Of course, the critics come out with accusations of simple living being an "upper-class" thing and expensive. Well, I suppose buying your own land and some of the start-up materials would be costly, but the whole point of simple living is to change your mindset about the way we live. Living by an industrial system that treats everything as a commodity is also very expensive though we may not see the initial price at the checkout counter. Mass production is supposedly cheap, but in reality it only keeps us further dependent. Now is that a good trade in for cheap? Probably not (especially when society inevitably collapses and DIY will be necessity not choice).