Musings while I walk to work

I walk to work daily and think to myself. What if.....

What if we all ended up just using less stuff and going back to the basics. What ever happened to the simple family life? One car? A house that was appropriately sized for your family?

What ever happened to growing our own vegetables? (we'll do that next summer... and grow some fruit too)

What ever happened to the feeling of satisfaction that you get when you just know that all your NEEDS are met? Why do we chase bigger and better things?

Why do we put children in 4 hours of soccer lessons a week when playing soccer in the backyard used to be the norm? What ever happened to unstructured play?

Why do they design carseats so elaborately so they don't fit in small cars (thus causing you to buy a bigger car)?

Why are we so obsessed with 'germ free'? (it's likely a media thing)

Why do people smoke when they can't put food on the table? (it's an addiction, I know)

Life is so complex and we choose to make it much more so. The recent credit crunch has allowed me to observe a few things, but I reckon it will get even worse before it gets better.

We will be going back to a simpler way of life, whether we like it or not. I heard this somewhere, but I don't know where: Frugal is the new black.