Holiday Spending

Take Bill McKibben’s great article (“A Holy Day of More and More Stuff,” Commentary, Nov. 28), apply it all year long, add all spiritual and secular paths, and you’ve got the thriving voluntary simplicity movement, one of the top 10 trends of the 1990s.

Rather than doing “too much damage to business,” here are five ways that voluntary simplicity can be good for the economy: 1) tendency toward economic activity characterized by moderation and sufficiency, rather than excess and fluctuation; 2) more savings for investment and capital formation; 3) jobs created to help build a sustainable future for all; 4) reduction of debt, both personal and national; and 5) resources used to meet needs, rather than manufacture wants, bringing a sense of fulfillment.

CAROL BENSON HOLST

Program Director

Seeds of Simplicity

Glendale