Living As Though It Mattered

That kind of downsizing is presently underway -- in that one of the great trends of these times is the senior and disabled populations moving into more efficient spaces and designs -- of about 500 sq. ft. (which is spacious/luxurious in the most populous and expensive cities in the world). It doesn't seem to be by Oregon (suburban/agrarian) standards but as the population further ages and retires (grow older and wiser), they realize that a multilevel house is torture and dangerous -- no matter how much their certified personal trainers advise them they should run up and down them as many times each day as possible.

And then rather than have two car garages, they'll probably want a place close in where they can bicycle to most places they have to go -- further lowering their fixed costs as well as maintaining their mobility in a very useful and tangible way. All these economies and efficiencies become more apparent and obvious in time -- and don't require legislation to mandate for everyone, or even to conform to the "political correctness."

The great challenge of these times, led by the (retiring) Baby Boom generation, is the downsizing of their lives and living spaces -- because industries and libraries can now be run with only a computer or a smartphone replacing all the relics of their past lives -- and the need to store them beyond a chip.

Schumacher's ideas predate the development of the personal computer and not only have those already come to pass -- but gone thousandfolds beyond that, so that we know people can live in space shuttles, submarines and even cars and tents (yurts) adequately and even luxuriously -- because we now have access to shared spaces like Starbucks and senior (community) centers. That's all happening already -- but dependent on knowing about and accessing these resources that are so much more than a larger private space -- as the houses of yore represented.

We don't all need to occupy Portland, or Wall Street to make it happen. People just need to be aware of all the options -- and not just the one the vested interests advertise, promote and occupy -- as the ONLY way possible, for EVERYONE.

We no longer live in that mass conformity world which was a product of the old mass media model of broadcast journalism -- because there too, intelligent ideas are evolving by individual "natural selection" -- which is not the bad thing many demagogues make it out to be, so that everyone will follow their one idea as the only one now allowable. Hopefully, that world has passed -- and that there are many great ideas, and not just the one.