Things Have Improved since the 1940's ! 

Date: Fri, 5 Jun 1998 02:31:58 -0600
From: R C Herman <[email protected]>
Message-ID: <008701bd905c$6b294660$5af8a8ce@tosh>
Subject: Re: Simplicity and time
To: David MacClement <davd @ bigfoot.com> (change " @ " to "@"),
    Positive Futures,  Diane Fitzsimmons <[email protected]>
    David demonstrates that it is possible to sustain life with a small fraction of the consumption that we in the modern west have come to equate with "the poverty level."
    I doubt that most of us would choose to live as austere a lifestyle as David does, but using his example as a (ostensibly viable) baseline, it is a worthwhile exercise to
consider whether each convenience or comfort "upgrade" we buy into on top of such a baseline is
  1. worth our investment in life energy and

  2. ecologically compatible with the long view of sustainability.
    As Diane points out, beyond the bare necessities, there are some rudimentary back-saving (and backside saving) conveniences that we can all appreciate.
    We all, as individuals, must ascertain the level of convenience and comfort we want, and the price we are willing to pay for it.

- Bob 

-----Original Message-----
From: David MacClement <davd @ bigfoot.com> (change " @ " to "@")
To: Positive Futures; Diane Fitzsimmons <[email protected]>
Date: Thursday, June 04, 1998 8:05 PM
Subject: Re: Simplicity and time

>At 10:00 26/05/98 -0700, Diane wrote {at:
http://csf.colorado.edu/forums/pfvs/may98/0619.html }
>>My husband and I both descend from hard-scrabble farmers, and we can easily remember houses with no electricity or indoor plumbing. We grew up on tales about washdays over a boiling kettle in the yard
>> ...
>>I feel blessed that I can have a refrigerator, stove, washer and plumbing.
>>
>> ... Diane
>>
At 10:43 5/06/98 +1200, David wrote {at:
http://csf.colorado.edu/forums/pfvs/jun98/0017.html }
>Diane: In Canada (eastern Ontario) in the early '40s we had a two-hole long-drop into a deep crack in the Laurentian Shield, and in the winter put on a heavy coat & hood, & took the kerosene storm lantern, to make tracks through the snow to go the ~150 ft. to the toilet.
>
> At 10, I came to New Zealand and remember getting up early on Saturday morning (wash-day) to go to the wash-house to start the fire under the old copper (able to hold ~3 washing-machine loads), after running rainwater into it from the tank. (We are still living on rainwater, in Greenhithe.) After it had reached close to boiling-point, I'd munge it with a smooth stick, then lift out the steaming items to put through the wringer.
>
> Bera and I will be retiring soon to a farm (a tiny Intentional Community), and she's planning our house, which involves deciding what is the minimum she needs, to be satisfied living there for a few decades.
> Our choice includes the modern electrically-efficient washing machine we bought a few months ago (we'll be living off the electricity grid, generating all our own power, using solar panels), a chest freezer set to work as a frig, LP gas hob and wood stove for cooking (also heating when necessary - seldom, I'm guessing), and an indoor composting toilet, the twice-a-year clearings-out to go in the main compost heap and then on the garden and around the fruit and nut trees.
>
> So, yes, things have improved since the second world war.
> So they should, with all the unsustainable exploitation of resources that results from the current economic system.
>      See Keith Rankin's:
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Academy/1223/rf_shorts_1998_06juna.html#y1998_024
>      I think this professional economist is learning from observing my life.
>
>"Living lightly on the Earth"
>
>David.
>**               http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/6783/
>David MacClement <davd @ bigfoot.com> (change " @ " to "@")
>                 http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Delphi/3142/


A short statement of how our family is currently living.

A more complete (38 kB) account of my views and life.

Someone else (Elton Pasea, in Texas), living on little and loving it!
(New York Times, 4 Oct.'98)

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