I know completely what you think- I sometimes wonder if we could not all work less and have more time. We buy cars and buy another one some years later and the old one is still good. One of the problems of the car industry now is that there are too many nicely running cars in the world- nobody needs new ones.
I have enough clothes to be decently dressed for half a century.
But still- we have 6000 books at home and it feels very difficult to resist nr. 6001.
I know that when I was a child the grown-ups had more time, time to walk home amd have lunch at home, time to play with kids, time to work in the garden, time to make home-made jam and bake cakes.
But on the other hand I read a book now about East end London and in the 18th centuries, the dockers worked 16 hours, some of them in wheels (like human hamsters) which operated the cranes- so I think our rat race is still less cruel than that.
This is the first time in history that someone with my family background (miners, farmhands, small farmers) and who is female can go to university, have friends in the US whom she meets regularly and have a not-so-simple job and interests.
But yes- I like the idea of voluntary simplicity. It would be great if we could sit together in discuss it in more detail