All that verbiage to simply point out you can easily enjoy life if you spend less money than you earn. And that 400 square foot studio must be a real great place to entertain...

"all that verbiage"...I agree. We have too much of that too!
The 10/2/2 (ten thousand sq ft , 2 people, 2 weeks) for so called 'vacation homes' has also mystified me for years.
Good for the folks living in the 400 sq ft studio. I need more plates and pots though...but not too many.

Jack, great Link...The article made me think and dove tailed right into a conversation my wife and I had at dinner last night about scaling down.
All the while I was reading the piece, John Lennon was singing in my head:

"People say I'm crazy doing what I'm doing,
Well they give me all kinds of warnings to save me from ruin,
When I say that I'm o.k. they look at me kind of strange,
Surely your not happy now you no longer play the game,

"People say I'm lazy dreaming my life away,
Well they give me all kinds of advice designed to enlighten me,
When I tell that I'm doing Fine watching shadows on the wall,
Don't you miss the big time boy you're no longer on the ball?

"I'm just sitting here watching the wheels go round and round,
I really love to watch them roll,
No longer riding on the merry-go-round,
I just had to let it go..."

Maybe they have it right.
Who knows?

PDXileinOmaha

I know a number of people who live somewhat like that but it isn't because they want to. No job.Hey it's Portland and we are green!

Now the couple have money to travel and to contribute to the education funds of nieces and nephews.

Impressive on $24k/yr. Kinda puts that whole "living wage" thing in a different spotlight eh?

Four plates, three pairs of shoes, and two pots

...and a partridge in a pear tree....

What they've done, in effect, is push the necessity to own and consume onto others--namely, those providing them with the "entertainment" that they spend the majority of their free cash on. What are those? They're (1)the consumption required to provide the woman with all the Internet amenities and electronics she needs to "blog about simple living" and provide "web design" (a euphemism for "mostly unemployed"); (2)the university's consumption necessary to provide the man with an educational opportunity; (3)the paved road infrastructure on which to ride their bikes, (4) the airplane infrastructure necessary for them to take vacations, (5) spending for the future consumption of family members...and so on.

I'm sure they're earnest, but all they've really done is shift their consumption to different columns in the spreadsheet. If that makes them happy, fine. But it requires a massive infrastructure of consumption to allow young, childless, Internet-dependent couples like this to "live simply".

The article itself is mainly a platform for providing earnest statements from "experts" and "studies" about "simplicity".

Ecohuman, first of all, I think you've missed the point of the article - this couple has pared down their consumption considerabby. The impact on our economy, especially if this becomes commonplace, whether by necessity or choice, is profound, gived the oft-stated statistic that 70% of our economy is consumer-driven.

But, to follow your line of reasoning, a consumer society also has subsidized infrastructure - from the plants in foreign countries, to the boats bringing goods to the US, to the transportation and retail structure necessary for us to buy stuff. It will be an interesting analysis comparing a "knowledge" consumer against a "goods" consumer, and the cost of the system to support either.

Why does it seem the ny Times does a Portland piece every week??? What's their infatuation with us? I know, they are brilliant, and they are wanting to get rid of all the pseudo green idiots like this and ship them all to Portland.

Ecohuman, first of all, I think you've missed the point of the article - this couple has pared down their consumption considerabby. The impact on our economy, especially if this becomes commonplace, whether by necessity or choice, is profound, gived the oft-stated statistic that 70% of our economy is consumer-driven.

Umpire, I hear you. But I didn't miss the point of the article--I disagree with it.

Consider consumption, and its ultimate impact on the economy, and the mythical role of the "consumer". I encourage you to do that by reading this:

http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/4801/

Here's a quote from that article:

“For the past 15 years the story has been the same every year: individual consumption—residential, by private car, and so on—is never more than about a quarter of all consumption; the vast majority is commercial, industrial, corporate, by agribusiness and government [he forgot military]. So, even if we all took up cycling and wood stoves it would have a negligible impact on energy use, global warming and atmospheric pollution.”

The key point is buried in that quote: private consumption is only a small part of all consumption. It's also only a small part of the economy. Knowing and understanding that single fact would have a stunning effect on the populace, I think.

Instead, we're taught that better living--and thereby a better environment--is just a matter of making slightly different purchasing decisions.

Yes, I'm talking about the environment, too--because the two are inseparable. The environment is the main input to the economy, and ultimately stands to be decimated because it's not an infinite resource. Therefore, the slightly different purchasing decisions of this young, childless, first world couple is not going to help maintain that "input" so that it survives. The problem lies elsewhere, outside this mythical belief that "consumers" drive the economy and thereby the state of the environment. They never have.

It will be an interesting analysis comparing a "knowledge" consumer against a "goods" consumer, and the cost of the system to support either.

There's no such thing as a "knowledge" consumer. That so-called "knowledge" is the continual result of ongoing consumption of physical resources. Ideas and "knowledge" don't arise from brains in a vacuum. They arise from human conditions based in a physical structure.

RW:Why does it seem the ny Times does a Portland piece every week??? What's their infatuation with us? I know, they are brilliant, and they are wanting to get rid of all the pseudo green idiots like this and ship them all to Portland.

Perhaps a connection here to NY to PR our place so that those condos can be filled so that the game of building more condos can be fullfilled.

. . . should be full filled, I suppose fully filled would work too. In any event, many condos are empty now, has anyone here done research as to that pipeline to NY?