The term simple living is generally used to refer to a voluntarily chosen way of life that is significantly less frenetic, and significantly less focused on "getting and spending," than life in the mainstream. Simple living traditions exist in a wide array of cultures, and date back thousands of years. But they take on special salience in highly affluent societies dependent on science and technology for their patterns of production and consumption.

The term simplicity is sometimes used synonymously with simple living, but this can lead to confusion as one of the potential uses of high levels of income is to purchase solutions to the burdens of everyday life. Thus, the very wealthy can afford to have personal assistants to take care of their finances, assist in childrearing, and manage the household, vastly simplifying their existence.

Basic Arguments

A theme common to...