Conspicuous consumption is no longer cool
The New York Times published an interesting article in today's paper about how conspicuous consumption is suddenly gauche. In hard times, showing off the latest and greatest trendy gear now smacks of showing etither a distinct lack of common sense or gross insensitivity to people who have lost their jobs and are really struggling.
This has happened before. According to the article, frugality was in after the stock market collapsed in the 1980's, and it briefly reared its head again after 9/11, at least until our fearless leader exhorted us to all show our patriotism by going shopping. In those instances, however, the change to a more frugal mindset was a blip on the radar, not a lasting social change.
It was different in 1929. For some people, the changes they made to survive lasted for the rest of their lives. The article noted that many people who came out of the Great Depression developed and firmly clung to a mindset that one doesn't flaunt one's success, and one definitely doesn't waste money or resources, no matter what.
Coming of age in the late 1980's and being an adult in times of massive conspicuous consumption, I would find it hard to believe that people could live with this mentality, except for one thing: the New York Times' description of the Depression mentality is a bang-on description of my parents. I wrote about what this mentality is like before, so I won't cover old ground. What interests me is whether the mindset I described in that post is likely to become the norm again, as it was in the thirties and during World War II. I'm not so sure it will, to be honest. I think we're just seeing the beginning of Great Depression-like suffering; if things get better in the relatively near term, I think most people will shake it off like a bad dream and go back to their old habits. If things stay bad for a very long time, though, we might see the new frugal mindset become more ingrained. In other words, it's too early to tell.
As for me, I learned from two frugal masters and started practicing simple living myself as a broke-ass grad student, so I'm just going to keep on doing what I'm doing for the most part.
Tell me about how the economic crisis is changing your outlook on your lifestyle. Are you making major changes now? If so, do you think they'll remain part of your life even when times are better?
6 retorts. What say you?
my habits haven't changed, although I feel a little relieved that we started downshifting before we were forced to do so by the economic situation. our jobs are not as market-sensitive as most poeple's , but they're hard to come by if not hard to keep. the notion of frugality being 'stylish ' kind of annoys me, it's like those indie rockers that eschew commercial goods but judge everyone based on what they consume (music, clothes) anyway.
to truly be simple, one would eschew conspicuous consumption not to be seen in a certain way, but to live according to a certain ethos.
(huff of annoyance) .
great thoguhts! i too am curious how this will pan out.
Ok, I'm reading the article, and I just had to come back. "Instead, they plan to have a party at home, with defrosted White Castle cheeseburgers served on silver trays." Are you serious? you can't be serious. Please tell me it's a joke. Gaaaah! Academic papers could be written on this article. The sociologists would be all over it. The fetish of poverty, at its best.
(cringes)
I became interested in frugal living a few years ago, and came across books like The Complete Tightwad Gazette to help me learn more.
Unfortunately, I haven't made enough changes since then - at least not long term ones. I go through spurts and stops, but I can admit to having much firmer plans for future changes.
We certainly don't eat out as much, and I just gave up my Wednesday bowling league and some of our additional recreational bowling. We don't go to our favorite lounge to date as much, while playing our favorite bar-top video games.
I also JUST started buying store-brand products when shopping for groceries, and I check unit prices on everything. I made sure to apply for a savings card at our grocer, and our last food bill was reduced by over $40. I caught some unbelievable sales, which I never cared about before.
I am about to make some serious changes with our TV/internet/phone services to make sure I'm getting the best prices. I'm willing to just about give up cable, but the fiance and the boys would seriously protest.
I could name more, but I'd be blogging in your comments. LOL
Thanks for another great blog post.
Hawa, author of
Fackin Truth Blog (Personal Blog)
and
Cleanse Master Remix (Health Blog)
I'm glad we've been frugal all along. The interesting thing is that people are now asking me how to do it. I have found that many of our friends are now switching to the frugal side of things.
I read that article too, and I completely agree with their point about people who came out of the great depression sticking to the mindset of saving every resource they could. My grandparents for example would eat some of the weirdest objects I had ever seen or heard of, never wasting anything. My grandma is famous in our family for using one chicken to make something like 8 meals, on a frequent basis. When I was younger I thought it was embarassing, but now, after being stuck behind SUV's with 4 TV's inside them and seeing over 1000 advertisements a day for years, I'm just insanely impressed with her resolution.
neimanmarxist - eh, the White Castle burgers on silver platters don't bother me. Anyone who eventually embraces frugality arrives by his or her own path.
Hawa - the changes you've made are pretty impressive! Doing too much too quickly can backfire; slow and steady is a much better way to ease into new habits over the long term.
susy - Yeah, some people ask me how to do it now as well. They still usually look at me like I'm nuts when I tell them some of the more extreme things I do to cut costs.
alex - Your grandparents sound very much like my parents. I'm glad you developed a healthy respect for their choices. It also took me quite a while to come to terms and (mostly) embrace my parents' way of living as well.
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