Frugality Among Consumers ... AP Survey Results
from
(snip)"Even as the economic recovery plods ahead, many American consumers are refusing to come along.
They're not spending freely - and they have no plans to.
Many of them have steady income. They aren't saddled by high debts. They don't fear losing their jobs. Yet despite recent gains, they've lost so much household wealth that they're far more cautious about spending than before the recession.
Their behavior suggests that the Great Recession may have bred a new frugality that will endure well into the recovery. And because consumers fuel about 70 percent of the economy, their tightfisted habits means the rebound could stay unusually sluggish.
That's the picture that emerges from an Associated Press survey of leading economists and interviews with more than two dozen ordinary Americans. The new AP Economy Survey asked 44 leading economists whether the recession created a "new frugality" among consumers that will outlive the recession. Two-thirds said yes"(snip)
(snip)"Scott Hoyt, senior director of consumer economics at Moody's Economy.com, notes that baby boomers, in particular, enjoyed spending sprees for most of their adult lives as their assets s teadily grow.
"But the recession changed that," Hoyt said. "Many have retirement and children's education looming. All of a sudden, they see their balance sheets decline in a way they've never seen before."(snip)
(snip)"Interviews with ordi nary Americans suggest a new frugality endures even though consumer spending has risen for five straight months and retail sales for three.
In the AP's new quarterly survey, a majority of economists agreed that a new frugality will persist even as the recovery gains firmer footing.
"I would call it a 'mini age of austerity,'" said Sean Snaith, an economics professor at the University of Central Florida."(snip)
the obvious take-away is that even if the economy is getting better as official statistics claim ( which is a whole 'nuther subject thus a topic for a different thread ), the economic pain and uncertainty inflicted on 'middle class' workers has been severe enough to permanently alter their economic behavior in a manner similar to the great-grandparents who 'survived' the 1930's depression. This just as obviously does not bode well for future spending levels at strip clubs.
Re: Frugality Among Consumers ... AP Survey Results
In the short term, that is bad.
In the long term, this is a healthy thing for our nation. We spent beyond our means before and now we have learned a hard lesson for it. If we start to spend less and save more, that is GOOD for us.
Re: Frugality Among Consumers ... AP Survey Results
We've been spending like mad for years and we seem to refuse to do things for ourselves. As a result a lot more people are doing things for us that we could be doing ourselves. And every time we hire someone to paint a wall that we could paint ourselves, a bunch of that money goes to the government as income/sales tax etc. So the consumer mentality is to not do anything we are not hired for but to get those things done by somebody else. This results in ever more personal laziness and loss of skill and taxes.
Re: Frugality Among Consumers ... AP Survey Results
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Mr Hyde
In the short term, that is bad.
In the long term, this is a healthy thing for our nation. We spent beyond our means before and now we have learned a hard lesson for it. If we start to spend less and save more, that is GOOD for us.
There's a Mark Twain Quote that describes this perfectly:
“The radical of one century is the conservative of the next. The radical invents the views. When he has worn them out, the conservative adopts them.”
One century we'll spend beyond our means, the next we'll save because we learned our lesson, we'll get tired of than then spend beyond our means again until we learn our lesson the next time.
Re: Frugality Among Consumers ... AP Survey Results
^^ With the conservatives dragging social change and complaining that the progressives are ruining everything, until they adopt it. On the other hand the conservatives make the progressives think a bit harder; so they do have a place. But their lying has no place, and that's what we see a lot.
It's also the constant battle between the producers and the consumers. And the power of "scientific marketing."
Re: Frugality Among Consumers ... AP Survey Results
Quote:
FENGHUA, CHINA—Chen Hsien, an employee of Fenghua Ningbo Plastic Works Ltd., a plastics factory that manufactures lightweight household items for Western markets, expressed his disbelief Monday over the "sheer amount of shit Americans will buy."
http://www.theonion.com/articles/chi...it-he-ma,1343/
Re: Frugality Among Consumers ... AP Survey Results
^^ Man, you're telling me....!
I've been saying that for years, literally. Our society likely looks very foolish to them, buying their crap. Actually their stuff has gotten better over the years, since it is us that is responsible for teaching them to become so competitive. Their stuff was ridiculous until companies decided to teach them to produce stuff that would become competitive with US- and Japanese-produced goods. I call that pretty stupid.
Re: Frugality Among Consumers ... AP Survey Results
you gotta love the Onion
or, more in keeping with Dollar Den ...
(snip)WASHINGTON, DC—The Securities and Exchange Commission announced Tuesday that more than 63 percent of all U.S. citizens have been implicated in an illegal stock-dumping, the latest scandal to rock the nation's economy. It's staggering how far-reaching this is," SEC chairman Harvey Pitt said. "More than 175 million citizens from all walks of life are involved in one criminal imbroglio. Everybody from white-collar workers to grandmothers, boy-scout leaders, and the entire state of Delaware. Point a finger anywhere, and you have a better chance than not of hitting a guilty party."
According to the SEC, on Jan. 15, Jerome P. Lippman, vice-president of pharmaceutical giant Unocore Systems in Dallas, warned friends and business associates of a failed merger with Pfizer. The information was leaked by an as-yet-undetermined source, resulting in 98 percent of Unocore's stock being sold off on Jan. 16, one day prior to an official public announcement of the unsuccessful merger.
Pitt said the 2 percent of Unocore's stockholders who failed to sell off their stock faced massive financial losses.
"The stock went from $235 to 13 cents a share in half an hour," said Kyle Levey, an Arizona factory worker implicated in the scandal. "That's when I knew I wasn't the only one with insider information. Sure enough, pretty much everyone on my block was in on it, too. And everyone down at work. And everyone at church."
Due to the enormous amount of paperwork involved in the scandal, the precise details of who was involved and to what extent remains unknown. Prosecutors say time will fill in most of the blanks.
"Everyone even remotely involved will be subpoenaed," Pitt said. "We've been going state by state in alphabetical order to tell those implicated that they will be brought to court. We're only up to Arkansas, though"(snip)
Re: Frugality Among Consumers ... AP Survey Results
(Hoping everyone in here knows The Onion is satire.)