thinky thoughts, and connecting things i read today
The Leap to Cheap (a slight misnomer- perhaps the Leap to Intelligent Practicality and Inventiveness would be more accurate)
The YMCA and other civic groups launched National Thrift Week in 1916 to promote frugality "For Success and Happiness"-or so the official slogan proclaimed. Thrift Week celebrations were held throughout the land, and they included sexy-sounding events such as Have a Bank Account Day and Pay Bills Promptly Day.
National Thrift Week had a long run-until 1966. That year, it so happens, "Time" magazine ran a cover story entitled "What's Good for the Economy." An excerpt: "For 62 fat months, prosperity has fed itself because Americans have spent, lent, borrowed and invested with confidence. They have felt correctly that jobs, production, profits and paychecks would continue to go up and up." Meanwhile, household debt as a percentage of disposable income had nearly doubled since 1950, from roughly 35 percent to nearly 70 percent. Thrift Week had been replaced by a newer national mandate for success and happiness: Spend more than you can afford, and our economy will boom. [emphasis mine]
It's funny- I grew up with "use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without" and still got sidetracked into 'Buy now, Pay later' even though I had extreme reservations: and now, paying off the 'bought then,' living so that I can travel rather than acquire, I find myself wearing things until they can't be mended, then cutting them up to repurpose, and it's so satisfying- much more satisfying than The Fashionomics of Retail Begging I read about today. What's the 'later payment' for that kind of living in the world? Because there is one. An equal but opposite reaction, I think it's called, in thermodynamics. . .
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results… But, no one actually ever does that- do they? That would be … Insane.
I'll shrink my life until it fits within my means again, thanks, even if that means living with friends, driving an old car (when I can't walk or take public transit), and mending my clothes. The relief from insanity is worth it to me. I tried the life of The Fisherman and his wife and, having ended up in my (relative) hovel again, this time I'll work and save myself into a nice cottage. It'll be so much simpler, and a lot more fun for both sides of my self, Fisherman and Wife.
http://slashfairy.dreamwidth.org/579272.html |
comments | Comment at Dreamwidth
The YMCA and other civic groups launched National Thrift Week in 1916 to promote frugality "For Success and Happiness"-or so the official slogan proclaimed. Thrift Week celebrations were held throughout the land, and they included sexy-sounding events such as Have a Bank Account Day and Pay Bills Promptly Day.
National Thrift Week had a long run-until 1966. That year, it so happens, "Time" magazine ran a cover story entitled "What's Good for the Economy." An excerpt: "For 62 fat months, prosperity has fed itself because Americans have spent, lent, borrowed and invested with confidence. They have felt correctly that jobs, production, profits and paychecks would continue to go up and up." Meanwhile, household debt as a percentage of disposable income had nearly doubled since 1950, from roughly 35 percent to nearly 70 percent. Thrift Week had been replaced by a newer national mandate for success and happiness: Spend more than you can afford, and our economy will boom. [emphasis mine]
It's funny- I grew up with "use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without" and still got sidetracked into 'Buy now, Pay later' even though I had extreme reservations: and now, paying off the 'bought then,' living so that I can travel rather than acquire, I find myself wearing things until they can't be mended, then cutting them up to repurpose, and it's so satisfying- much more satisfying than The Fashionomics of Retail Begging I read about today. What's the 'later payment' for that kind of living in the world? Because there is one. An equal but opposite reaction, I think it's called, in thermodynamics. . .
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results… But, no one actually ever does that- do they? That would be … Insane.
I'll shrink my life until it fits within my means again, thanks, even if that means living with friends, driving an old car (when I can't walk or take public transit), and mending my clothes. The relief from insanity is worth it to me. I tried the life of The Fisherman and his wife and, having ended up in my (relative) hovel again, this time I'll work and save myself into a nice cottage. It'll be so much simpler, and a lot more fun for both sides of my self, Fisherman and Wife.
http://slashfairy.dreamwidth.org/579272.html |
comments | Comment at Dreamwidth