Frugality Lost

David Brooks wrote a brutal op-ed on our debt culture yesterday. It's really quite sad and deeply disheartening. But is it all that shocking that we Americans today are concerned more with getting stuff than staying out of debt? I would love to think that a shifting economy would change hearts and minds. But my guess is that it will only push us all deeper into financial crisis. Anyway, David writes:

"Over the past 30 years, much of [America's frugality] has been shredded. The social norms and institutions that encouraged frugality and spending what you earn have been undermined. The institutions that encourage debt and living for the moment have been strengthened. The country’s moral guardians are forever looking for decadence out of Hollywood and reality TV. But the most rampant decadence today is financial decadence, the trampling of decent norms about how to use and harness money."

Reporting on a new study called "For a New Thrift: Confronting the Debt Culture," David continues:

"The deterioration of financial mores has meant two things. First, it’s meant an explosion of debt that inhibits social mobility and ruins lives. Between 1989 and 2001, credit-card debt nearly tripled, soaring from $238 billion to $692 billion. By last year, it was up to $937 billion, the report said.

"Second, the transformation has led to a stark financial polarization. On the one hand, there is what the report calls the investor class. It has tax-deferred savings plans, as well as an army of financial advisers. On the other hand, there is the lottery class, people with little access to 401(k)’s or financial planning but plenty of access to payday lenders, credit cards and lottery agents.

"The loosening of financial inhibition has meant more options for the well-educated but more temptation and chaos for the most vulnerable. Social norms, the invisible threads that guide behavior, have deteriorated. Over the past years, Americans have been more socially conscious about protecting the environment and inhaling tobacco. They have become less socially conscious about money and debt."

Totally. And that's not to say I haven't contributed to this. I have. Spending is now a deeply ingrained value in so many of us. I do not have the same sense of urgency my grandfather did to scrimp and save. Yes, he did so because he had to. The only money he had access too was the money he made. Though some credit was available to him, getting a Target credit card was unheard of. But beyond that, frugality was something he believed in deeply and practiced earnestly (he still does, despite huge financial success). Brooks concludes, commenting on the need for a shift in mentality:

"There are dozens of things that could be done. But the most important is to shift values. Franklin made it prestigious to embrace certain bourgeois virtues. Now it’s socially acceptable to undermine those virtues. It’s considered normal to play the debt game and imagine that decisions made today will have no consequences for the future."

Ultimately, we've got to understand that frugality is not a means to an end. Yes, you will be more financially secure if you spend less and save more. But frugality is virtuous because it is biblical. Did you know that Jesus talked about money more than anything else in the Gospels? Jesus knew that money, if left unchecked, would master you (Mat. 6:24). Be mastered not by that shiny plasma TV but by God.

Check out Dave Ramsey for excellent help in this area. I hope to hold his Financial Peace University course in January 2009. Stay posted.