Minimalists™ are like certified scrum masters. Minimalism might actually be a decent idea (noting the difference between minimal and less than you have, no matter what), but when left in the hands of "trainers" and "gurus" it either turns into a cult, or it turns into a product.

It's one of those things that, once it becomes a label, if it meets a certain critical-mass-like criteria, it will attract the very people that are incompatible with the ideas presented. ie. think for yourself.

Quoting from the article: "millennials with no hope of buying real estate, much less retiring, without stringent saving tactics, as well as families who need to downsize because of lost jobs or divorce."

These are people living beyond their means because they've no concept of the possibility that the future will ever present a worse situation than the present. Borrow, borrow, borrow and damn the future. What are consequences?

"stringent savings strategies" seems to be mentioned almost as an acceptance of failure of your life rather than a requirement of society. Having to downsize due to losing a job or divorce? Minimalism isn't going to save you from that, and neither, necessarily is a stringent savings strategy. Do they not expect any negative effects from losing a job or getting a divorce? Who are these people?

It's great that more people are being exposed to alternatives to 'buy everything so I can photograph myself in front of my extravagance', as a few people may be able to change their lifestyles. But wait a couple of years for articles about 'the failure of minimalism' because it was too hard for the average person / family to cope with. Such is the current culture of entitlement - with not much hope of improvement under Trump, the embodiment of entitlement. But post-Trump, there could be millions of reality checks in the mail.

Well, they've got a warehouse full of books. Seems like a great way to de-clutter.

Plenty of minimalists don't. It's just harder to find them if your source of information is commercial in nature.

That's a projection on any author of any form of content. The basic form of all of the ideas are usually accessible for free in blog posts or podcasts. But then they make a book that organizes them better and ties them together. You could rent it from the library for free, which is often encouraged, or spend $15 and own it. And then from the book they offer seminars. And from the seminars they offer retreats.

It's completely up to you what level you want to engage with the material — maybe a student reads the blog post because they want to save money, maybe an adult buys the book because they want to get the information more efficiently and save time, maybe a company hires the seminar to disseminate the information to dozens or hundreds of employees, or an individual attends because they want specific advice to their situation, maybe an executive or passionate follower does the retreat to connect with the founders on a more philosophical level and get a very personalized experience.

This doesn't seem as egregious as a typical cult that is about getting you in the door on the cheap so you can spend the real money on staying in "the club." They sell a few books and run a few big shows (whose tickets are very modestly priced --- tickets for their stop in Dallas are $27 bucks), but that's it.

From what I can tell, they are doing the same thing as Mr. Money Mustache but on a much more public stage and without the focus on early retirement/financial independence. Good for them!

They still have to pay rent and buy food...

The minimum might be a non-zero positive value.