Less can be more, so relax.

An article in Yahoo Finance by Aaron Task warns: "Worst Is Yet to Come:" Americans' Standard of Living Permanently Changed. I beg to differ. Our standard of living will only go down if all you count is number of possessions, bells and whistles, and the level of pampering from service reps. In other words, the "spoiled" factor.

(I am aware this pertains mostly to the middle and upper classes. I can't estimate about the working or working poor. Will they be in for more of a struggle, or will the lessening of the wage gap actually help by lowering prices and evening out the playing field?)

Even the article's interviewee, Howard Davidowitz of Davidowitz & Associates said that the end of rampant consumerism is ultimately a good thing. We all recite the mantra that money doesn't make you happy. Then we put our blinders back on and plow ahead into the material world trying to gain more ground. Maybe once the high standards of the American dream relax, we all can too.

I forget where I read it, but a social scientist wrote that we set our standard of living according to what the others around us have and do. Apartment living was fine with me when I lived in Toronto, was younger, and all my friends lived that way. When I moved to Raleigh and was older I wanted a house. My first house was surrounded by young Yuppies who tried to convince me to buy a Lexus. My second house was surrounded by old downsizers who knock on my door to tell me when CVS has a sale on toilet paper. I do see a difference in the things I thought I needed between neighborhood 1 and neighborhood 2.

Okay, one more story. Years ago an acquaintance told me she spent a summer in eastern Europe helping in a relief program. She lived out of a backpack with one pair of jeans and two tee shirts and by summer's end she didn't know why she ever needed more than that. Then she came home and didn't know how she got along without an ever expanding clothes closet.

I hope to all reading this, you'll stay solvent and find the tons of joy in the non-material.