As I read "The Novel Frugality" in Vox last night, I couldn't help but think that this "new frugality due to corona" is in large part only experienced by people who have never had to struggle in their lives--apart from maybe Ramen-fueled college years. I'll be perfectly honest, my first thought was "awww, look. Wealthy folks and/or wypipo are joining the rest of the world and being less wasteful. That's cute."
People who either grew up struggling or had parents who grew up struggling, and thereby maintained those struggling-life habits, and passed those habits on likely already had habits that prepared us for this. My parents grew up struggling and passed on those habits. My dad lived as a sharecropping family for a brief time as a child. (Then they got the fuck on down because they weren't dumb and no, just fucking no!) One of the most mind-blowing stories I've never forgotten from my dad was that when he was a kid, he and 3 siblings shared one can of potted meat to make sandwiches for school lunch. I had potted meat as a kid. The can is THREE ounces. I highly doubt it was any bigger 30+ years before. My mother was also raised in a house with several siblings as well as uncles/aunts. Meals were stretched, clothes were sewn, everyone worked--teen boys and men as various laborers, carpenters; teen girls and women as domestics of all sorts. I come from people who know what it was to struggle, scrimp, save, and make everything stretch. When us grands would run into the kitchen for meal, one of my grandfather's favorite sayings was "we may not have what you want, but we got something to eat." This is also a man who could bite straight into an onion. UGH!
But the mentality of "I will eat anything that fills my belly (and you will to if I say so)" comes from surviving being a black man in the South who had lived through the Great Depression era, sharecropping struggles, Jim Crow, possibly being fired just because, and generally being a low-wage worker most of his life. A poor minority of those experiences doesn't have the luxury to NOT be frugal at all times. It impacts how their kids grow up, which in turn impacts their successive generations. And let's be real, it wasn't until about the 60s and 70s when black folks started truly doing a bit better with slightly better equality, after the hard fought (though hardly won) Civil Rights Era, and then BAM, Reaganomics started wiping all that out again. (Fucking Reagan, again!) And then here we are 50 years after the Civil Rights Era and a pinch better, not much better off. (JFC!)
I would imagine this is very similar for immigrant families, as the Vox article mentioned. People who literally came here with very little and then worked and saved just to have a life here AND still support their relatives back home live in a state of always needing to be frugal. And even when a younger generation (perhaps 2nd or 3rd gen) immigrant "makes it" and does really well, they still know that they need to and should help support their older generations, so they still need to manage things so that they can do that.
This article also reminds me of how when the panic-buying first started, I was struck by what I saw and didn't see in the stores, where I saw/didn't see these things, and what that suggested about people's normal habits and new panic-induced habits. In big box stores in mostly middle/upper-middle class areas (i.e. often more white), things like alcohol, sanitizer, and bleach were completely gone. What was still there were things that people who likely descend from domestics, and/or descend from people used to living in areas that needed extra cleaning often, was still there and often in large quantities--ammonia, cleaning powders (like comet and ajax) and other basic cleaning supplies, like Pine Sol and Fabuloso. (Can't help but see the below gif in my head as I think of Pine-sol.)
In dollar stores and drug stores (walgreens, etc.) in areas that are predominantly minority, working class, middle to lower-income the shelves weren't nearly as empty. Oddly, even in those stores, the sanitizer, sani-wipes, and bleach were nearly gone (because other folks had come in to panic-buy?); alcohol was about half in stock. But again, basic cleaning supplies were in full supply.
Discussing this with my very smart dad, we hypothesized that folks who are used to having less or are used to being hyper vigilant about cleaning regularly likely already had the supplies at home that folks were panic-buying. But there's another side to this: the folks in the lower-income, predominantly minority may don't have the disposable income to run out and panic-buy, which also means the were already a part of the frugal life.
This brings us back to this idea of "novel frugality."
Folks who are used to making do, making their own food on a regular, saving and re-using things aren't new to this. (For instance, I made my kids' baby food--partly because I wanted to and partly because there's no way we could've afforded to constantly buy jars and jars of baby food. And I nursed--partly because I wanted and partly because the cost of formula is INSANE!) These are old habits that have become useful to everyone instead of just a few. Sadly, the question is: will new frugalistas (you know someone has already coined that phrase) maintain these habits once all of this new coronavirus-induced mania subsides? But let's be real, if we're really likely in a new world for at least two years, as some reports have predicted, perhaps these new habits for some will stick around a little longer. Perhaps.
We've seen a lot written about how these new ways of living should make us more reflective, appreciate the planet more, take better care of her and ourselves. That THIS is our chance to remake the world as we would like to see it.
I'm a realistic dreamer. I dream that this new normal, that these new frugalistas would learn that things can be made, re-used, re-purposed and that this is a better path forward and that we leave willful obsolescence in the past. (It's not lost on me that the word "obscene" came come from "obsolescence.") But I'm realistic enough to know that that is likely not going to be the case. It took the Great Depression, wars, rationing, and for some, generation upon generation of going without and adjusting to the permanent state of saving to be ok today with finally "making it" a bit better and then develop life habits of half-frugality and half-luxury but always willing to easily return to frugality. For many, we fear that although we're doing a wee bit better than our previous generation, that we still must save and save and save because we never know when we could be without and that we must always be ever-ready to return to full frugality when needs must. We have guilt about throwing things out because perhaps it could've been re-purposed or passed on to someone. We know that it might all disappear at any moment. We know that we might all be sharing one can of potted meat.
Ok, maybe not that bad. But basic tuna and beans and rice are always quite filling.
