Scott: Suits and ties, MBAs, people making quarter million dollars… The way I saw the world was that any problem can be solved, certain people are worth more to society. They make more money, they deserved it, they worked hard for it… I was always pretty frugal, I never bought that much, but the idea was that I’d have more money in the future. So I made more money and I’d hoard it.
Travel broke apart this concept of capitalism which is focused on consumerism. Especially in the States and in the west, where our happiness is so closely tied to consumerism. If I have a good job I can buy a bigger house, I can get a better school for my child and I can get more and more and more. But when you get away from it all, you realize you can be pretty happy without it. You come back and you’re like “I don’t care how much money I’m making at a job.” After I have enough money to feed myself and clothe myself, it doesn’t matter.
So then I questioned: “Why have any job at all, that I don’t like?”. Because any job is gonna be enough for me to live a life that I want which is… Having a few plants and cooking for myself, going for a walk, going to a park and seeing an occasional movie. The life I wanna live doesn’t cost much money at all, so why am I working at a job that I don’t like, there are so many out there… You could do anything you want, because anything you do is going to pursue enough money to live. It kind of broke the whole system. Does it make any sense?