The Yankee injunction to "use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without," was largely ignored in New England and the nation for years. Now, frugality is back with a vengeance. The national savings rate, traditionally about 7 percent of personal income, long hovered around zero. At times it even plunged into the negative zone as people spent more than they earned. Those days are over.

Consumers, to the despair of merchants and landfill operators, have turned frugal. The trend means it will take longer for an economy driven by consumer spending to recover from recession, but it's good news for the planet and for a public that is taking pleasure in parsimony after years of binge buying.

Perhaps because New Hampshire's economy has not been hit as hard as that of many states, the decline has not been as dramatic locally, but trash volume is down by double digits. The volume of recyclables collected by the city is also down because people are buying less.

Repair shops have been the biggest beneficiaries of the new skinflint-ism. In good times, one Minnesota economist reported, consumers spend a mere 1 percent of their money to fix goods. In hard times, that figure is 5 percent. Particularly for big-ticket items like cars and computers that would be costly to replace, repair shops are doing a booming business.

We cheer the frugality because it saves energy and natural resources, reduces greenhouse gas emissions, makes landfills last longer and, because as most people secretly know, stuff rarely makes people happy for long.

It would be nice to think that runaway consumer spending is gone for good. That's unlikely. But to right their personal finances, households that saving nothing will have to put aside 7 percent of their income or more, and that means that an economy that relied on consumer spending for nearly three-quarters of its growth, is likely to plod along for a good while rather than soar.





Comments
If it ain't broke don't fix it.
By cavman35 on Thu, 04/30/2009 - 09:22
20090430/OPINION/904300315
904300315
article_title: America is becoming a nation of skinflints
article_pubdate: 20090430
Gee nice thought about "Use it until it is broke and then fix it". Just one big trouble with that and that trouble is far to many pieces of equipment made nowadays have two very inherent troubles. Number one is you can seldom if ever find replacement parts because that is unprofitable for most manufacturers plus all the components have been outsourced to another vendor that in turn outsourced their part of the product. That means no replacement parts and unlike products made back in the last century most "stuff" is made to fail within several years and be replaced with a brand new one. I had a Mitsubishi rear screen projection TV that lasted 24 years before it died. When I finally looked for a new one I was advised that a rear projection TV was old technology and I should get "new" technology. When I inquired about how long the screen would last on a new flat screen TV I was told it would work for about 4 years before I would "need" a new one. I bought a new rear projection TV instead for a lot less because they had 24 years to improve the technology.

The next problem is that there is very few places that "fix" things anymore. All to often it is cheaper to replace it rather than fix it and those that attempt to fix it often give up in frustration when they find they "also" can't get parts. Far to many people today lack the ability to trouble shoot anything unless a computer tells them what is wrong. I still remember my 84 LTD with 284,000 miles that I ran until 2001. Any time I brought it in for service they panicked because it had no computer but it did have a carburetor that "no one" knew how to work on. The end result was I did all my own work. On my 2002 F-150 truck I have had troubles that never showed up on the computer but "we" got them fixed because I could explain how and when a certain trouble happened. Of course the techs often could not reproduce it until I recreated it. It will take a long time for much of America to "relearn" how to be self sufficient because for to long it has always been "Well someone has to do something about it".

How interesting too
By Anonymous on Thu, 04/30/2009 - 09:03
20090430/OPINION/904300315
904300315
article_title: America is becoming a nation of skinflints
article_pubdate: 20090430
Concord is a drop in the bucket compared to what we are in for with this bunch in Washington. It may not be frugality as much as reality-that the money will have to go to pay taxes first so there can be more photo ops of someone's plane flying past the Statue of Liberty.

How interesting ...
By wss1 on Thu, 04/30/2009 - 08:03
20090430/OPINION/904300315
904300315
article_title: America is becoming a nation of skinflints
article_pubdate: 20090430
That consumers are supposed to avoid "runaway spending" and "be frugal", yet not one word is said about our politicians following suit. Consumers are guilty of not saving and spending beyond their means, but not one word about the $250 Million deficit created by Concord since just 2005. Savings and wasting less is critical - if you are a consumer, not a spendthrift poitician.

By Anonymous on Thu, 04/30/2009 - 07:49
20090430/OPINION/904300315
904300315
article_title: America is becoming a nation of skinflints
article_pubdate: 20090430
Note that one way to save energy and natural resources, reduces greenhouse gas emissions, makes landfills last longer, reduce your carbon footprint, and all that other eco-green, Gore group-speak is to cancel your Monitor subscription.