simplicity and macroeconomics

Some Christians encourage greater distinction from the surrounding culture along the dimension of simplicity. As children of God who 1) rely on Him to meet our needs, 2) emphasize the importance of intangible things, 3) recognize just how relatively much we have compared to many of our brethren in other times and locations: it's fitting to live a simpler lifestyle with fewer material encumbrances.

Yet simplicity has another "side" on a macroeconomic level. For each transaction, there is a buyer and a seller, and the seller perhaps bought originally from other sellers and producers. The buyer who forgoes a transaction for the sake of simplicity denies that transaction to the would-be seller. That in turn implies that the seller cannot participate in the additional transactions with the other sellers and producers. And so forth, as the withdrawal of the economic transaction continues to "ripple". If sufficient numbers of buyers commit to simplicity simultaneously, the sellers and producers may end up unable to pay their basic expenses, which puts them out of work. So significant application of simplicity on a large scale entails shrinking the economy as a whole and raising unemployment; less participation by buyers results in less potential for participation by workers.

I don't think this means that we should completely stop the practice of simplicity. The point is that while we grow in simplicity, we should continue to expend the freed resources but in good causes. The better ones have transformational qualities that aim to help the disadvantaged "stand on their own feet" (whenever that's a possibility). This too has a macroeconomic justification. By enabling people to both consume and produce, even if at first "produce" is nothing more than a part-time service job, they can enhance the economy instead of being a drain on it, with an accompanying sense of self-worth. Actually, transferring mere consumption to such "human resource investment" might in the end be more effective at stimulating long-term economic growth (a better "multiplier").

Gradually, the shift in the habits of the Christian rich from frivolous to charitable would change the economy's very macroeconomic "structure". There'd be no market for certain items, and those people would be displaced into different industries. The financial world of brokers and investment bankers would likely shrink. Greater economic activity at the lower levels would change (narrow?) the range of products offered. The middle class would enlarge. Higher standards of living, that would continue to spring from the ongoing improvements in productivity, would manifest not in more pronounced gaps between rich and poor but in a "rising tide" benefiting all. 

To everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded. It's right there in the Book.