Dollar's fall forces new standard of frugality-w/list of IN/OUT in new economy

[fed-up]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/04/26/MNUJ109A76.DTL&tsp=1
Dollar's fall forces new standard of frugality

It's a global shift that some are calling the Great Reckoning.

For a generation, economists warned that Americans were living too large. With wallets crammed with credit cards and home-equity loans available to any homeowner who could sign his or her name, consumers went on a debt-fueled buying binge. Living rooms bulged with the latest in snazzy electronics and garages filled with shiny new cars and trucks. Restaurants were fully booked, and airlines whisked happy passengers to dream vacations around the world.

Now, that shop-till-you-drop, I-want-it-all-and-I-want-it-now era may be coming to an end. It couldn't last because it was built on a mountain of money borrowed from overseas.

Year after year, the United States bought more from the rest of the world than it sold as foreign nations cranked out shipload after shipload of goods destined for American consumers. By 2006, the U.S. international deficit in trade and related payments exceeded $800 billion, about 7 percent of the entire economy.

...snip

Ins and outs

Squeezed by food and energy prices, tight credit, stagnant incomes and falling home and stock values, many consumers are throttling back. Here's what's in and what's out in the new economic order.

IN OUT
Saving Borrowing
Cooking at home Eating out
Fixing the old car New car
Staying at home Foreign vacations
20 percent down No down payment
Debit cards Credit cards
Working past 65 Early retirement
Library Bookstore
Tap water Bottled water
BART Bay Bridge
Patching Remodeling
Public park Theme park
Eyeglasses Lasik surgery
Poker night Weekend in Vegas

[Deja Q]

1. I won't deny people have lived way too large in a society that also asks them to do just that...

But offshoring, not taking stock in one's employees, doing what other countries do by taxing offshored labor/products, et cetera, has hurt too. That's the big reason why we have a deficit.

Not to mention most places won't accept checks; it's cash (up to a certain denomination) or debit/credit cards.

There are doubtlessly numerous other factors involved too.

It is not a one-sided, anti-consumer issue, I'm sorry. But on top of everything else, for life there's mastercard.

Indeed, this one says it all, if not more. Watch it, if you dare. It's not a parody, but an actual commercial.

More here:

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=visa+commercial+life&search_type=&search=Search

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=mastercard+commercial+life&search_type=

[Johnny Noshoes]

6. I believe

that the Visa Check card is a DEBIT card and not a CREDIT card so if it is you'd be still paying cash from your checking account and not putting that smoothy on credit. Minor quibble I know but still it is different from putting everything on credit.

[tavalon]

7. That was one minute out of my life that I can't get back

Please think about that before you post these depressing "true" commercials. It's just too fucked up for 7am. :hi:

[nilram]

16. insidious and hilarious

Really enjoyed it and had to watch it twice (I don't encounter this sort of thing since I don't watch teevee). I can see how it would be so convincing.

That being said, I do pay for most things with a visa card -- I get 1% back and I pay it off every month. I boggled the other day when I saw someone writing a check. Guess I'm part of the problem...

[grasswire]

19. there's an ad out....

...showing a woman enjoying a lot of beautiful consumer things, and the tag line is "Live the life you deserve, without having to pay the price."

Awful.

[BOHICA06]

2. This list looks accurate .... and not so bad ! nt

[Deja Q]

3. Not so bad at all, I agree.

:)

[cornermouse]

4. I would differ on the saving portion.

A lot of people are just trying to tread water/break even.

[Dover]

15. And there is certainly no incentive to have a savings accout as per interest rates on those accts..

You earn next to nothing for savings, and I don't think the banks WANT you to save. They want to invest it for you and become your financial advisor. Gee, no conflict of interest there....:eyes:

[GoesTo11]

5. Most of the ins are much better than the outs, not just cheaper.

Saving - feels virtuous
Cooking - cheap, healthy and fun
Fixing - don't have to shop for new one, no new license plates, etc.
Staying at home - make your home nice
Working past 65 - gives you something to do (if can get work you like)
Library - more books to read, less clutter in your house
Tap water - always there
BART - no traffic jams
Patching - don't have to move your furniture and stuff in and out, no noise
Public park - peaceful
Eyeglasses - no risks
Poker night - relaxing time with friends

[cornermouse]

11. Doesn't poker night cost money?

[Art_from_Ark]

18. It's also a great way to lose friends

when they rub how much money you've lost in your face.

[Warpy]

20. Nobody ever played poker with me more than once

but at least I kept them as friends by never mentioning it.

[fed-up]

13. and many will put families/people back in touch w/each other nt

[nichomachus]

8. I was doing all that BEFORE the dollar fell -- now, what do I do?

[morningglory]

9. I used to save the heel of the bread loaf to give to my chickens, soaked in milk.

Then I started soaking it in water (tap water). Now I eat it.To hell with the chickens. They can scratch for bugs. A friend purchased something on line with her debit card and her bank account got wiped out. Comments?
Some good suggestions here. Good post.

[Warpy]

21. Debit cards

are great, but only if you limit your losses by keeping your rainy day money in a CD or even just a separate account.

If somebody wipes my ATM account out, they won't get much. The main account is even at a different bank.

Of course, that ASSumes you are able to stash more than what you need between paychecks, a huge assumption these days.

[Warpy]

10. Well, I'm ahead of the fashion curve, as usual

because even though I inherited wisely, I still have all the frugality I developed through adamantly refusing to go into debt for all the latest toys.

I'm not living out of thrift stores, though. I'm now donating to them because I know other folks are starting to need to live out of them.

[fed-up]

12. if you don't want to load/drive your stuff to a thrift use craigslist-someone may need it or may

need the money generated if they sell it

they have a free page

[Warpy]

14. I know, I unloaded some furniture that way

and 8 months later, I'm still getting emails for it.

[skoalyman]

17. I don't know but the dollar seams to be rising for now at least

[BuelahWitch]

22. But the poor countries will suffer with us

Who bought all the cheap shit they produced all those years? Not third world countries! Hey Nike, who's gonna buy your $150 shoes you made off the backs of poor 3rd world slaves now? Dumb fuck companies!!

[fasttense]

23. I'll echo that sentiment.

The ignorant CEOs, with the help of republican politicians, outsourced every job they could get their hands on. When they couldn't outsource, they hired HB-1 visa and illegals to in-source the work. Yet, they continued to sell all that useless crap here at home, in the US to American citizens.

Slowly but surely, step by step, inch by inch, the American middle class, and the resulting largest consumer market in the history of the world, disappeared. The middle class jobs and the salaries that supported the largest consumer market in the history of the world vanished or moved. Unfortunately the same salaries did not move with the jobs and no other market has sprung up to replace the largest consumer market in the history of the world. Add up all the sales in India, China, Korea, Vietnam, Russia and you get one tenth of what the US consumer market use to be.

So the bottom line is that CEOs and republican politicians have destroyed their own market. Now who is going to buy all that Wal-Mart crap????