(Editor's note: Prayer ask, please. I received a call from my cousin today. My aunt (my mother's brother's life) went to the hospital yesterday for jaundice. They diagnosed her today with Pancreatic cancer, stage unknown at this point. Prayers and good thoughts for Pat would be deeply appreciated.)
As I continued to sit and think about the cost of how much I spent to feed myself, it ran in some interesting questions. In fact, in made me realize how little I tend to buy at all at this point.
For example, clothing. I likely have enough clothes to last me the rest of my life - for almost every situation. Other than those things that tend to wear - socks, underwear, even jeans - the only sorts of clothes I would buy are those sorts of things that tickle my fancy (vests and vintage Japanese kimonos fall into this category).
Books? I am always up for another book, but in point of fact I am always up for another book. Can I make a solid case for needing another? Errr.....
The rest of the things I might purchase fall into the category of occasional needs: the unfun things of life like household cleaners or an oil change or new tires or pet food (and a surprising amount of pet snacks) - at some level things I must have to accomplish a task.
A reduced income helps with all of this prioritization of course, both in determining what can truly be afforded as well as making a sincere effort to extend whatever one has to the maximum extent possible.
For myself of course, there is little "concern": I am perfectly happy living this relatively simple version of reality. But what, I wondered, are the economic impacts of such a lifestyle. What would the impact of hundreds of thousands or even millions living this sort of lifestyle be on the economy?
The best figure I could find at the time of this was that 80.2% of the US Labor force is in Services and 18% are in Manufacturing (Thanks, Wikipedia). I am not quite sure what that actually breaks down to in real life, but the old saw of 70% of the American public working in retail or services may not be too far off the mark. So what happens if the American public seized up on their spending?
We have seen an example of this in the past, of course: The Plague and its results. I do not have a lot hard data on the total loss of jobs and industries (it seems a bit hard to locate on a quick search, oddly), but colloquially we all know of people who lost their jobs or even their businesses. In that case it was because of government mandates; what would it look like if it was a voluntary action?
I have no idea, of course - but I can imagine. Businesses would close - those that were totally discretionary in nature first (restaurants and entertainment venues come to mind here), with escalations from there based on need: most need a haircut at some point and places that supply basic parts or materials like auto parts stores, grocery stores, or farm supply will likely be higher up on the list than designer clothes stores (or malls in general). And likely the government at some point would get involved as well - after all, those tax dollars do not generate themselves. I can see our political critters as well as "key influencers" out there telling us that spending money is the patriotic thing to do.
Is it? I am not sure. I suppose it depends on the definition of that sort of "patriotism"; to me more and more, it seems much closer to home.
Another really interesting post, TB. You use the Plague as an example, but I'm guessing inflation is now the reality knocking at the door for a lot of folks nowadays.
ReplyDeleteOur experience is the same as yours. As income decreases, spending analysis increases. It rather forces one to prioritize, although I've known folks who put it all on the credit card (even paying monthly bills) because surely things will get better or else they can just declare bankruptcy and start with a clean slate.
But, you're speaking of a voluntary decrease on the part of people. I know for Dan and me, decreased quality of goods has caused us to stop buying certain items because we can't afford to replace them every 6 to 12 months. We have to explore alternatives and sometimes do without. I feel fortunate that our decline in income was gradual over several years as it gave us (me especially) time to adjust.
Coincidentally, I touched on this very subject recently on a forum that I read. Someone mentioned that we should be focusing on increasing income over saving and investing as a way to build wealth more rapidly and asking why the focus is always on saving and investing. While I feel that saving and investing are much easier and involve less risk than increasing income which involves a lot of risk, I felt that the fastest way to increase wealth is to decrease consumerism. All around me, I see people buying hugely expensive things like houses and vehicles that are way more than needed, just to fit in to society. It also touches every single one of us. You have your kimonos and I have my wood working tools. If we just all learned to consume less and be happy with what we have, I think we would all be very wealthy, albeit the economy would be trashed as you correctly pointed out. So in the end, I hope there are only a few of us who realize this and reap the rewards.
ReplyDeleteEven before status changed from "employed" to "retired" spending underwent a thorough examination though having the home mortgage paid off last year helped a bit...... :) However having street reconstruction done in the neighborhood for the last three months means a "special assessment"........ :( The only items that I've increased consumption on are lead, steel and brass......:)
ReplyDelete