The problem with minimalism, and much more with frugality, is The Fable of the Bees.
If no one is buying anything, then nothing is bought. If nothing is bought, all the businesses close. And then no one is employed.
A society can afford the occasional Diogenes foreswearing all material goods to the point of living naked in a huge clay jar. But once too many follow suit, the economy collapses.
Steve Jobs liked minimalism, but his kind of minimalism didn't come cheap, and he actually paid a lot for it. How many of us would spend millions to reduce three buttons on a mouse to one button?
![[Image: 800px-Jean-L%C3%A9on_G%C3%A9r%C3%B4me_-_..._37131.jpg]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b1/Jean-L%C3%A9on_G%C3%A9r%C3%B4me_-_Diogenes_-_Walters_37131.jpg/800px-Jean-L%C3%A9on_G%C3%A9r%C3%B4me_-_Diogenes_-_Walters_37131.jpg)
If no one is buying anything, then nothing is bought. If nothing is bought, all the businesses close. And then no one is employed.
A society can afford the occasional Diogenes foreswearing all material goods to the point of living naked in a huge clay jar. But once too many follow suit, the economy collapses.
Steve Jobs liked minimalism, but his kind of minimalism didn't come cheap, and he actually paid a lot for it. How many of us would spend millions to reduce three buttons on a mouse to one button?
"Alpha children wear grey. They work much harder than we do, because they're so frightfully clever. I'm awfully glad I'm a Beta, because I don't work so hard. And then we are much better than the Gammas and Deltas. Gammas are stupid. They all wear green, and Delta children wear khaki. Oh no, I don't want to play with Delta children. And Epsilons are still worse. They're too stupid to be able to read or write. Besides they wear black, which is such a beastly color. I'm so glad I'm a Beta."
--Aldous Huxley, Brave New World