The Editorial Dream Lifestyle is Dead

Remember Sex and the City? Where writing a dating column for a living supported Carrie's extravagant lifestyle? Well, those days are over. As is your hope for a luxurious life. The middle class is back!

Confessions of a Shopaholic is out now, starring an imaginary magazine writer who's able to be, you know, a Shopaholic. This is not even remotely workable in reality any longer, no matter how you contort your imagination. Former Radar editor Willa Paskin points out what's become only too obvious to all of us boots on the ground: magazine work is not the path to upper class lifestyle. Make up another dream job for aspiring Queens of New York, Hollywood:

If Shopaholic and its ilk are short on the paltry pay, long on the stilettos, that's partially thanks to the fact that very few people have a clear idea of what an editor actually does all day (or what they get paid to do it). The title has become shorthand for a creative, fun, professional white-collar job that involves very few set tasks. Since the particulars of the profession are so little known, screenwriters are free to present magazine work (inaccurately, it sadly turns out) as the ultimate fantasy, which requires employees to attend fancy fetes and photo shoots, groom and gossip compulsively, date handsome men and spend zero time on e-mail.

In fact, the lifestyle elements most magazine workers currently have in common are layoffs, pay cuts, student loan debt, and overwork. Whee, the Big Apple! But really, it's nothing to feel bad about. The idea that you could come to the big city and live the life of an heiress while working in such a pedestrian field as the print media was mostly a pipe dream from day one; and for those who did manage to do it, it was a passing anomaly

Some Secrets About a Simple Lifestyle

I receive questions from time to time about leading a simple lifestyle and what kind of advice I have about it. I am only an expert on my own life, but I can offer some things that I have learned along the way.
It’s a process, not a destination

The single most important thing I have learned is that a simple lifestyle is just that - a lifestyle. It’s something that changes, requires adjusting as time goes on and reflects who I am at any given time. There are no steps, no requirements, so it’s an inner journey that never ends. While there are tangible things that go along with my simple life, even those will change along the way. The key for me is embracing what the simple life means and living it out in a way that is authentic to me.
It’s not a competition

And if it was, I might lose. I don’t wear one simple dress and wash it by hand each night. I don’t grow all my own food. I do what works for me and my family. The beauty of choosing a simple life has been letting go of all the cares about what others think, not competing to keep up or have the least or the most of something, and to just be happy with who I am and what I have and that I am making the life that is best for me and my family.
There are no rules

I”ve been challenged about what it is about my life that I think makes it so simple. There may be some who think you must do x,y,z to be “simple”. Or those that think that there is no way to actually live simply in this day. I have said before what simplicity is to me. For me, the most important thing has been setting priorities and living my life accordingly. I have 2 dogs, 2 kids, and a fixer upper which should be considered a third child for the time and money it takes up. But this life works for us, and although there are complex aspects to it, the choices we make have allowed for simplicity in other areas.
It isn’t deprivation

Simplicity doesn’t have to mean ridding yourself of every possession except the shirt on your back. It doesn’t mean never stepping foot in a store again. It means assigning purpose to your possessions, dollars, and time. I love lattes and designer jeans. I even like big black sunglasses. I make choices in all areas of my life that make it possible to keep true to myself and do the things that I enjoy. My life is not deprived of anything that I desire. My desires have changed. My priorities have shifted. My tastes have changed. Living a life that is authentic will never be deprived because it will always be full of what you are.

Lifestyle choice

A sheriff of my acquaintance once hosted a Christmas party for the sundry QCs, advocates and solicitors in his patch.

He served them all with the tonic wine which is made by the Benedictine monks of Buckfast.

When they queried his choice of tipple, he told them he was keen to put them in touch with their client base.

Perhaps Kenny MacAskill had something comparable in mind when he described Buckfast as a "designer drink". Its consumption, he suggested, was something of a lifestyle choice.

Mr MacAskill, the Scottish justice secretary, was answering questions from the wicked media in re his government's proposed clampdown on alcohol abuse.

Why, we wanted to know, would the measures not affect Buckfast when they would increase the price of discounted white cider, vodka and whisky?

The answer was that Buckfast was relatively expensive at the moment, as calculated via alcohol by volume or abv.

Raising sights

Still relatively, the minister was unconcerned. The general package would work.

This little vignette perhaps highlights the problems which have pursued ministers in their efforts to tackle Scotland's addiction to alcohol.

The wicked media and those in the trade spotlight individual anomalies.

Ministers, entirely understandably, urge us to raise our sights and consider the cost of booze, in both senses.

The relative (that word again) decline in the cost of drink, down some 69% compared to earnings over the past couple of decades.

The cost to Scotland, an estimated £2.25bn in lost work days and health care.

And so ministers plan to act, with price the primary lever.

Brutal arithmetic

Minimum prices for drink, an end to "two-for-one" deals, a curb on marketing, a social responsibility fee, perhaps levied on big retailers like superpubs.

Recognising parliamentary arithmetic, ministers have now shelved plans for a Scotland-wide ban on off sales to those aged under 21.

Instead, they'll encourage councils to try this locally, where there's demand or police pressure.

What's the logic there? Ministers still back raising the age for off sales to 21 - but know they could not get that past sceptical MSPs. Hence the new scheme.

But the concept of localisation also needs Holyrood approval - and that may not be forthcoming.

Retailers, especially small retailers, are unhappy. They say they're being expected to act as "social police" for the government, tackling a problem in shops which has wider roots.

Not true, say ministers. To be fair, their published document today goes to great lengths to stress everyone in Scotland must play their part.

It stresses the additional resources for education and prevention.

But, says the government, there is evidence available: cut the price of drink, increase the number of hospital admissions.

Given that brutal arithmetic, they say they must act in the manner outlined today.