breaking it down

recently, i've been questioning some fundamental assumptions.
for example, i'm questioning if we really need to spend most of our time and most of our life on earning money. this unquestioned assumption, which is the norm by far in our society, has so many implications, for our personal lives, for our families and children, for the environment, and for shaping our society as a whole, that i think it needs to be questioned.

we're all so exhausted from just trying to make a paycheck at a job that most of us don't really like (the TGIF syndrome says it all) - it's no wonder that very few of us really have time or energy to really be with our kids (hence the Quality Time syndrome, the over-scheduled kids syndrome, and the over-medicated kids syndrome, etc.); very few of us have time to really find out what's meaningful to us and follow through with it; very few of us have time to shape our society into something better; and so on.

keeping us chugging along with the status quo is certainly in the interest of those benefiting from a consumerist society, but it is certainly not in my interest. so i'm trying to find out what the alternatives could look like.

so, in my search as to how much money do i really need in order to live the lifestyle i choose (simple, non-consummerist, but not too austere either), i came across some interesting stats.

one is this pie chart showing a breakdown of expenditures for the average family.

another is this Living Wage Calculator, which is really a table put together by someone at MIT with required incomes for different family sizes, in different locations, and a breakdown of where the income goes.

some of this info is a little old, but i was only looking for rough numbers. i'm sure you can find the latest numbers if you look for them. i think it's fascinating though, to look at these numbers, and study them, and ask myself if this is what i want. if not, what would i change and how?

of course it's not all so easy, because there are a lot of assumptions behind these numbers, like for example, if you don't have a full time job, the health care numbers are probably going to be much higher, and so on.

peace