WASHINGTON, D.C. Voluntary simplicity brings about greater happiness and a more sustainable environment per the results of a newly published paper Ecological Challenges, Materialistic Values, and Social Change by Ecopsychologist Dr.Tim Kasser. “Not only do people who voluntarily simplify their lives tend to be happier, they also tend to be more socially responsible and make better environmental stewards,” says Kasser.
“In sum," Kasser concludes, "it is the case that a strong focus on materialistic values is negatively correlated with happiness, as actual wealth and possessions tend to have null or perhaps very small positive associations with happiness in economically-developed countries like ours."
The clinical term for these persons is Voluntary Simplifiers, defined as having downshifted in terms of their spending, earning, and consumption he tells Examiner. Kasser discussed these findings as guest speaker on a nationwide conference call for the Climate Reality Group comprised of members from Public Citizen and the Center for Biological Diversity.
Is consumerism all that important to life
Kasser characterizes current American social norms as suggesting a happy, successful, meaningful, and even patriotic life entails working long hours and consuming at high levels. The root cause of this occurs between parenting and socialization, he notes, much of that including the messages on television. He finds that “These are messages suggesting that money, power, possessions, achievement, image and status are important aims to strive for in life.”
Kasser also writes that people become more materialistic when they feel insecure about losing their safety and security and their perceived likelihood of satisfying their psychological needs. “For example,” writes Kasser, “children’s materialism is higher when they grow up in a family with a cold, controlling mother, when their parent’s divorce, and when they experience poverty.”
What a low consumption life looks like
There is a perception that a life low in consumption would be like “becoming Amish” or “living like the Unabomber ” finds Kasser. “Some leading voluntarily simple lives have indeed reported feeling ostracized by friends and families who do not understand their lifestyle choices; others have even been called “subversive” for refusing to follow the standard American work-hard-and consume lifestyle (Elgin; Pierce, 2000).”
Yet, studies show it is exactly these persons with a lesser desire for material goods whose values tend to transcend the self and rank more highly with universalism,- ways of acting that improve the broader world, and benevolence as shown in the figures this article from (Kasser, 2011) Human Identity A Missing Link in Environmental Campaigning.
And, the same group of persons with a lesser desire for material goods also tended to report higher well-being as self-actualization and vitality; and lower personal distress as less depression and anxiety the paper documents.
Depression is a concern in America
Dr. Mark Olfson of Columbia University in New York and Steven Marcus of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia wrote in the Archives of General Psychiatry 2009 reported by Reuters that “About 6 percent of people were prescribed an antidepressant in 1996 -- 13 million people. This more than doubled rising to more than 10 percent or 27 million people by 2005, the researchers found.
"Not only are more U.S. residents being treated with antidepressants, but also those who are being treated, are receiving more antidepressant prescriptions," they added.
More than 164 million prescriptions were written in 2008 for antidepressants, totaling $9.6 billion in U.S. sales, according to IMS Health. These drugs are deposited in America’s drinking systems, often without a way to filter them out even with current sewage treatment methods.
Time to live life
Simplicity Circles are forming between groups of persons to exchange ideas about how to consume less while living more. Local permaculture groups meet regularly around the nation to discuss how to build solar ovens to cook with the sun for example; or how to organize living into cooperative housing and community gardens to share work such that it sustains a life with some time for it at the end of the day.
Transition USA regularly meets to coordinate re-skilling fairs and or the building of transition towns resulting in greater self-sufficiency and thus less reliance and dependence upon corporations providing it for them. Eco-villages, cooperatives, and local organic farming movements are also alive and thriving for the back to basic intrinsic American values.
Simply said, those feeling pressured to buy only lest they fear being referred to as the “Unabomber," can find themselves new friends.
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