The Frugality of the People in Bad Economies: Can America Make it Last?

At the beginning of this new year of 2009, the media is starting to note a severe (or maybe serene) change in the American people due to a collapsing economy. If you read the headlines daily from all the major newspapers, you'll see articles about how Americans are producing less garbage, shopping wiser, eating less and ridding themselves of things in their life they don't need. In other words, it's the things that would make God smile and the devil grimace in pain...depending on your point of view. The media hasn't hesitated, though, to mention the downsides of these things, particularly the problems of people not buying things in retail stores and the prospect of states losing money from the lack of recycling in refuse centers. But no matter the financial dangers of these, there isn't any denying that the changes seen lately by our populace is the most profound in several generations, if not ever.

It shouldn't be any denying that Americans have been in complacency mode for years, arguably since the days of when America crawled itself out of the quicksand of the Great Depression. Even during other economic downturns in the 1970's and early 90's, there wasn't a dramatic shift in how people live their lives than there has been just in the last year. We're seeing the very palpable results of fear and panic changing people for the better.

And this should prove to everybody that human beings have a natural propensity toward changing their lives when under the duress of possibly having serious financial difficulty. The assumption may have been at one time that Americans weren't capable of it and would instigate nervous breakdowns if they found out they had to cut their grocery bill down as well as not being able to buy that Blu-Ray player for perhaps another year or two. It's obvious, though, that there's still some out there who've lived in the complacent wealth world of having Christmas shopping every day of their lives who'd still have a conniption at the thought they'd have to cut their luxuries by half or more.

There seems to be plenty of evidence, however, that even those people are managing to adjust. It's the American mode of survival that's been in dormant mode for decades and finally revealing that it goes into a logical frame of mind during moments in time when there's a crisis. With rumors for decades that profound secrets are kept from Americans via our own governing bodies due to feared panic (one of the more interesting oxymoron phrases around)--perhaps Americans are finally passing a test of how well we can function when things are going wrong.

Nevertheless, I think we'd all admit that the test is far from over...

Americans don't have a precedent to go on with the above yet. The ultimate question comes in whether we'll continue to be more frugal in what we buy and how we live after such a prolonged test of our endurance.

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Well, if you go by world history, the above scenario might lead to the corollary of complacency always returning, no matter how long the time frame of going through hell. The only human beings on the planet who seem to have a sustained change in how they live their life are those who've gone to war and witnessed horrors we can't comprehend. WWII vets, for instance, came back to civilian life with altered viewpoints on the entire meaning of life as well as their own lives. Most to all led (and continue to lead) their lives in more meaningful ways while concurrently fighting the nightmares of what they went through. You'll find few to none war veterans who live a life of complacency.

These are the types who are probably dealing with a troubled economy in a way that doesn't faze them in the least. For those who've never had to be in survival mode, they're getting their education right now. Yet a financial crisis perhaps isn't enough to change a life forever. After a decade and a flourishing economy returning, the automatic assumption might be that those who weathered the storm will go back to being the way they were before the economic nightmare.

Certainly ancient cultures hold clues to this, particularly the cultures that rose and fell as much as a stock on the NYSE. Ancient Egyptians had their downfalls and would always garner other generations who, while working hard in advancing culture, would live ultimately prosperously. The same can be said of all the economic classes of Europeans in the Middle Ages who continued to enjoy life to the fullest even after the worst plagues and disintegration to their culture and economic status.

For Americans, the only closest link would be to the generation who went through the Great Depression of the 1930's. That generation ultimately turned more complacent in the 1950's and 60's while their children turned rebellious and turned materialistic into the 1960's through the 1980's. While that Great Depression generation was prosperous through a better economic structure in the 1950's, they still lived within their means and, in many cases, abhorred the way their children lived into later decades. Sure, that also bred a million "Back in my day..." stories at family dinner parties.

If this is what we have to go on, then does it provide an answer as to whether current Americans will continue on a road of more frugal living in future decades? All the evidence shows that we'll be in economic decline for an indefinite long time. If it's for more than five years and we get used to obliterating excess, the evidence might be we'll stick to the plan rather than devolving.

Or, we could essentially define Americans as always eating the cake when we have it...plus buying more. When we're allowed to eat plenty of cake and see it advertised plentifully, it might be impossible for us to change. On the other hand, there could be plenty of pain to be had in our faltering economy that could nearly equate to the throes of battle in war. Keeping those memories for life may later change a lot of Americans enough to render the word "complacent" meaningless....

Source:

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-trash25-2009jan25,0,5224653.story