At some point during my college career I learned about the Rat Race and was propelled to discard my desire to climb the corporate ladder and decided to live a life similar to jfoucher (How I live on $7000 per year). However, after living frugally for a couple years I saved up enough money and decided to travel the world. Fast forward to today - after witnessing first hand the lives of those less fortunate while traveling in SE Asia I realized how self-centered I was to sit out of the "Rat Race" and meander along the road of my meager existence while there were other people wishing they had the knowledge, opportunity, and capacity to live and succeed in our society. There are people all over this planet that don't possess the means necessary to make impactful changes in others' lives, let alone their own, and so I asked myself: What if I took my determination and drive (clearly demonstrated in my previously frugal lifestyle habits) and applied those characteristics to actions that might benefit other people? Would those actions then be better, or more worthy, than the actions of squeaking out a living on $7,000? Personally, I decided they would be and have since then devoted myself to helping bring about change in this world.

I'm not saying everyone should view their life this way, but I understand what the author is describing and I have went through the internal struggle of trying to decide what to do with my life. Recently, I decided to go back into the world of the Rat Race and try to make the lives of those around me and myself better (building interesting software, spreading joy and wisdom, raising awareness of certain issues, etc.). I don't unconsciously spend money on things I don't need but I do if it deems fit. More over, I don't think you need to have a garden or be a homebody to live frugally.

I hope other smart, determined people don't take the route of sitting idly by the side as hoards of unaware, materialistic consumers perpetuate a system of greed and excess.