I think it's ironic that so many of these "frugal living" gurus advocate cutting your expenses to the bone to avoid taking part in America's rampant consumer culture.
Then they advocate plowing those savings into home ownership, as if that itself isn't a consumerist decision. As if there isn't a multi-billion dollar real estate industry pushing the idea of home ownership as "the American dream".
Certainly, it's possible to err too much on the side of irresponsibility, but the author of this blog post has a point. Of all the joys we have in this short existence, "buying a house with cash" seems like a pretty lame one to build your whole life around.
Summarized: modern capitalist economies are driven by consumer spending. If some people are thrifty but most are not, the thrifty ones can benefit from the general prosperity created by the spending of the rest while saving their own money. But if everyone is thrifty there's no demand to drive the economy, and everyone ends up worse off than they would have been otherwise.
In the end, you (or your heirs) will spend the money. The only questions are when and on what.
It's my belief that saving some money is good because it gives you options when times get tough.
But, I fear that having a large pile of cash will just be hoovered up by the MDs after a major illness. They know your financial position and will bill accordingly.
Yep. You can't control your capital after death so chances are anything you leave for your heirs, a very small portion of it will actually make it to them.
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[ 0.25 ms ] story [ 35.6 ms ] threadThen they advocate plowing those savings into home ownership, as if that itself isn't a consumerist decision. As if there isn't a multi-billion dollar real estate industry pushing the idea of home ownership as "the American dream".
Certainly, it's possible to err too much on the side of irresponsibility, but the author of this blog post has a point. Of all the joys we have in this short existence, "buying a house with cash" seems like a pretty lame one to build your whole life around.
Summarized: modern capitalist economies are driven by consumer spending. If some people are thrifty but most are not, the thrifty ones can benefit from the general prosperity created by the spending of the rest while saving their own money. But if everyone is thrifty there's no demand to drive the economy, and everyone ends up worse off than they would have been otherwise.
I can't say I've seen that very often, usually the advice is to stick every bit of spare cash into Vanguard.
what if i dont like buying fancy things
all i wanna do is write music and cook for myself. i don't hate life. leave me alone!
It's my belief that saving some money is good because it gives you options when times get tough.
But, I fear that having a large pile of cash will just be hoovered up by the MDs after a major illness. They know your financial position and will bill accordingly.