Access vs Ownership

Today I have been watching some little snippets of videos of people living small on www.faircompanies.com .  Not by living small, and not enjoying life, but by getting rid of all those things that society pressures us into accepting as normal, and living with smaller homes, less stuff, less imprint on the planet.  But a higher quality of life and to do the things that make us happy, getting out in the world and experiencing life, as to just experiencing the commute, the four walls of the office, the rat race that we have put ourselves in.

In one of the videos a guy said the term "Access verses Ownership".  I haven't heard it put so simply and eloquently before.  Who says we need to own it all, why not just have access to it.  It is usually cheaper, and therefor less time needed to be trapped by those four walls to pay for it.  Think about it.  Our society is actually helping us get there with the technology that is being developed, if only we could pry our minds off  of the need to "own it".

Think about it.  The list is endless.  Instead of owning the land, some of the best landscapes are owned by the government and therefor, we can access them for free or for a very nominal charge (and we don't have to cut the grass or shovel the snow).  Music is now available as downloads for your ipod, MP3 or what ever your device.  Do you really need to store that CD Jewel case?  Movies, same thing, Netflixs or Redbox is so cheap, and require no storage.

We have a storage epidemic across North America, never before in time have we had so many self-storage places for people to store their junk (except for the odd person who is using those storage places for a short period of transition from one place to another).  Garages on homes no longer park cars, but all the little must haves that we possibly think we can't do without.

Access vs Ownership, Freedom vs Chains.  I think the two sayings have the same definitions in this case.