thrift or abundance

Is thrift and abundance mutually exclusive? Can both be pursued with vigour? I think, yes, absolutely. Self-sufficiency should not be confused with austerity; frugality is not analogous with the good life. In fact, self-sufficiency is about making a better life. It is not about rejecting consumption, it is about controlling the means of production. Self-sufficiency, when it comes to homemaking, is all about production and consumption. But it is the home that becomes the factory and the family the workers. Very often the desire for better products, healthier food and ethical consumption drives the decision to pursue the self-provider ethic.

Would self-sufficiency have a place in a pre or post materialist world? I believe that self-sufficiency is as much a product of consumer capitalism as it a reaction against it. Very much the product of material abundance, self-sufficiency is dependent on ideas of choice, democracy and affluence.