More People Are Leaving the Rat Race for the Simple Life

Time is more precious than money for an increasing number of people who are choosing to live more with less and liking it.

Kay and Charles Giddens, two lawyers, sold their home to start a B&B hotel. Four years later, the couple dishes out banana pancake breakfast, cleans toilets and serves homemade chocolate chip cookies to guests in a B&B hotel surrounded by trees on a hill known for colorful sunsets.

"Do I miss the freeways? Do I miss the traffic? Do I miss the stress? No," says Ms. Giddens. This is a phenomenon that's fairly widespread. A lot of people are reevaluating their lives and figuring out what they want to do. If their base is being damaged, what's the payoff?

Simple living ranges from cutting down on weeknight activities to sharing housing, living closer to work, avoiding shopping malls, borrowing books from the library instead of buying them, and taking a cut in pay to work at a more pleasurable job.

Vicki Robin, a writer, lives on a budget equal to a fifth of what she used to make. "You become conscious about where your money is going and how valuable it is," Ms. Robin says, "You tend not to use things up. You cook at home rather than eat out..."

Janet Luhrs, a lawyer, quit her job after giving birth and leaving her daughter with a nanny for two weeks. "It was not the way I wanted to raise my kids," she says, "Simplicity is not just about saving money: it's about me sitting down every night with my kids to a candlelit dinner with classical music.”

Mrs. Luhrs now edits a magazine, Simple Living, which publishes tips on how to buy recycled furniture and shoes, organize potluck dinners instead of expensive receptions, and generally how to consume less.

"It’s not about poverty," Mrs. Luhrs explains, "It's about conscious living and creating the life you want. The less stuff you buy, the less money goes out of the door, and the less money you have to earn."

Most people know about the boomerang(回力棒)，the legendary Australian throwing tool which，once released，returns to its owner.But have you heard of the boomerang generation? This refers to a phenomenon of people who move back home after briefly leaving their parents' houses for university in Western culture.Most of these young adults were born between the mid­1970s and mid­1980s.They are likened(比作) to the boomerang because they return to their home，just like the throwing tool.

Monster，a job search company，reported in a survey that 48 percent of prospective(未来的)graduates planned on becoming “boomerang kids”，returning home after graduation.Although many expected to just make a quick stop before getting their own place，Monster discovered that 42 percent of graduates said they were still living with their parents.

What is the cause of this passive generation? It may not be only the young people's fault.The long­term economic recession(不景气)has made it difficult for college graduates to find jobs，while the cost of living has continued to rise.And as a result，many young people have lost hope and self­confidence.Moreover，the unconditional love and support of parents allow the boomerang kids to rely on them without feeling much guilty.

Boomeranging is not all negative.Kids get the chance to reconnect with their parents after university，and parents get the opportunity to be a big part of their children's adult lives，which can lead to closer bonds.

But critics of this phenomenon argue that this situation affects young adults.Without the stress or ambition to succeed，boomerang kids tend to become more passive in their search for good jobs，harming their professional ambitions.And finally，the extra financial burden on parents can become too heavy to bear，leading to deep and often permanent damage to the relationship.

While telling others your zodiac sign (星座), you are being evaluated (评估). Evaluations are being made about your luck, your personality, future development and how you will do in a given year. So what is the Chinese zodiac, exactly? It’s a 12-year cycle labeled (标记) with animals, starting with a Rat and ending with a Pig. For example, if you were born in 2004, you are a Monkey.

The Chinese believe some animals are luckier than the others, such as the Dragon. Unlike in Western tradition, the Chinese Dragon stands for power, strength and wealth. It’s everyone’s dream to have a Dragon baby. Ma Yun’s parents must have been very proud. And they are not the only ones. In 2012, the Year of the Dragon, the birthrate in China increased by about 5%. That means another one million more babies. With a traditional preference for baby boys, the boy-girl ratio that year was 120 to 100. When those Dragon boys grow up, they will face much more serious competition in love and job markets.

According to the BBC and Chinese government reports, January 2015 saw a peak of cesarean sections (剖腹产术高峰). Why? That was the last month for the Year of the Horse. It’s not because they like horses so much, it’s because they try to avoid having unlucky Goat babies.

Tiger is another unwelcome animal, because of its dangerous and unstable (不稳定的) personality. Many Chinese places saw a considerable decline of birthrate during those years.

Perhaps one should consider zodiac in a different way, as those Tiger and Goat babies will face much less competition. Maybe they are the lucky ones. I went through the Forbes top 300 richest people in the world, and it’s interesting to see the most unwelcome two animals, the Goat and Tiger, are at the top of the list, even higher than the Dragon. So maybe we should consider that it’s much better to have less competition.