There is a movement called voluntary simplicity which has as its adherents mostly women (primarily mothers). We believe in a lifestyle which supports and nurtures our families while doing the least harm to the environment and others. Money is not a priority for this group.

your last sentence reminds me of a comedy skit, Autumn... "the only people who say money isn't important, don't have any" I applaud that lifestyle, and it has made the news recently via a woman in Japan...and monks and other religious practioners have been doing it for centuries, too... (still, it would be nice to be rich for a little while, no?)

You know, I've thought about this, and always wind up at odds and evens. On the one hand the opportunities to travel and be freed from the daily grind of work would be nice! However, I think we would truly learn how to live if we lost it all and had to start from square one.

do you think society would hold at all peacefully if we lost it all and had to start over? do you think humans have learned anything from our world's history?

One would not think so, looking as one has not learned too much from one's own personal history. But then, we have learned many things in the last 5.000 years. We have learned to cooperate. To give up freedoms for some higher cause. Get recompensated with substitutes.

what freedoms for what 'higher cause'? I feel like I'm listening to a series of contradictions (beyond the inherent cath-22 isms) and possibly it's all a sematics game inside my own head...

Higher Causes: Hanging out at the beach vs. earning money to eat next week, too? My life for that of many. My time for a caritative cause. My ressource for a friend. Semantics game - it all comes down what you personally define as freedom and as non-freedom.

funny. I'm assuming the hanging out on the beach is the freedom and the higher cause is the earning money to eat... Lucky we have the FREEDOM to work in whatever profession we choose in order to feed ourselves. And the freedom to change that profession if the conditions and/or profession itself no longer suits us. I agree with a lot of what you're saying but this 'freedom' that I feel like you're dissing is actually much broader than the freedom to loaf... the 'greater good' we've referred to seems available because of the freedom we have (making sense or no??)

Eat next week is a higher cause. Work today need not be Freedom. "Lucky we have the FREEDOM to work in whatever profession we choose" - as lok as somebody finds it worth to pay us. Say, if I'd like to work in IT as a punched-card puncher, how good would my job chances be? I don't diss no freedoms. There's more to it, bit too little words.

and punch card jobs...

Waaaaaaah! My computer crashed. I'm here among the library riff-raff...

My sympathies. What happened?

According to my brother, a total computer geek, my hard drive is shot. I have to call Micron today and get a replacement (thankfully it's under warranty). I also need some zip discs to transfer all my files onto first.

hmmm...I'm sorry... I'd let you borrow one of my extra drives, but I can't throw it that far...

Hooray! It's back up and running--and as a bonus, I'm even using Netscape 4.1 now, how cool and edgy is that?? And only 273 new email messages!

get 'em read so's you got more time to get back on here and talk to us!!!

welcome back Autumn!

yeah, that too!!!

Hooray for whoeverfixed the whateveritwas! Hi Autumn!

It's soooo much faster now, my fingers fairly dance across the keys!! It's nice to feel connected again.

"you got to get yourself connected..."

Wait, what's that, lemme guess - Jamiroquai?

"The writing's on the wall..."

wheee

...eeeez!" Bless you, Wer! Sneezy nose?

nah, just enjoying the ride

The USD-going-up,-EUR-going-down one?

(ah, Alexander deftly brings us back on topic--good show!)

And may I point your attention at the topic devoted to collecting CASH: http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/public/read/collecting/40 ?