Yes, a Make Wealth History campaign does makes sense – with a couple of caveats. It really comes down to one thing: everyone wants to live like Americans or Europeans, but the earth isn’t big enough to support that level of consumption, even for us, let alone the whole world. For their to be any hope of solving poverty in developing countries, those of us who are richer need to reduce our consumption to ‘make room’.

The great thing is that our high consumption lifestyles don’t actually make us happy, so we can reduce our environmental impact without reducing our well being. We just need to redefine wealth beyond money and stuff, and remember that what really makes us happy is good relationships, community, and rewarding work.

I completely agree with the idea of that statement. Not to say that the world would become perfect, but certainly a lot of good would arise from people living within their means.

However, he mainly focuses on technology and current society. I’m not sure exactly what he’s getting at though. There has always been poverty and technology didn’t necessarily bring upon economical class distinctions.

I think Julie noted the complete irony of the entire anti-technology bit being written on a blog. The author even notes: “It is curious that the computer has become an almost indispensable piece of equipment, even for the most determined downshifter.”

oops. Technology is here to stay. Sure we can become addicted to it and live on facebook, but we can also use it to communicated effectively and collaborate to solve problems in a way no other generation has before. I’d rather do the second option.

I’m sure those who have *lived* poverty have some interesting and potentially revolutionary perspectives on modern consumerist culture. But you can’t “weekend warrior” your way into that.