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Enough Already

December 3, 2003 

"The cost of a thing," wrote Henry David Thoreau (I'm paraphrasing him) "is the amount of life I have to give up to pay for it."

With those words, he presaged what Charles Handy came to call the Doctrine of Enough: the idea that the more modest your lifestyle, the less you need to earn; and the less you need to earn, the vaster your array of fulfilling career options.

No idea has had a more liberating impact on me over these last fifteen years. If my working life is now based on fulfillment rather than achievement, it is the Doctrine of Enough that has made that possible.

Mind you, I'm lucky. When God assembled me, he forgot to insert shopping genes. I don't find it hard to live a slightly minimalist lifestyle. Which is why I drive a 1987 car, my TV is devoid of plasma, and my wardrobe humiliates my 12-year-old daughter.

Does Alan Greenspan lie awake at night sweating in terror at the prospect that US consumers will convert en masse to the Doctrine of Enough? I don't think so, Tim.

Nowhere is the god of More more venerated than in Orange City, Florida. Local 6 News reports that last Friday, a 41-year-old shopper, Patricia Van Lester, arrived at Wal-Mart at 3am. She waited until the doors opened at 6am, then rushed in and claimed a DVD player on sale.

Sadly for her, a mob of other shoppers knocked her down and trampled her. Paramedics arrived to find her still unconscious on the ground (DVD player tucked safely underneath her), surrounded by apparently oblivious shoppers. She was helicoptered to a medical center where she was expected to remain hospitalized for several days.

Giving the lie to the suggestion that big business is amoral and heartless, Wal-Mart called Ms Van Lester and offered to put a DVD player on hold.

It's refreshing to find that traditional Christmas values - giving, sharing, caring, trampling over fellow-shoppers - remain sacred. Why settle for Enough when you can have More?