The issue is we're talking about aesthetic choice and blending it with circumstance. If you had the stuff you have now and an 1800sqft loft, you'd be a damn minimalist. Shit, I became a minimalist the moment my ex moved out and took everything. Space, for its part, has been a luxury since we invented roofs - and don't knock it 'til you try it. I had 1400sqft of open plan on top of a convenience store, a good 1000sqft of which was living room. It was awesome. My buddy used to share a 6,000sqft loft space among four friends and the fact that the quickest way to get to the bathroom in the middle of the night was to hop on a razor was not a downside.

Look at it this way - you have a tiny amount of stuff in a tiny space. You're cluttered. A tiny amount of stuff in a normal space is "minimalist" but a lot of stuff in a normal space is "normal." A lot of stuff in a big space becomes "minimalist" again but a lot of stuff in a small space and you're "cluttered" again.

To get to "normal" in a big space you have to take it all the way to "hoarder" in a normal space.

I think minamilism can have personality but the version going on currently looks very sanitized.

There's some signaling going on. Yours is not the opinion that matters. Here - I think we can all agree that this is something cheap:

Odds are, you might be able to twig to this being more expensive without knowing names:

But to the untrained eye, this is effectively the same:

The first one is $80 off Amazon and will do most of what anybody wants it to do. The second one is a bargain at $700; Outlaw makes great stuff but chances are good you don't need what they make.

The third one? It's $7500. The previous generation was $15k.

Nobody who is in the market for a $70 stereo is looking at a $700 stereo. They might be impressed by it but a $7k stereo is obscene. It offends them. Meanwhile, anybody who is looking for a $700 stereo won't be buying a $70 stereo and wishes they could afford a $7k stereo. That's just the thing - the guys with the $7k stereo don't really consider the guys with the $70 stereo to be "human" the way their friends at the club are. I mean, yes, obviously they're not apes but they aren't "our people." They love impressing the people with the $700 stereos but really, they all wish they had $20k stereos.

And the more you pay, the fewer buttons you get. And if you can pick out the crap $70 stereo without knowing anything about stereos, imagine all the signals you're not picking up on when you look at wealth.