The expression ‘less is more’ is attributed to architect and industrial designer Peter Behrens. The storyline goes that Behrens coined this expression when Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, the godfather of modernist architecture, showed him the design options of a factory façade. This shaped Mies’ approach towards architectural designs and ‘less is more’ became the punchline for revolutionary minimalist designs.

Aside from architecture and art, in economic terms the concept of minimalism denotes a culture that moves away from the pursuit for ‘more’ by driving high levels of efficiencies and the excesses of material and financial success. This is a complete turnaround from what we learn in business schools and economics classes.

Efficiency emerged as an overpowering factor in wealth creation. This was greatly influenced by economist David Ricardo’s work on the principle of division of labour as expounded in his study published in 1817 entitled ‘On the principles of political economy and taxation’.

His theory was that it was more efficient for Portuguese workers of the time to make wine, and English workers to make cloth, and each group would be better off focusing on its area of advantage and trading with the other. This concept advocates that efficiency in the production process can be increased through process innovation and by focusing on reducing waste.

This theory, and the others that followed throughout the decades, shaped the way world economies work. The World Trade Organisation aims at making international trade more efficient. Businesses work incessantly at increasing efficiencies and reducing waste.

Nobody can argue against the principle that it is sensible to increase efficiency. However, as Harvard economist Roger L. Martin explains in his recently published book When more is not better, “an excessive focus on efficiency, especially when it becomes an end, can produce a negative effect with the potential of creating social disorder”.

We are living in a more polarised world where the inequality gap keeps increasing

The economic ideal of creating super efficiencies is to have a larger middle class and smaller groups of poorer and richer families and, as the economy grows, everybody’s income should grow. By applying these principles, the world should reach what Aristotle, in the third century BC, defined as ‘eudaimonia’ (human happiness and prosperity). Aristotle believed that eudaimonia is achieved by promoting the virtue of caring for other people and promoting the common good of society.

Sadly, we are far from seeing this ideal materialise. We are living in a more polarised world where the inequality gap keeps increasing and the poor are getting poorer and the rich get richer. While government policies should be geared towards serving many in the long term, they are being turned around and serve interested parties in the short term.

The efficiencies that have been created brought with them a consumeristic approach to life. We have commoditised almost everything. We are too accustomed to buying things we do not really need but we buy them because they are cheap.

We yearn for large, king-of-the-road, fuel-guzzling MPVs, when it may be even easier, quicker and cheaper to go from point A to point B in a medium-sized car, especially in our tiny island. All of this comes at a price: we are depleting the world’s natural resources and increasing carbon emissions at an unsustainable rate.

In his recent encyclical Fratelli tutti, Pope Francis regrets that “some economic rules have proved effective for growth but not for integral human development. Wealth has increased but  together with inequality, with the result that ‘new forms of poverty are emerging’.”

Going back to basics and undoing all the excesses of life to which we have become unknowingly accustomed is a challenge. There is not a single indication that shows that more possessions bring with them more happiness. In fact, the reverse may be true. Relationships, experiences, caring for others and meaningful work are the staples of a happy life.

Claudio Farrugia, member, Catholic Voices Malta