by Dr. Charles Alonzo Peters
Nearly 45 billion dollars was spent during the recent Black Friday weekend. Cyber Monday saw its highest single day online dollar volume in history, topping the $1 billion dollar mark for the first time in history.
From the looks of it you’d hardly know we’re in the middle of one of the greatest recessions in US history.
A recent Newsweek article spells out America’s new “Urge to Splurge”. Americans it seems are spending whether they can afford it or not.
Take the Lewis family considering financing a new bedroom set despite Mr. Lewis just recently being hired after eight months of unemployment. They’re behind on their mortgage and already owe $20,000 in credit card debt.
Hope Good, a young professional earning $33,000 a year as an accountant, was accustomed to buying 12 pairs of shoes at a time and spending $400 a week on shopping. After being laid off for six month and then finding a new job, she has again returned to her free spending ways. The shoe shopping is back along with an inflated entertainment budget that includes vacations to North Carolina, California, and London.
And according to the article, the Lewis family and Hope Good are not alone. Americans are now spending more money on goods and services than they were before the height of the economic crisis. Retailers expect this to be the busiest holiday season in three years.
Many had hoped there would be a silver lining to the Great Recession. Facing difficult economic times would teach us to become better money managers. We’d squash the credit habit, learn to save for purchases, and kick conspicuous consumption to the curb.
And perhaps for a while we did learn how to become financially savvy, live within our means. But now it looks like we’re fed up with the doctor ordered crash diet. Forget the carrot sticks. We’re sneaking back to the kitchen for the fat piece of chocolate cake.
It begs the question – have we learned our lessons about excessive debt, living within our means, and saving for a rainy day? Is the Great Recession just a speed bump in our incessant attempts to buy more and more? Or will it fundamentally change the way we deal with money?
BMWK. Are you experiencing frugality fatigue? What do you think? Will money lessons learned during the Great Recession be quickly forgotten?
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