourgeoisie expectations may be precisely what is needed to live cheaply and freely (ie giving up the nice neighborhood, the tree lined suburb, and living somewhere more ghetto etc..). But then again I come to the reality that it is not necessarily a price I'm willing to pay (I like renting one bedrooms and studios in tree lined suburbs maybe, as evil as that may be ).

So it led me to a lot of thinking about how deeply bourgeoisie expectations get buried in people's minds and how perverse they really are. But I don't know seems most people believe you can have your cake and eat it too somehow.

I'm not exactly sure how one would get mid range jobs or what we're even talking about. It seems to me you are either trained for a career and you work it (if your lucky yea, lots of very well trained people unemployed these days). Or you do low skilled low paid jobs right? I don't have impressive education or anything. But I think I'll get work eventually (don't think it's too outlandish to hope for that sometime). And I'm probably prepared to sell my soul to the high stress job to get it needless to say.

[Stella]

Great article Redfox! Thanks for posting this.

Polliwog and mm1970, that was my experience of SoCal too. I lived there for several years and eventually that aspect of the culture led me to move home to Minnesota. I would imagine that there are other areas of the country that are like that too.

I think I probably live in the epicenter of the medium chill. Most of the people I know live in reasonably priced, reasonably sized houses and have jobs that pay decently, but solidly middle class. They drive sensible cars and wear sensibly priced clothing. I seem to know an inordinate number of people who work part-time, work from home, are SAHPs or are retired (sometimes early) and find plenty of time in their days for nice long walks in the park or gatherings with friends.

There's no judgement here for things like secondhand clothes. You here conversations like, "I love that purse, where did you get it?" "Isn't it cute? I got it for $1 at a garage sale." "Oh I love garage saling! Good score!"

People get together to play frisbee golf at a park or knit together or just hang out and watch movies on netflix, which most people I know have instead of cable.

Its a nice life.

[puglogic]

Stella, that's what I was talking about -- I didn't used to have these kinds of lifestyles on my radar (thought everyone I saw in town during the day was independently wealthy or retired or something...) but now I seem to know a lot of people who have just turned the dial down to where they can live on less, have more time and less stress, and really try to maximize the joy in their lives. Like the people in the article, some have had to make the tough choice to turn away from high-pressure, golden-handcuffs kinds of jobs in order to live better. But there's a whole subculture now that's emerging of people who perhaps patch together more than one part-time job, do a bit of barter, get good at frugal living, choose to move to a more affordable area/home/etc. so they can have the life they want.

It's actually turned out to be easier for me, in these economic times, to cobble together this kind of life, because you're able to take advantage of employment opportunities that others often overlook or simply can't survive on. A couple of part-time jobs can go a long way when your living expenses are low.

A paid-off car, a cheap house always in some state of improvement, a big garden, friends who trade eggs & milk, willingness to live simply....and we don't have many problems even living here in the Colorado foothills, where things can be pretty pricey.