Services thinking: a services lifestyle
A planner I used to work with had an interesting perspective on the relative economics of owning a vacation home versus simply staying at a hotel: you don’t pay to stay at a hotel, you pay to leave it. You pay so that you don’t have to think about it anymore, so you don’t have to clutter your life with the burden of ownership.
Perhaps you’ve had this experience. You’re on holiday and you realise that the freedom you feel isn’t just because you’re away from your work, it’s because you’re away from your possessions. Because in some way, the possessions you own end up owning you.
I’ve written before about the transition to a service economy, however (living in America) it feels that we have not yet made the transition to a services lifestyle.
I would define a service lifestyle as one where experiences take precedence over possessions, where the cultural goal is the elimination of assets rather than the accumulation of assets. However, rather than these factors limiting opportunities for people, I think they would actually create opportunities for people. Freed from the expense of maintaining possessions (which are un-used a large percentage of the time), there would be more money to put towards buying experiences.
Interestingly enough, this might actually improve happiness.