Architect Louis Sullivan illustrated the link when he “carved the word THRIFT over the door of his ‘jewel box’ nearly a century ago, for it was private virtue that made public prosperity possible.” (Oct. 2008, Time magazine)
Also, the Concise Oxford dictionary lists the following key words beside ‘thrift’ and ‘thrifty’:
frugality
economical management
thriving
prosperous
As well, from personal experience; when I wanted a new transistor radio in the mid-1960s my mother told me to save twice as much as the purchase price of $44.
So I did, and learned a valuable lesson, i.e., saving money is hard work but it pays off when you want to listen to your own tunes when you’re sitting on the beach in Long Point, Ontario during summer break.
(At present, I’m saving $4,000 for a trip to Esquimalt and Comox, B.C.; not a penny will go on plastic or line of credit and I’ll listen to tunes on a pristine 10 transistor radio all the way out and back).
But, thrift is dead it seems, and the list of ‘usual suspects’ is long and includes individual consumers, economists, government and business leaders and corporations.
I started saying something (it wasn’t good) about corporations yesterday and believe they must be the worst of the bunch. Thrift and prosperity takes on a whole new meaning behind board room doors and not one thought concerning the individual or family is involved.
["THRIFT - RIP, old buddy": photos GH]
For example:
“The private sector’s industrialized vision of agriculture - which is all about mass production, large machines, and a great deal of artificial additives - is in the same optimistic tradition (...as other big industrialized programs imposed on the developing world by the World Bank, which destabilized rural areas and created vast slums).”
“Curiously enough, this vision has always included large public subsidies. What those who live in the West have seen is that this industrialized approach to agriculture can produce food surpluses, but drives the farming population off the land, bankrupts smaller communities and, at the end of day, leaves even the largest producers struggling to break even.
“The real profits of the last quarter-century have gone to the managerial organizations - the middlemen - wholesalers and large retail distributors of machinery, additives and bulk food.
“The implications for the developing world are enormous. In low-income countries, 70 per cent of employment is agricultural, in middle-income 30 per cent. In the West it is 4 per cent, and, even at that, the sector has been in permanent financial and human crisis since the ‘70s.
“The application of industrial agricultural methods to low- and middle-income countries is a recipe for social catastrophe. Yet that is the dream of open markets.
“The most efficient will win out.” (The Collapse of Globalism, pg. 86 - 87)
Youch.
Let’s recap the corporate method:
fewer jobs
dependence on fossil fuel
unnatural products
subsidies funded by taxpayers
community bankruptcies
vast sums for middlemen
catastrophe for low- and middle-income countries
Nothin’ but good news, eh?
When I began writing about THRIFT, I didn’t realize the virtue had so many enemies, i.e., from the individual (and oft-times insignificant) consumer to the largest of corporations.
In spite of that, all is not lost. In pockets here and there, thrift remains a virtue. And shortly after the next recession it will likely make a healthy comeback.
In my humble opinion, when the meek inherit the earth, the thrifty will be right behind them.
Until then, let’s live under our means and strive for happiness apart from things and material goods.
***
Is this a good time to repeat my mantra?
“Reduce spending, pay down debts and save money for tough times ahead.”
Yeah, it fits right in.
THRIFT PT 1
THRIFT PT 2
THRIFT PT 3
THRIFT PT 4
THRIFT PT 5
.
No comments:
Post a Comment