Saving Money

I think that the facts, past and present, clearly demonstrate that ours is inherently NOT a society of savers.  We can easily conjure images of country-western living of 100 years ago or more and clearly visualize cozy households adorably accented by the trappings of the period.

The only thing is that we now know that many of the items we see in that image were purchased and that the purchase was likely done over time and on credit! Leveraging debt has been a feature of the American character form the very earliest days and continues to remain a key part of American culture.  But there have always been voices of dissent.  And although they grew ever weaker until their silence, they are worth a brief mention. Thrift and frugality were thought by some to be among the most important virtues to cultivate.  Some even took an almost pious perspective to the idea of thrift and saving in their belief that careless spending and needless consumption were gluttony and were therefore sinful.

In 1849 one commentator wrote of those who shopped at thrift stores in order to save on certain purchases “These establishments are much frequented by economical housekeepers afflicted with that most melancholy of all distempers, a mania for cheap bargains; and many a dollar is paid for ‘cheap' articles which, in a few weeks, become utterly and irrecoverably useless, while the deluded purchaser is congratulating herself upon the excellent bargain she has made.” The problem that these critics faced was their own hypocrisy.  Period statistics demonstrate that while a large percentage of Americans did believe that it was wise and good to be thrifty it was also found that they admitted to being less than candid regarding their financial affairs and particularly their level of indebtedness.

In fact, a census undertaken in the late 1900’s in inquiry of this very topic had, after a brief inauguration, to be cancelled entirely as it was found that targeted respondents were frequently prone to lose patience with survey takers who hazarded into this area of investigation.  And nothing that followed ever came close to slowing, satisfying or replacing the American passion for continuous spending.

Post-WW I American society is largely characterized by the peoples’ desire to spend freely and to “live-it-up”.  Published journalists of the time articulated this sentiment, declaring that that, “thrift was un-American.”  The end of the Second World War saw consumerism reach theretofore unthinkable proportions.  People were just more eager to enjoy life while they could rather than to assume everything would be all right in 20 or 30 years. Most every American today is familiar with the idea of thrift and many believe that it is a morally admirable virtue.

Occasional articles in the financial pages even point out how certain levels of saving can be maintain the health of a nation’s economy.  Yet I would bet that most see the concept of thrift in the context of the value resulting from a good deal and would characterize the idea of saving for it own sake as old fashioned and out of date.