A Return to Simplicity

Contrary to popular belief, there's nothing modern about complexity. Complexity is not a necessary consequence of modernity. Rather, complexity is a cost. It wears us down like any other burden. Economic progress is therefore just as much about convenience as it is about physical stuff. Our lives get better when complexities are removed.

This will become increasingly clear as we move forward into turbulent years. With laws and regulations multiplying so fast that no-one is able to keep track of it all, there will be a popular reaction towards simplicity. There will be a strong move away from politics and the complexities of modern investment strategies.

This means that we will see a return to traditional values and physical stuff. We will see families act autonomously as suggested in my book. We will also see a shift from investing in ideas to investing in things. Things of simple elegance and beauty will do well. The same will happen with productive capital and land, as well as gold and silver. That which has little to no use value will go dramatically down in price, especially if there's a fixed cost associated with it. If it also lacks physical qualities that can be considered beautiful it's prize will go to zero.

The benchmark for value will be moved from perceived modernity to actual utility and beauty. If it isn't simple it won't sell, and the physical world will be used as our reference point. Technologies that cannot compete with physical reality in terms of convenience will go extinct. The internet will continue to do well, but many of the services offered on the internet will struggle.

This will lead to a quiet and sustainable revolution. Things will look a whole lot different a few decades from now, and there won't be any single event to explain what happened. The great Covid scare will be mentioned as a turning point, but there won't be anything else to point to. It will be as if people woke up little by little to a new set of values and principles. Over time, the landscape shifted with no other driver than a yearning for simplicity and beauty.

This shift will be painless and very much welcomed by people who already live according to these values and principles. Those relying on further expansion of the state and all its associated complexities in finance and social organization will suffer greatly. Without a firm safety net of strong personal relations and family ties, things will become decidedly choppy. The same goes for those heavily invested in ideas rather than things. Antiquated institutions will collapse, with everybody working for these institutions forced to find other ways to earn a living. There will be no CPS and there will be no public schools. There will instead be strong families, private schools, orphanages and home schooling, all of it at vastly better quality than what is currently being provided by the state.

Simplicity