Referencing the New York Times — When Consumers Cut Back -- Rod Dreher recently wrote Frugality is . . . the enemy? at his Crunchy Con blog. This produced an interesting series of comments, including this one by Yours Truly:
Regarding the statement — “Frugality is bad” — the first question to be asked is, “Bad for whom?” I submit that it is bad for the culture of death and gluttony, but good for a civilization of life, love, beauty, and wisdom. Frugality is a life raft to float our households to safety off the deck of a rapidly sinking Titanic. Those preaching that “Frugality is bad” would have us all stay on the deck and re-arrange the furniture, maybe paint the walls, and generally occupy our time with interior decoration while all around us the ship is sinking and the rough seas are rising. They would keep us all locked below decks in steerage, while the A-List Elites take our lifeboats and float their way to safety. (Recall that terribly poignant scene in the movie where the young Irish woman with flaming red hair cuddles her children in bed, telling them a story, as the waters rise, because they were locked below decks.) If people need any frugalista ideas, click on the link associated with my comment for the online version of the 5th edition of the Better Times Almanac of Useful Information, which has recipes and ideas for more simple, frugal, and sustainable living. http://www.bettertimesinfo.org/2004index.htm .)
This whole “frugality is bad” theme is coming up a lot these days. It is implicit in most of what the government is doing to rescue the rich from the present series of financial disasters.
But the idea that what’s good for individual families is “bad” for us as a collective, doesn’t pass the smell test. Our present terrible financial mess is the collective result of myriads of bad decisions made by hundreds of millions of people over long periods of time. It is not possible to rescue ourselves by encouraging people to make EVEN MORE bad choices. No, what should be encouraged are GOOD choices — like living within our means, frugality, and personal responsibility. Over time, better personal/household choices will produce a better overall macro-economic system.
What will that look like? Well I don’t know and I don’t know that anyone can know that. It will evolve over time, but because it rests on a stable foundation, it will be more stable over the long term. It will be an economic system that serves the common good — a radical concept I’m sure, but isn’t it about time for something as revolutionary as “economics for the common good”?
People talk about how terrible things were in Japan’s “lost decade”. Terrible for whom? The ordinary Japanese family has a high quality of life. We don’t read about riots in Japan over scarcity of goods, nobody is starving there, and if they are having a foreclosure crisis, that new hasn’t made it to the US media.
No, ordinary Japanese people are doing fine. The big time movers and shakers, however, have been making less money — and I suspect that a major reason for that is that Japanese households have been keeping more money for themselves. Thus, their economic security and quality of life are high.
And they have those strengths because of frugality.
Those here in the US who condemn frugality and publicly worry about its effects are carrying water for the same crooks, fools, thugs, and thieves who got us in the present mess. They don’t want us to strengthen our household economies, they want us to continue to feed their financial methamphetamine addiction.
Sure, there are consequences of household frugality for the present system. But it is going down for the count anyway. All of the present governmental effort are attempts to resuscitate a corpse.
A true financial rescue for our economy begins, literally, at home, as families get control of their budgets, increase their savings, and learn frugality and responsibility.
So yes, frugality is the enemy — of financial crooks, thugs, thieves, and fools.