What is this Thrift Club you reference? Is this something local I can get involved in!?!? Info would be appreciated, dmdiller@gmail.com

Being thrifty and watching what you spend is completely un-American. By being thrifty, you cost the world jobs because less is sold, which means less is made. You keep the US government from getting bigger and bigger in its attempt of becoming a complete nanny state. If you can take care of yourself, what is there for the government to do?

Speaking as a Scot, thrift is definitely a virtue to be admired. But seriously Lori – you’re surprised that many Americans haven’t heard of the word?

According to UN statistics from a few short years ago, the USA consumes roughly 25% of all energy produced on the planet, despite the CIA factbook saying it has less than 5% of the global population?

I’m not bashing America, but the thrift movement has a hell of a long way to go if it wants to make meaningful change in a country this imbalanced!

Delayed gratification is usually a product of practice or perceived necessity. As far as frugality goes, most Americans are out of practice and may not realize that it is in some ways a necessity (due to limited resources).

However, some of us also do apply a little skepticism when looking at the sources of this information or certain ideological currents within the piece, i.e. linking thrift with religion or advancing the political agenda of the very creepy (to me anyway) John Templeton (whose foundation gets a double mention here, and he gets several links from this article, as he is prominently featured in the new thrift dot org site and and his book is sold in the National Thrift Week website).

I’m all for tasting the bait (it’s good bait, thrift is good), but I’ll skip the Templeton line, hook and sinker. There is no shame in exercising critical thinking.

1) @Sara, #26. The coffee is not really “free,” it’s just that McDonald’s is trading their coffee for a bit of your attention. Really, they just want to get you into the restaurant (and I use that term loosely). What you do once you are there is up to you: buy a muffin, another coffee, or never come back.

2) In general, regarding thrift as an “American Value.” How can any one forget Pres. Bush’s exhortation after the September 11th, 2001, attacks that the patriotic thing to do was to keep spending? The economy was in danger of falling due to consumer fears and Bush practically drove the American people to the mall and said, “Don’t come back without an armful of stuff.” So it’s no surprise to me that when the equation spending = loving your country is made that thrift goes out the window.

As a reader of GRS from Norway, I found this a quite interesting post.

Norwegians are known for being thrifty, so I can assure you this is an accurate claim.

Many years ago when Norwegians moved to the US, Norway was one of the poorest countries in Europe. So people moved to the US looking for opportunities.

Today Norway is one of the wealthiest nations in the world. This is mainly due to oil though – not the virtue of thrift alone

http://www.voxeu.org/index.php?q=node/1199

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2004024446_norway20.html

It used to be that you worked hard so that you get get ahead financially and make a better life for your family than the life you had. Now, I think Americans work just as hard, but they feel they deserve to reward themselves for their hard work in the form of spending.

A lot of people have not experienced true hardship in their lives until recently so the idea of saving for a rainy day was completely dumb. Hopefully some good will come out of this downturn and that’ll be preparedness for the next one.

It is even worse, at the end of the message, also Thor is mentioned. Indeed, secularity all the way

While many Americans don’t practice thrift today, it does seem to be to be one of the LOST American values… something that we used to have, when we lived life closer to the bone, and that we now pay lip service to when it’s convenient. I think it’s instructive to think about the practices of our grandparents in this way.

I suppose my grandparents could be called thrifty, at least from the stories my mother’s told me about her childhood. She had many siblings so they couldn’t afford to waste anything. I doubt they called it “thrift”–they were poor and just trying to survive. Mom’s hardworking parents were uneducated sharecroppers so despite their thrifty lifestyle, they remained poor until they died–quite young. It’s an unfortunate legacy passed down that I, my siblings and cousins still struggle to break free of today. Not knocking thrift, just pointing out that thrift alone is not an automatic path to prosperity, at least in my experience.

I do agree with Michael in Missouri – thrift is a great value, one of my own for sure, but to hear about its virtues on the platform of a political and religious “think tank” makes me uncomfortable.

Also, to consider it an American Value feels like truthspeak from 1984. Sure, it is one of the boy scout values, but in practice America is probably the least thrifty country I have been to or lived in. What retirebyforty is saying rings very true – what I think the majority of Americans are practicing now is not truly thrift but “gaming” the system to look for deals, and squeezing the maximum material goods out of the minimum outlay – not reflecting on what is really needed.

I think it’s all in the upbringing. If you learned to be thrifty early in life, it will always stick with you. It’s a lot harder to learn when you are an adult.

However, I feel we need to throw some thrift at the public sector. That would be good for the economy- if governmental bodies became more efficient, wasted less money, made the most of what they already had, they wouldn’t have to lay off public employees to save cash.

I think we can all promote thrift without somehow claiming it to be an “American Value” and then attaching to it all sorts of other politicized positions. Thrift is not just an American value, actually; in fact one of the reasons this blog exists is precisely because so many Americans have lost the gist of thrift.

I enjoy GRS a lot, but am a little troubled by finding this here.

Absolutely wonderfully made point!!!

Thrift does not mean denying one’s self the necessities of life, rather many of the UNnecessities of life.

Thanks!

Oh just go crawl back into your primordial soup and discuss thrift with the relatives.
———–
Wonderful post! I think that “Simplification” or “Living a Simple life” is synonomous with “Thrift.”

If everyone lived well below their means, we wouldn’t be in this economic mess.

I lure citizens to the “dark side” of thrift with the benefits. I find valuable treasures in yard sales, dumpsters, and curb sides. My home features quality supplies, books, furniture, and electronics; most of it free, some of it dirt-cheap.

I save hundreds with creativity and staying true to my “Buy Nothing New” pledge for 2011. Thrift isn’t just a lifestyle, it’s as fun as a video game once embrace the challenge of beating your “high score” by saving more every week.