So, this idea of novel frugality is rather amusing to me. For some, it isn't novel. It's a way of life that they either live every day or know well enough to return to at a moments notice.
People who either grew up struggling or had parents who grew up struggling, and thereby maintained those struggling-life habits, and passed those habits on likely already had habits that prepared us for this. My parents grew up struggling and passed on those habits. My dad lived as a sharecropping family for a brief time as a child. (Then they got the fuck on down because they weren't dumb and no, just fucking no!) One of the most mind-blowing stories I've never forgotten from my dad was that when he was a kid, he and 3 siblings shared one can of potted meat to make sandwiches for school lunch. I had potted meat as a kid. The can is THREE ounces. I highly doubt it was any bigger 30+ years before. My mother was also raised in a house with several siblings as well as uncles/aunts. Meals were stretched, clothes were sewn, everyone worked--teen boys and men as various laborers, carpenters; teen girls and women as domestics of all sorts. I come from people who know what it was to struggle, scrimp, save, and make everything stretch. When us grands would run into the kitchen for meal, one of my grandfather's favorite sayings was "we may not have what you want, but we got something to eat." This is also a man who could bite straight into an onion. UGH!
But the mentality of "I will eat anything that fills my belly (and you will to if I say so)" comes from surviving being a black man in the South who had lived through the Great Depression era, sharecropping struggles, Jim Crow, possibly being fired just because, and generally being a low-wage worker most of his life. A poor minority of those experiences doesn't have the luxury to NOT be frugal at all times. It impacts how their kids grow up, which in turn impacts their successive generations. And let's be real, it wasn't until about the 60s and 70s when black folks started truly doing a bit better with slightly better equality, after the hard fought (though hardly won) Civil Rights Era, and then BAM, Reaganomics started wiping all that out again. (Fucking Reagan, again!) And then here we are 50 years after the Civil Rights Era and a pinch better, not much better off. (JFC!)
I would imagine this is very similar for immigrant families, as the Vox article mentioned. People who literally came here with very little and then worked and saved just to have a life here AND still support their relatives back home live in a state of always needing to be frugal. And even when a younger generation (perhaps 2nd or 3rd gen) immigrant "makes it" and does really well, they still know that they need to and should help support their older generations, so they still need to manage things so that they can do that.
This article also reminds me of how when the panic-buying first started, I was struck by what I saw and didn't see in the stores, where I saw/didn't see these things, and what that suggested about people's normal habits and new panic-induced habits. In big box stores in mostly middle/upper-middle class areas (i.e. often more white), things like alcohol, sanitizer, and bleach were completely gone. What was still there were things that people who likely descend from domestics, and/or descend from people used to living in areas that needed extra cleaning often, was still there and often in large quantities--ammonia, cleaning powders (like comet and ajax) and other basic cleaning supplies, like Pine Sol and Fabuloso. (Can't help but see the below gif in my head as I think of Pine-sol.)
In dollar stores and drug stores (walgreens, etc.) in areas that are predominantly minority, working class, middle to lower-income the shelves weren't nearly as empty. Oddly, even in those stores, the sanitizer, sani-wipes, and bleach were nearly gone (because other folks had come in to panic-buy?); alcohol was about half in stock. But again, basic cleaning supplies were in full supply.
Discussing this with my very smart dad, we hypothesized that folks who are used to having less or are used to being hyper vigilant about cleaning regularly likely already had the supplies at home that folks were panic-buying. But there's another side to this: the folks in the lower-income, predominantly minority may don't have the disposable income to run out and panic-buy, which also means the were already a part of the frugal life.
This brings us back to this idea of "novel frugality."
Folks who are used to making do, making their own food on a regular, saving and re-using things aren't new to this. (For instance, I made my kids' baby food--partly because I wanted to and partly because there's no way we could've afforded to constantly buy jars and jars of baby food. And I nursed--partly because I wanted and partly because the cost of formula is INSANE!) These are old habits that have become useful to everyone instead of just a few. Sadly, the question is: will new frugalistas (you know someone has already coined that phrase) maintain these habits once all of this new coronavirus-induced mania subsides? But let's be real, if we're really likely in a new world for at least two years, as some reports have predicted, perhaps these new habits for some will stick around a little longer. Perhaps.
We've seen a lot written about how these new ways of living should make us more reflective, appreciate the planet more, take better care of her and ourselves. That THIS is our chance to remake the world as we would like to see it.
I'm a realistic dreamer. I dream that this new normal, that these new frugalistas would learn that things can be made, re-used, re-purposed and that this is a better path forward and that we leave willful obsolescence in the past. (It's not lost on me that the word "obscene" came come from "obsolescence.") But I'm realistic enough to know that that is likely not going to be the case. It took the Great Depression, wars, rationing, and for some, generation upon generation of going without and adjusting to the permanent state of saving to be ok today with finally "making it" a bit better and then develop life habits of half-frugality and half-luxury but always willing to easily return to frugality. For many, we fear that although we're doing a wee bit better than our previous generation, that we still must save and save and save because we never know when we could be without and that we must always be ever-ready to return to full frugality when needs must. We have guilt about throwing things out because perhaps it could've been re-purposed or passed on to someone. We know that it might all disappear at any moment. We know that we might all be sharing one can of potted meat.
Ok, maybe not that bad. But basic tuna and beans and rice are always quite filling.
So, this idea of novel frugality is rather amusing to me. For some, it isn't novel. It's a way of life that they either live every day or know well enough to return to at a moments notice.
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