People yearn for simpler times, at least if one believes the buzzfeed articles.
Everyone wants a 400 square foot house.
Everyone is going to a raw vegan diet.
Good Americans are all raising chickens in their back yard because it’s simpler than going to the store (said no chicken owner ever).
Simple, right? Except nothing in our behavior hints that we’re serious about simplification. Consider….
You know those self storage places that seem to spring up everywhere? You know why it feels like there are so many? Because there are. As of this writing, there is 2.3 billion square feet of self storage space in the US. That’s billion – not million. It is one of the economy’s fastest growing segments.
Have you ever rented one of this units? At the six month mark, do you remember opening it as if it were the Crypt of Sam Walton and thinking “What in the heck do I have all this stuff for? I don’t even miss it and I’m spending money to house it!”
Here’s an interesting way to look at it. There are currently 318 million US citizens.
Do you understand what that means? If you do the math, that means there is 7 square feet of storage per person. That’s not enough to live, but it’s plenty enough to stand comfortably, or perhaps sit down. All of us. At once.
We could put the whole population of the US in storage at the same time.
Imagine the streets of New York, L.A., Chicago, Dallas and every little down and rural area in between emptied – because everyone was in storage. Every store, every home, every soccer field….empty, because we’re all down at Fred’s Pack and Store, and fairly comfortable too.
How did we end up with a country that has homeless people when the entire country could fit in storage? Why does the state struggle to find people who would make room for a foster child when the same people would spend hard cash on housing for stuff that would make poor garage sale inventory? Why are we so protective of our belongings and so cavalier about the needs of other people?
It’s easy. As a whole, have a huge value for our stuff and a low value for humanity. Maybe we’ve never cognitively connected those things, but a wise man once said “Where ever your treasure is, there your heart is also.”.
America puts her treasure in storage.
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