This theme of Voluntary Simplicity is turning into a trilogy. After "The Value of Voluntary Simplicity" and "Voluntary Simplicity" I am onto "Small is Beautiful" a 300-page book by E.F. Schumacher. It was published in 1973. The author, an economist, takes an economic view on voluntary simplicity. The subtitle reveals a lot about the book: Economics As If People Mattered. His thoughts put people and wellbeing of people in the center, and not economic growth and profits. He recognizes that GNP is an ill measure of the economy. He emphasizing that "the aim ought to be to obtain the maximum amount of well being with the minimum amount of consumption." Under his definition our society today is extremely inefficient and wasteful. Modern industry seems to be inefficient to a degree that surpasses one's ordinary powers of imagination.
He also coined the term Buddhist Economics which is an economic concept founded on ethics and in which people's wellbeing are the essence. The PDF is here.
The E.F. Schumacher Society appropriately has its homepage under www.smallisbeautiful.org.
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