How I always say: Voluntary Simplicity is a moral choice. It is important to recognize that there are many social reasons for adopting voluntary simplicity. Living simply can be a lifestyle response to social injustices. Many people are drawn to simplicity because they feel this as an act of human solidarity. It can foster a heightened sense of human community, both locally and globally. One obvious way to share with others is simply to take less, to try to take only what is in your own right and no more. As Mahatma Gandhi once said, ‘Live simply so that others may simply live.’
The problem of hunger and injustice can be solved not only by technology, as long as there are people who always want more than others. The fact that 1% of the human population owns more than half of the global wealth shows that the problem of hunger / injustice is a cultural problem; a problem stemming from the same mentality that makes us all want more and more; push us to be in a continuous race, making us to believe only so we will be safer or happier or more respected people. Voluntary Simplicity implies a totally different mentality. I could call it responsible, ecological or simply empathic. Everywhere you can hear about The New Story, Homo Empathicus, about participatory paradigm, about new forms of human organization and relationship. I believe that these new forms of human organization and new technologies can be sustained only by this new empathic mentality.