The title "Small is Beautiful" has quite blatantly been stolen from the E. F. Schumacher book from the 1970's, which I must admit I have never read and almost certainly should. I have stolen it because it very much summarises the spirit of a living project that I have been thinking about recently, along with my partner, Lucy.
We live in a time when the cost of housing and land in England is extortionate. The average wage is around £26,000, whilst the average cost of a house is around £250,000. In theory, this means that even two people earning the average wage would struggle to get a mortgage on the average home; that is in the current post-economic-crash environment of limiting mortgage lending to around 4 times a household's earnings (this would be 4 * £52,000 = £204,000 in the household described above). Admittedly, the economics is not as simple as this formula, and both wages and house prices fluctuate depending on the area in which you live, but overall the fact is that housing is difficult to afford.
I cannot see this changing swiftly. Whilst governments promise to build more affordable housing, the cost of homes in my working lifetime has generally risen a lot faster than wages. Because of the large proportion of people in the UK with mortgages, I cannot see a government ever letting the cost of housing drop, because this would leave so many people in negative equity and potentially screwed. Therefore, those of us not yet on the housing ladder become even more screwed with each passing year; the cost of housing rises faster than wages, so with each year the housing becomes more out of reach.
Now, I don't actually care about owning a house. However, I am very aware of how many elderly people are required to sell their home to fund their care. I am very aware that the government cannot afford to support a whole generation of elderly people without homes. Once I am elderly, I will have minimal pension income (I believe the state pension will continue to be reduced as the government cannot fund the growing elderly population), and therefore will not be able to afford rent as well as living costs. This is the main reason I feel a need to put a roof over my head which is mine.
In this context, people generally work harder and harder to afford their mortgage and costs. Now both partners work instead of one, which is absolutely great if that is what people want, but it seems it is becoming more of a requirement rather than a choice. It is not the case that both partners working means that the household can afford more, but that the cost of everything has risen so that both partners need to work. This contributes to the economic growth within the country, which we are always told is great and seems to be the holy grail of all governments. However, it feels to me that a constant pursuit of economic growth leads to degradation of the environment and peoples' spirits.
Given all of the above, I am beginning to think that it makes more sense to live in a small way. If you can reduce the size of your home, and your use of resources such as water and electricity, then you can provide for yourself through wind/solar energy. In the process, you can de-clutter your life and live in a more simple way, and not require as much money, giving you more freedom to work less.
In theory, this sounds lovely, but it is obviously not that simple. The standard system is not set up for people to live in this way - it is assumed that everybody wants to work hard and earn as much as possible, live in a bricks-and-mortar style house with a large mortgage, etc., and this is the best way for a government to earn their maximum possible treasury through taxation. Living outside this system is difficult and has many hurdles.
I am starting this blog as a way to chart our progress in researching any possible alternative lifestyles. We may not succeed, but I hope that this will serve as a narrative of our progress, as well as a place to collect our research to look back on, or for other people to gain knowledge from. Initial searching on the internet shows that there is a community of people out there who wish to live this way, often referred to as living 'off grid' (e.g., www.off-grid.net), and that very few succeed. I can only hope that we find some compromises to the standard way of living in the UK. Wish us luck!
We live in a time when the cost of housing and land in England is extortionate. The average wage is around £26,000, whilst the average cost of a house is around £250,000. In theory, this means that even two people earning the average wage would struggle to get a mortgage on the average home; that is in the current post-economic-crash environment of limiting mortgage lending to around 4 times a household's earnings (this would be 4 * £52,000 = £204,000 in the household described above). Admittedly, the economics is not as simple as this formula, and both wages and house prices fluctuate depending on the area in which you live, but overall the fact is that housing is difficult to afford.
I cannot see this changing swiftly. Whilst governments promise to build more affordable housing, the cost of homes in my working lifetime has generally risen a lot faster than wages. Because of the large proportion of people in the UK with mortgages, I cannot see a government ever letting the cost of housing drop, because this would leave so many people in negative equity and potentially screwed. Therefore, those of us not yet on the housing ladder become even more screwed with each passing year; the cost of housing rises faster than wages, so with each year the housing becomes more out of reach.
Now, I don't actually care about owning a house. However, I am very aware of how many elderly people are required to sell their home to fund their care. I am very aware that the government cannot afford to support a whole generation of elderly people without homes. Once I am elderly, I will have minimal pension income (I believe the state pension will continue to be reduced as the government cannot fund the growing elderly population), and therefore will not be able to afford rent as well as living costs. This is the main reason I feel a need to put a roof over my head which is mine.
In this context, people generally work harder and harder to afford their mortgage and costs. Now both partners work instead of one, which is absolutely great if that is what people want, but it seems it is becoming more of a requirement rather than a choice. It is not the case that both partners working means that the household can afford more, but that the cost of everything has risen so that both partners need to work. This contributes to the economic growth within the country, which we are always told is great and seems to be the holy grail of all governments. However, it feels to me that a constant pursuit of economic growth leads to degradation of the environment and peoples' spirits.
Given all of the above, I am beginning to think that it makes more sense to live in a small way. If you can reduce the size of your home, and your use of resources such as water and electricity, then you can provide for yourself through wind/solar energy. In the process, you can de-clutter your life and live in a more simple way, and not require as much money, giving you more freedom to work less.
In theory, this sounds lovely, but it is obviously not that simple. The standard system is not set up for people to live in this way - it is assumed that everybody wants to work hard and earn as much as possible, live in a bricks-and-mortar style house with a large mortgage, etc., and this is the best way for a government to earn their maximum possible treasury through taxation. Living outside this system is difficult and has many hurdles.
I am starting this blog as a way to chart our progress in researching any possible alternative lifestyles. We may not succeed, but I hope that this will serve as a narrative of our progress, as well as a place to collect our research to look back on, or for other people to gain knowledge from. Initial searching on the internet shows that there is a community of people out there who wish to live this way, often referred to as living 'off grid' (e.g., www.off-grid.net), and that very few succeed. I can only hope that we find some compromises to the standard way of living in the UK. Wish us luck!
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