There appears to be a growing fervent desire, even within ‘mainstream circles,’ to rid oneself of conspicuous consumption, and attempt to live a more austere lifestyle. Perhaps you have a friend who decided to forgo Christmas-time gift-giving, or even displaying a Christmas tree…or know someone who rides the bus or a bicycle to and from work (toting their lunch to boot!), lives in a downtown urban core, or nor matter where the locale, is espousing the virtues of voluntary simplicity — a life free from clutter and ‘things.’ Perhaps not since the days of Henry David Thoreau, or the 1970’s back-to-the-land movement, have some people expressed such deeply felt environmental convictions.
Some of these convictions, cynics (conservative-government soothsayers) point out …