Keeping down with the Joneses
As we wrap up 2008, here’s my early entry on the In/Out list: Conspicuous consumption – out. Conspicuous deprivation – in. It’s not enough to not have enough, we have to publicize it with a new sort of competitive pride.
Our family’s decaying minivan, once a sign of blight, is now a badge of honor. If we were to replace if and pull up in a new Hummer, we would face the community shaming of a parolee in the neighborhood.
It’s downright hip to shop for groceries at Aldi and celebrate the virtues of self-bagging and cart-returning to reclaim your quarter. TJ Maxx (which advertises Every Day is Black Friday) is almost too upscale – the Salvation Army is in. It’s no longer how much you pay for something, it’s how little.
Our new deprivation chic is making it easier to be a parent. Kids don’t ask for the things they once did, and when they do ask they are quicker to understand “no.” Whining is out, gratitude is in.
I haven’t heard Santa ask for a bailout to retool his workshop for this new age of austerity, but my guess is that he’s retraining the elves to make more recycled Frisbees ($3.50), and fewer special edition robots ($49,999.95).
If you’re planning a party, it’s no longer an act of desperation to go to the 99 Cents store, it’s cool and downright smart according to today’s New York Times, whose writer challenged high-end party planner David Monn to choreograph a “transcendent dinner party for 8” for under $30 a head.
The silver-plated lining to tough times is that while we may struggle to make ends meet, tight times “take the pressure off,” says Monn, so we can focus on the important things like friends and family. If a recession means fewer office parties, less shopping and spending, and an end to frenzied entertaining, I’m down with that and I hope we can keep it up when the good times roll again.
---Allison


Greg and Allison Connors have three young children. They don't pretend to be experts in parenting, but they are willing to send dispatches from the front. Greg (a copy editor and writer for The Buffalo News) and Allison both work full-time, teetering on the precipice of work-life balance like tightrope walkers trying not to look down. They describe their parenting style as lying somewhere in the middle between John Rosemond and Mr. Rogers.

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