Rethinking The Good Life, Millbraith, p. 199-205,

prosperity=the good life
we can manipulate nature
we can redefine physical conditions: move to another place
have to limit reproduction? can nature handle 20 billion people?
the global climate is changing
artificial city environments: air, water, material processing would have to be tightly controlled
“quality in living is not a thing, it is a feeling; it is necessarily a matter of subjective experience.”

high quality of life
1. a joy in living
2. physical well-being, good-health
3. on the way to what one aspires to achieve
4. anticipation of life’s drama

low quality of life
1. hopelessness/despair, mornings: fear, dread, one has lost control of one’s life
2. sense of having failed to live up to one’s image of oneself, that one’s life has been a failure
3. a sense of poor physical well-being, illness, injury, hunger, discomfort
4. a pervading sense of un-happiness

need
minimal provision of food, shelter , clothing

competing interests
loggers in the Northwest, spotted owls
both are important

priorities
thriving biocommunity/ecosystem
ecosystem first, social community secondly

New But Old Ways To Enjoy Life With Fewer Material Goods
kids with play with tires
inner resources: meditation, conversation, loving, communion with nature, reading, writing, playing music, dancing, engaging in sports

Goods That Are Not Zero Sum
love is good for people
love is good for people and society
fulfillment in interpersonal relations: friends, relatives, companionship
enjoyment of nature
nature has to be protected
collective political action for environmental protection is important
learning: pleasurable, fulfilling
enjoyment in creating, appreciating literature, music and art
1. intimacy
2. sensuality
3. aesthetic sensibility
4. emotional freedom
ATVs, incompatible with good society
games
self governance

leisure
expensive goods/services

voluntary simplicity
philosophy, lifestyles, social forces, revolutionary changes
live voluntarily: deliberately, intentionally, purposefully, consciously
1. attentive moment to moment
2. respond that something is off
3. conscious of habitual behaviors
4. sense the connectedness of all life

“Unless we expand our interior learning to match our technological learning, we are destined, I think, to act to the detriment of both ourselves and the rest of life on this planet.”
live lightly, cleanly, aerodynamically

poverty vs simplicity:
involuntary vs. voluntary
repressive vs. liberating
helplessness, passivity, despair vs. personal empowerment, creativity, ever present opportunity
mean and degrading vs. beauty/functional integrity, elevate lives
debilitating vs. enabling
simplicity, make the most of where we are
material consumption does not lead to the good life
a more contemplative way of life, more serene
less thrilling
valuing cooperation and love more
valuing competition/winning less
more personal involvement
less being a spectator
more tuned to nature
less tuned to machines