The Virtue of Frugality

Barmeyoldbat

I went out today and managed to hide my beauty with a mask and my cycle helmet and gloves hid my bling.

I don’t need all that I hide my beauty under a mass of wrinkles and lines ….

Come to the Cotswolds Caleo and you will see the influx of so-called London money demonstrating that for some frugality is certainly not on the agenda. Our town centre is now permanently full with lines of brand new 4 x 4s and SUVs and Mercedes, even a Rolls Royce jostling for space and parking.

The local chat group bulges with requests for gardeners, landscapers, builders, dog and child care and recommendations for local restaurants and specialists of all sorts including recently, someone who could mend gold jewellery! As for the local shops, it sometimes feels like Bayswater in London used to, to me! I don't for a moment think frugality as a virtue has returned but I do think that some in the UK are having an increasingly hard time.

If you were to go to any city you will see plenty of wealth being flaunted. Drive around downtown Vancouver to see high end cars, clothing, purses, jewelry, etc.

I don't think frugality is seen as a virtue by very many.
I think wealth is something a lot of people aspire to, and are happy to show it off once achieved.

I don’t think frugality is a virtue, the virtue is self control.

But if you have more money than you know what to do with then self control isn't an issue. People get used to the level of income they have and we live in very affluent times.

Elegran

growstuff

AGAA4

If frugality equates to buying less 'stuff' that you don't need and not getting into debt then I'm all for it.

Sadly this doesn't seem to be happening.

It's not sad for the producers of the "stuff" which people could live without, which is a matter of opinion anyway. It's how modern economies work.

That is how modern economies are using up the globe's resources, but not feeding the world. You can't eat money, no matter how much of it governments print.

No, but the producers (workers) earn money, which pays for food. How about a "great reset", so that human effort is used to produce things which enhance people's lives?

Elegran

Taste does come into it, though. A taste for conspicuous consumption can be seen in those with very low income and no savings who still choose get into debt for the rest of the year so as to buy expensive Christmas presents.

Are these people immoral?

growstuff Who decides what enhances people's life? Your enhancement might be someone elses, unnecessary purchase.

Elegran People will go into debt at Christmas in order, just for a day, to forget their poverty.

My MiL had an absolute horror of secondhand clothes. Times were often tight when DH was a child, but while she could afford to buy new clothes when needed, they were managing. Secondhand clothes signalled poverty.

My parent's income meant we were comfortably above the poverty level and my mother had no qualms at all about dressing us (and herself) insecond hand clothes, whether hand-me-downs from friends or relations or bought in the Thrift Shop on the army bases where we live.

That is how modern economies are using up the globe's resources, but not feeding the world.

'Modern economies' that's us. We are the modern economy and we are doing the spending. Phrases like 'modern economies' are just ways of distancing ourselves from uncomfortable truths.

Message deleted by Gransnet. Here's a link to our Talk guidelines.

"growstuff Who decides what enhances people's life? Your enhancement might be someone elses, unnecessary purchase."

Why pick on me to answer the question?

How about a "great reset", so that human effort is used to produce things which enhance people's lives?

growstuff You wrote the above and I was responding to it.

my post was deleted. I wonder why? Wish they would tell you what you did wrong. It would be helpful to know. I read the guidelines but i'm none the wiser.

i wrote that? I don't remember writing that at all. Doesn't even sound like me. oh thats so strange. No -I see it was a poster called MOnica not me. I think there's been a mix up.

i dont know, im confused by it but if I upset anyone then I do apologise.

Casdon wrote:

"I don’t think frugality is a virtue, the virtue is self control."

I think the above implies virtue is that which make an individual good.
My claim about frugality implies virtue is that which benefits self and others.

Probably individuals who are frugal have self control. But maybe not so. Scrooge was frugal and his old self was not so much self -controlled as it was fearful and suspicious.

M0nica

^How about a "great reset", so that human effort is used to produce things which enhance people's lives?^

growstuff You wrote the above and I was responding to it.

The original concept of a "great reset" was about spending time and human effort on caring for each other rather than producing "stuff" which is very often not needed. Additionally, economies are judged by balance sheet statistics rather than the well-being of the people in societies served by economies.

Maybe people do differ about the relative importance of sitting on pots of gold rather than having friends and people to love.

JillyJosie2, thanks for the amusing picture of Cotswolds affluence.

Like the poor, the rich are always with us, and so is conspicuous consumption. I also admit it's not too difficult to be frugal when one can't buy or run the SUV and other luxuries.

Caleo, I think what really stunned me was the very shiny, turquoise, soft top Mercedes but I'm not a car buff so I don't know how unusual it was. It seemed to sum up the affluent life!

I agree

Self-control is particularly important.

Lucca

Barmeyoldbat

I went out today and managed to hide my beauty with a mask and my cycle helmet and gloves hid my bling.

I don’t need all that I hide my beauty under a mass of wrinkles and lines ….

Me too Lucca; I find it very effective as I wouldn't want to make everyone else envious of my beauty...

raaeft1

I agree

I see this thread was “revived” after an 18 month “”nap” with this comment. I wonder which particular bit of the thread was being agreed with? And why?
However, reading through I noted some posters of the past, particularly Lucca who I fear may be no longer with us. If you are, Lucca - just a wave would be nice, you are sadly missed.

choughdancer

Lucca

Barmeyoldbat

I went out today and managed to hide my beauty with a mask and my cycle helmet and gloves hid my bling.

I don’t need all that I hide my beauty under a mass of wrinkles and lines ….

Me too Lucca; I find it very effective as I wouldn't want to make everyone else envious of my beauty...

Please look at the date of the OP
You have mentioned a poster who is no longer with us, not just on GN.

I think it's got worse. Young women and men have these huge cars and Landrovers, just to tootle about. If they or their family have it they flaunt it. The rise in cosmetic surgery has rocketed. Hideous embellished long, long nail and the trout pout and facial abrasion on people barely out of their teens and lovely without it, is rife. It's sad.

Allsorts you are talking about very small proportion of the young demographic. The majority of young people neither own huge cars and landrovers, nor do they have cosmetic surgery and all the other things you mention. many have degrees, huge student debts and can barely manage on graduate salaries.

I have seen much talk about this and photos in the media, but I have yet to see it among the people I see in the supermarket or at the sports centre or when I eat out, or walking round our local shopping centre, or anywhere in fact. I have a teenage granddaughter and a teenage neighbour and neither of them have any of these 'enhancements' or want them.

I live in an affluent area, so it isn't as if people locally cannot afford these enhancements.