I love your idea of being happy with the minimum. I see myself as a minimalist, having only the necessities and continuously re-evaluating my earthy possessions, eager to get rid of unnecessary items. But perhaps I am a minimalist only because I don't have enough money to spend on anything but the essential. Who knows? If one is lucky enough to earn a high income, of course, one has to spend that money on something worthwhile, like a second home at the coast.
Your life as 17th-year old in a car sounds wonderful, but I am afraid you would have been murdered, or at least seriously injured, if you were living in South Africa.
I always am grateful that nothing was just handed to me because I have to think more and be creative with what I do. I make a lot of my own things. I almost never buy new clothes. As far as South Africa, you are right-- we sit comfortably here in America to where that can happen. Given that I lived in South Africa, I would probably be a completely different person.