Inconspicuous Consumption

What can be said when we need a magazine with the name REAL SIMPLE to help us to have at least the illusion that we can manage just fine with a lot less? Real Simple was started in 2001, in a period when people seemed engulfed in buying more and more stuff. About a decade before that, there had been a mini-backlash against conspicuous consumption, but there was no heart in it. Now the push to Less is More not only has heart, it has teeth.

And there the magazine is now, staring at you, simply; mocking you as you wait on the checkout line, because if you need a magazine to tell you how to live simply, you’re too far gone.

It is not just a Gift to be Simple. It is now a necessity.

Shopping and Spending.....Less

Bloomberg.com recently published a timely article with the title U.S. Luxury Retailers Face Grimmest Holiday Season:

“Luxury retailers may suffer the industry's biggest reversal of fortune during the holidays as the global financial crisis dents the wealth of the richest Americans…For five years luxury retailers outpaced low-priced chains. The projected drop this year would be the group's first since 2002, the year the ICSC [International Council of Shopping Centers trade group] began keeping the records.
Among the sectors, discounters may see the biggest improvement this holiday season, more than doubling their gain in sales at stores open at least a year to 2.5 percent from 1.1 percent a year earlier, the group estimated.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aL0rwl_zsfWk&refer=home

And indeed, retailers like Target and Walmart seem to understand that is they are going to get anyone to buy anything this holiday season, so consumers have to think they are being virtuously thrifty while doing it. Notice the television ads for discounters Walmart and Targer, and Kmart—Layaway—who thought that would make a comeback?

Still another opinion....

From Matt in Mass.

".... haven't read exactly what it consists of yet. The one thing I do feel though is that NONE of the ceo's or cfo's that helped ruin these companies should get one dime of a bonus or buy out or however it is dubbed. The other thing is [that this is not really] another failed policy of George Bush since it was Bill Clinton and Barney Frank who set this in motion during Clinton's presidency......"

More thoughts from readers on the Bailout

From MB, who lives in PA

Obviously, I'm pissed like most middle to lower class citizens that I need to use my money to bail out all those rich people.

All the financial heads seem to walk away with hundreds of millions when they should be in jail!

I don't ask for much, I just want the price of gas lower and my mutual funds to be worth at least what I put in, not less!

More Opinions from readers on the Bailout

From AB, trying to make a living in FL

NO BAILOUTS!!!!!
There comes a time when the piper must be paid. The individuals who have caused this set of circumstances should be tried and punished and the CEOs should return their ill gotten goods.

Opinions from Readers on the Bailout

From "DAC - Montclair, NJ:


Even before Ronald Reagan, supply side economics and the "trickle down" theory of economics have proven time and time again to be disastrous for the American people, producing massive national debt, rampant corporate greed with unaccountability and massive American taxpayer bailouts.
Yet, Republicans continue to point to Democrats over and over again as providing too much government and too much regulatory oversight as the problem. It may be true that this government bailout is necessary to save the American financial from it's own manufactured demise, but responsible government leaders must HEAVILY regulate the deal. They must make sure those responsible for reckless corporate management do not profit in any way (including through previously negotiated compensation contracts) and that the American taxpayer PROFITS from any benefit. And may all Americans recognize that we are looking at the end result of what Republicans propose for private Social Security accounts - corporate greed, corruption and another massive taxpayer bailout when it comes crashing down.

Let's learn something for a change!

Un-Buffeted by Over-Indulgence

Granted, many are using their credit card for used Mother Nature never intended—buying groceries and gas—and how else to get these things when paychecks and interest rates are not keeping pace with the costs of basic living? But as more and more people continue to expand their revolving debt (credit card—think stuck in a spinning revolving door) for stuff they really don’t need, but perhaps have grown accustomed to during the recent spend, splurge and spoil years, kind of like a New Age Roaring Twenties, it is almost refreshing to read how someone who could probably buy half the world feels about such expenditure.

Here are some excerpts from an interview conducted by Christoph Pauly and Janko Tietz and published in Der Spiegel this weekend [ http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,556114,00.html ] . Among other things, Warren Buffett explained why he doesn’t feel the need to live large:

SPIEGEL: You have pledged about half of your fortune to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. What happens with the other half?

Buffett: In addition to the Gates Foundation, I have pledged money to four other foundations. So far, 80 percent of my stock holdings have been firmly committed to these five organizations. I have promised that I would ultimately donate every one of my shares in Berkshire Hathaway. My will clearly specifies what will happen to the remaining shares. But I can still change this decision while I'm alive.

SPIEGEL: You are the richest man in the world…

Buffett: … maybe not anymore…

SPIEGEL: Let's not argue about a few billion. How does your immense wealth affect your everyday life?

Buffett: I have everything I need. But that's also the way I felt at 25, when I didn't have that much money yet. I have a wonderful family. I have a job that I love and wonderful people who help me with it. It can't get any better than that.

SPIEGEL: You have no interest in a new mansion in Omaha, or perhaps a luxury house at the beach? After all, you've been living in the same house for decades.

Buffett: I don't need 15 houses. Owning real estate doesn't mean much to me. I don't like to think about things like that. I don't need 12 boats, or even the world's largest boat with a crew of 80. I'd have to take care of them, to worry about them. I get a lot more fun out of life without all the bells and whistles.


Yep, those bells and whistles seem to eventually rust and fall apart so maybe it is just better to not get too used to them. Just stick with the basics. The basics are priced pretty much like luxuries these days anyway.

The Economy Imitating Art

In May, The Vulture by Francis Bacon could be auctioned at Sotheby’s for as much as $70 million, which would be a record. The Vulture is a triptych based on the tragic trilogy of Orestes.
Suffice it to say that a curse figures in the myth and it seems as if we all are in dire need of placating the Furies.
May--where we all be, economically speaking—in May? The Lusty Month of Camelot may prove to be tepid, if we are lucky, and devastating if we are not. How low will interest rates be by then? (A double-edged sword, low interest rates—good for spenders but bad for savers—and aren’t we always told we don’t save enough? Why bother?) How high will the price of a gallon of gas or a loaf of bread be? How many people will be out of their homes—their real homes—not “investments to live in” as one realty company was so proud to proclaim during the boom. How many people will be out of work and how many of us will be even more discouraged about our futures? How big a chunk of the U.S. will Sovereign Funds claim?
A record price for “The Vulture” will be very nice for the collector selling it. But the vultures waiting around to pick up the pieces of the U.S. economy, while serving a practical purpose, will leave it forever changed.

Take My Rebate, Please!

And speaking of the economy….what about those rebate checks? I have been hearing about that rebate check for so long I feel as if it has come and already been spent. No, wait. It actually already has been spent. I figure the rebate check just about might be enough to cover either:

2 deliveries of home heating oil
Or
1 month of groceries for a thrifty family of 4, if they are all on a diet
Or
20 tanks of gas for some kind of car somewhere
Or
2 root canals
Or
Some combination of the above.

Point is, if the Government thinks anyone who gets a rebate check is going to run off to the nearest Ford Dealership or Target or Sears to make a major purchase to goose this foot-dragging economy, it is mistaken.
That money has already been spent. It will go to pay off the interest on the purchases of that stuff people made last year when they thought this latest boom would never end.

Copyright 2008 Kathryn Fallon klaatukafe