"Excess is the subject of this book," writes Taylor, "and the enemy which I shall try to invite you to fight year in and year out. It confronts us in our rich countries whichever aspect of our situation we look at -- our consumption of food and our accumulation of goods, our wage claims and price rises, our waste and pollution, the concentration and congestion of our cities, our destruction of living creatures and our plunder of fuels and minerals, our expenditure on armaments and the wanton disproportion of the way we use them -- excess is the word that comes continually to mind: ruthless, unbridled, unthinking excess. We are being made to expect too much. We are taking too much. We are scrapping too much. We are paying, and compelling others to pay, far too high a price." Taylor's words speak to the Quaker testimony of Simplicity, as well as Environment.