My motivation for tiny house living is this passage from The Unsettling of America
A system of specialization requires the abdication to specialists of various competences and responsibilities that were once personal and universal…
This supposedly fortunate citizen is therefore left with only two concerns: making money and entertaining himself… The fact is, however, that this is probably the most unhappy average citizen in the history of the world. He has not the power to provide himself with anything but money, and his money is inflating like a balloon and drifting away, subject to historical circumstances and the power of other people. From morning to night he does not touch anything that he has produced himself, in which he can take pride. For all his leisure and recreation, he feels bad, he looks bad, he is overweight, his health is poor…
It is rarely considered that this average citizen is anxious because he ought to be - because he still has some gumption that he has not yet given up in deference to the experts. He ought to be anxious, because he is helpless…
In living in the world by his own will and skill, the stupidest peasant or tribesman is more competent than the most intelligent worker or technician or intellectual in a society of specialists.