“There are two ways to make a man richer: Give him more money or curb his desires.” – Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
Consider for a moment the question: How would our world look different if people wanted less rather than more? The impact on society would be shocking:
- Less Hunger – Currently, world agriculture produces enough food for every one of the six billion people alive on planet earth. According to the World Health Organization, roughly 850 million people worldwide are malnourished, while 1.6 billion are overweight. A world where people wanted less would result in a world where food was distributed more equally.
- Less Poverty – Similarly, the world’s resources are unequally distributed. According to the World Bank, the richest 20% consume 76.6% of the world’s resources, while the world’s poorest 20% consume only 1.5%. A world where people wanted less would result in a world where our resources are distributed more equally.
- Less War – While not every war throughout history has been fought for material gain, most of them have been waged for the purpose of gaining money/gold, territory, resources, or imperialism.
- Less Environmental Pillaging.
- Less Crime. Most of the high crimes committed today are based in greed, selfishness, or jealousy.
Unfortunately, however, we live in a world that is inhabited by people. And people are ingrained with a desire for more. From the time we can comprehend the nature of stuff, we desire more of it and that is never going to change on a world-wide scale. The list above is going to continue because humanity is going to continue.
But, even if we can’t change the rest of the world, we can still change our own life. What if we could learn to truly desire less rather than more? What would be the affects? How would our personal lives look different if we wanted less rather than more?
- More Happiness. If we stopped wanting more, we would become more satisfied with our lives. And if we became more satisfied with our lives, we would become happier people.
- More Peace. One of the greatest steps to realizing peace in our lives is to simply desire less rather than more.
- More Gratitude. If we would stop focusing on the things that we don’t have and start focusing more on the things that we already do, we would become far more grateful for the good things in our lives. This gratitude would extend beyond material possessions into the things that really matter: love, hope, and peace.
- More Friendships. Consider how our friendships would be impacted if we could rid ourselves of the desire for more. We would become more generous, more willing to help, and more honest in our dealings with others. Our friendships would become better, stronger, and deeper.
- Less Stress. Our desire for more causes most of the stress in our life (not all of it, but most of it). We work in high-stress careers so that we can earn more money to buy more things or just make the monthly payments on our homes and cars. We have been enslaved by credit card companies because of the purchases we have made. If we could replace our desire for more with a desire for less, we would remove much of the stress in our lives.
- Less Jealousy. Our desire for more causes us to envy the neighbor’s car, clothes, and jewelry. We become jealous that they own more stuff than us and soon our jealousy leads to resentment and bitterness.
While we may never fully enjoy the advantages of a world that desires less, the personal benefits above are freely available. Imagine your life happier and more peaceful with less stress and jealousy. Now, if we could only shake this nasty desire for more…
Melanie says
There is a distribution problem that needs to be solved before the wanting less problem.
There is a lot a waste – if we could distribute it to the people in need that would solve a significant portion of the hunger.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-01-11/half-of-worlds-food-going-to-waste/4460322
Samantha says
This post reminds me of the quote: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” ~ Margaret Mead. Though unlikely, it’s best not to lose complete faith in a global revolution “one day”. So many individuals feel the same moral ethics which truly could transform the world, but few ever gain the absolute & unconditional courage, strength or mobility to stand up for what they believe in, or necessarily possess the freedoms without life altering consequence to do so. A government, like any large group or apparent commanding post only has the power that it’s people/ members give to it.
Maezie says
the richest 20% consume 76.6% of the world’s resources, while the world’s poorest 20% consume only 1.5%.???
I agree with you on the majority except this which does nothing but incite class envy. So a poor person who goes to eat lunch at McDonalds is going to consume less resources than a rich person who eats at the local organic restaurant? Just because a wealthier person can afford the more expensive lunch is not a fair assesment in that they consume more. Poor people are more likely to consume disposables, some would consider that to be thrown away resources. And I get that maybe a wealthier person would have a larger home and therefore more resources are needed to keep it maintained. Just saying that there is a fine line here and to lump people into a category of how much they comsume by level of wealth is ridiculous. Geographically would be a better scale. A family in a 3rd world country is certainly going to comsume less than a family in any city US, no matter what that US family makes.
di says
I was poor, but took good care of everything I had. I became very resourceful by sewing our own clothes and making do without. Nothing was disposable and all was passed on to others.
tower says
So less is more? I like it. Too bad we’re human.
tracysimplylivinginspain says
I agree that it is a basic human desire to want more, but don’t you think what you desire is culturally influenced? We in the U.S. (and many first world countries) are, as you say, greatly influenced by advertising, peer pressure and even societal expectations. I remember reading a beautiful novel, La Romana by Alberto Moravia, the story of a prostitute in Rome. Her dream, which she repeated to herself often, was that her tiny, humble apartment be orderly and spotless. That was all she required to be happy, despite her rather sordid profession. When I read this, over 20 years ago, I was struck by the simplicity of her dream and how we Americans seem to be pressured to have bigger, at times unattainable dreams — that if only we believe in ourselves and work hard we will attain them, and if we don’t, we are somehow a failure, a loser. We don’t all want to be millionaires, we don’t all want to be famous. We should cultivate and value those small ideas of success. I think we would all be a little happier.
di says
My life has always been contrary to those around me.
I raised my family alone with one small income. Our home was simple and my commitments were minimal.
di says
Humans are sheep. They follow.
Aaron says
The excess in our lives is amazing The material possessions we “need” so badly end up weighing us down because of all they require from us (money, time, care, transport, storage, etc.). I am amazed at how we, as humans, can accumulate so much in our lives over time. We work our lives to build our own prisons. The brick and mortar are the things we thought we couldn’t do without.
I currently work in business, and the marketer’s job is to figure out how to make us, as consumers, feel incomplete without their product. And most of have bought that lie. I have been working on becoming a minimalist for about a year now, and I just now discovered this online community committed to the cause. All of you give me encouragement. We get bombarded by the advertisers trying to sell us hedonism; so being here, and talking about it helps remind me of what’s important. I need good reminders.
di says
Your profession helps to look at extremes.
Robert says
We certainly are programmed to want more by our genes, it makes perfect evolutionary sense. More wealth, status, relationships, power, etc means higher chance of successful reproduction. The desire for happiness is a dirty trick our genes play on us, because they makes us believe we need certain things to make ourself happy, but when we have them it turn out those things do not make us happy. Do only thing they do is make us more likely to successfully reproduce. Hence the desire for more money doesn’t make you happy, but it does insure higher social status with all it’s benefits and ultimately more likely that you will successfully reproduce. (i.e. you will be more desirable to the opposite sex, your children will have the best health care, schooling, food, clothes, security etc.)
di says
Evolution of man?
Melissa Schmalenberger says
It really goes back to what we learned in kindergarten doesn’t it? If we could all learn those simple rules of sharing, how would the world change? If we all acted in the world’s best interest and not our own, how would the world change? I for one try to live that way and teach my 3 boys the same thing. Let’s start the movement today one step at a time.
di says
There are those of us that have been trying for generations…
Jim says
Well we should also be “spiritual” minimalists, I think you should just go all out and be an atheist. But if thats too hard for you go with minimalist. Either way usually when people are on a minimalist crusade they are also spiritual nuts, nobody needs that.
di says
Balance is rare.
Meira says
I think we have been ingrained with the desire for more things through commercials and advertisements. Every where you look in the U.S. there are thousands of advertisements for things that you wouldn’t normally want.
di says
We are easily led astray.