Hacker News Reader

Comment by dublinben | Hacker News Reader

I’m fond of the conspiracy theory that the rise of minimalism is actually propaganda to placate Millennials who can’t afford the same level of material comfort as their parents and other earlier generations enjoyed.

View on HN

To me, minimalism seems like a natural reaction to the transient lifestyles that people live now. A generation or two ago, many would grow up and settle down in the same town or county with 4 years of college being the most time that one spent outside their hometown. If you have a permanent home, it's easier to invest in filling it with stuff.

Today I hesitate to buy anything that I can't pack in a suitcase or wouldn't feel comfortable throwing away or donating to Goodwill in ~2 years.

Americans are actually less mobile than they used to be. Young people even more so.

https://www.trulia.com/research/why-millennials-move/

Most of the gung-ho minimalists are upper middle class or rich, they may have only a sofa and coffee table and a lamp in their $6000 a month apartment but those 3 items cost over $10,000.

What if its just Millennials discovering it own their own as a result of their reduced standard of living? The powers that be would want maximum consumption and minimalism goes against that no?

Same probably goes for "vanlife". It is millennials just realizing they cant afford a home ever and so they improvise with what they can resource.

Consumption is not just buying things. And even in buying things, many so-called minimalists still buy a lot, maybe less in tonnage, but GDP-wise they still spend a lot of money.

Of course, there are zen style minimalists. But many seem to be in it for aesthetic.

Vanlife is still very costly if you try to maintain any kinds of creature comforts. I think it is more so millennials seeing the romanticized side of it on social media, and then finding out its actually a lot of work and you are one break down from being literally homeless.

Where have you been? TPTB are desperately trying to make you poorer by banning cars, banning air travel, banning meat, and inflating the fuck out of our money.

Oof, was really hoping for a /s at the end of this one.

Or a conscious choice to live an alternative lifestyle to their parents. Seeing an unattainable future and choosing a separate path.

Same with having children. “I don’t even want kids. They are needy, expensive, and tie you down.”

All true, but having kids was never a choice for you given your financial situation so let’s not pretend you had a say in the matter.

I agree with you but I don't think it's a financial thing but a psychological/maturity thing.

People have kids at all income levels. For every one who claims they can't afford kids - someone is raising a family on that same income.

Yes but one of the most common desires is that you want your children to have a better childhood and life than yourself. Some people don't care or don't explicitly make the choice to get children, they just get them. But some people won't get children if they can't provide an environment that is at least as good as the one their parents provided to them.

People need to learn that material possessions are way less important than emotional environment. For most of us, being better parents is about how we parent. Not what we can afford.

Childcare, education, housing (often tied together) and health care. Those are the big 4 expenses that are killing fertility rates, and only one is somewhat material.

All of them are tied to money, really. If you are rich, then you can afford nannies (or a stay at home parent, this is nowadays a luxury too), housing, and if you are in a district with high property taxes, your public school is well funded. College is also easier if you don't rely on scholarships or on your children to work so that they can support you. Health care also suddenly becomes affordable with money (although in the US for big things it's still inaccessible).

In general, if you get N children, then you either favor one child, or each child gets 1/N of the inheritance. Same goes for money available for sending your kid to college. Meaning, as a rule of thumb, the more children you get, the poorer those children will be from that point of view. Like a single can live well from €2k euro per month in most of Germany, but for a family with 3 children the same sum is very little.

And of course there is the entire dateability aspect, too. People with higher income are seen as more attractive than those with lower income.

That’s true. I meant more so for those that purposeful have children. My brother had two children that were definitely unplanned.

That's what I am referring to as well. Plenty of people at income X intentionally have children while plenty of people at 5X lament not being able to afford them. I think this is true for every X.

I suspect income has a negative correlation with the number of children in general, if anything.

It’s always a choice. People in 3rd world countries are having 5 kids in a mud hut without doctors.

It might not be a choice to have kids, and a new car while also going to the cafe every day. But having kids is always an option.

OTOH, if you're poor, it might be best to save every item in case it becomes useful later, whereas a rich minimalist can afford to give away or sell for cheap everything not needed right now, knowing that replacements can be bought when necessary.

Millennial here and half-baked minimalist here.

At least it’s not true for me. For all my life I’ve been drowned in objects. My parents are still telling that I had so many toys.

Minimalism is a way for becoming aware of the objects around me. Not so much about the pure number of objects.

Since, I started thinking about what should be part of my life and also letting go of things I don’t really need, my savings rate has skyrocketed. Also, many things I own have much higher quality than my parents or grandparents.

I guess minimalism is a counter-movement to super-cheap consumerism.

Precisely. We are constantly bombarded by messages to buy buy buy. Fill that hole in your life with plastic crap that will surely be the thing you were missing that finally makes you happy. And when that doesn't work, well, just buy some more!

The trick they pulled is telling us all that inconvenience is bad and needs to be eliminated, but what I've come to see is that life happens in inconveniences, and consumerism tells us we should trade our life for their junk.

My grandma grew up in the US without even indoor plumbing. She had to use an outhouse. She's still alive today.

The massive carbon emissions campaigning seems to be this. Since generations of young and hard working people are being so heavily exploited that they can't afford things, blast out the message that they are saving the world from being doomed by not having a vehicle, not traveling, not having land, not eating quality food, and most importantly: not having children so that they aren't interrupted in their duties of paying taxes and profits.

It is completely free to convince people they are saving the planet by living less than others.

You can add tiny houses and van life to the list.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com