Has the Recession made the American consumer thriftier?
2009 October 11
From the New Yorker, by James Surowiecki
For all the uncertainty about the current state of the economy, everyone is sure of one thing: this recession has permanently remade American consumers, turning them from spendthrifts into tightwads. From cover stories on “The New Frugality” to stories about cheapness as a new status symbol and pundits’ repeated analogies to the lessons inculcated by the Great Depression, the message is the same: there has been a fundamental change in American consumer behavior, one that will endure after the recession ends, returning us, as one economist put it, to “the days of ‘Leave It to Beaver.’ ” Continue reading…
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I used to have somewhat of a compulsive shopping problem. I had an overflowing apartment and an overflowing storage unit. I had money, and I didn’t spend beyond my means, but I wasn’t saving any money. Then I got poor very quickly. It took me awhile to adapt, and I racked up a huge credit card debt within my first few months of being unemployed. I’ve since changed my ways, but I’m still poor. I have become VERY thrifty. Many Americans are in similar situations (though probably not at either of my extremes) so I can definitely see how spending habits would change on a large, nationwide scale.
I don’t know…. There are a good many people I know who act as if the economy never took a downturn. They’re eating pricey restaurant dinners, buying the tech gadgets they think they need and generally acting oblivious to the concerns of their unemployed friends. Not to be a downer. But that’s me, lately. I’m one of the unemployed ones (i.e., tightwads).