In the last two weeks, both the New York Times and Arizona Republic have carried stories that make me squinch my eyes and cringe. Both articles are tips for dealing wit the economy.
The Arizona Republic ran an article on how to save money during these tough times. OK. So far, so good. But the suggestions were laughable for all but the amazingly wealthy. Arizona, at the moment, is the 5th poorest state in the union. Here are some of the suggestions—cut your housecleaning crew down to once every other week. Have your gardener come just once a month. Go out to lunch instead of the evening meal. Consider buying your own nail polish, as it saves a bit on those regular manicures and pedicures.
Let Them Eat Cake
I’m baffled by this. If you can afford a housecleaner, gardener, eating out at all and regular manicures and pedicures, you don’t have a worry in the world.
Let’s get down to the reality portion of this economy: drug and rehab budgets are being cut, so is health care for children, food prices are not coming down, and gas prices are inching up again. Once a month in our town, we have big trash pickup. People haul those bulky items that don’t fit in the standard trash can to the curb, and a special truck and frontloader scoop them away. For the last two months, I’ve watched pickup trucks cruising through neighborhoods scavenging those piles of trash.
By the time the frontloader shows up, the piles are reduced to yard trimmings. Even those are picked over for left-over citrus fruit. Anything metal or repairable has been loaded into trucks. I don’t think these people are worried about their housecleaning schedule.
This past Sunday, the New York Times ran an article on how the economy provides a handy excuse for laying off that pesky maid who dared to ask for New Year’s Eve off. Or to blow off your bourgeois in-laws’ invitation to Disney World, presumably because you can’t afford it, when in reality you prefer Europe to Florida. The article was written in a surprisingly shallow “let them eat cake” tone.
Where is the editor who should have spiked this story? Where is the managing editor, who, having seen a story written in a similar tone the week before, should be ashamed he let that one get in instead of adding another one to the pile?
This economy is dividing us into the have and have-nots. There is no middle class. There are the working poor and the incredibly rich. The New York Times, a respectable newspaper of honored heritage is behaving in a way that shows a shocking disregard for the people who are trying to live normal lives and navigate their way through a recession without maids or pedicures. The rich will muddle through, let’s see some help for the rest of us.
Image from: http://wendyusuallywanders.wordpress.com/2008/02/26/
—Quinn McDonald is a writer, life- and creativity coach who runs training programs on communicating with others.
I think most people would agree that saving money is something “easier said than done”. Personally, I believe it’s a mind-set that needs to be developed by creating good money-saving habits.
Here are some things I’ve done to help change my spending habits:
- Cooking more at home Eating out is very expensive especially if you do it a couple times a week
- Shopping online You can find better deals than in the store and you save on gas (I recommend http://www.shoptivity.com)
- Paying the full balance on credit cards each month Interest charge is like giving away free money
- Don’t forget to pay yourself Set up an online savings account (they pay higher interest than a normal savings account)
- Setting a budget and goals It’s good to have your goals written down so you see them everyday and don’t lose focus on your ultimate objectives
Again, saving money requires a lot of patience and hard work. However, you’ll thank yourself later on in life. Good luck everyone!! =)
Those are good tips, but not everyone can shop on line–you need to have a credit card, and shipping can be more expensive than gas. Paying “the full balance on credit cards” is impossible for most people. If they had the money to begin with, they wouldn’t be in debt. And the article was really about the validity of newspaper coupons.
How about “Quinncreative.pete. wordpress. com”? But if I have to post as often as you do, the deal’s off.
OK, you are hired. Oooops, economy is bad. I have to let you go.
Finland is a very nice place. Looks a lot like Minnesota; lots of woods and lakes. Many Finns, by the way, aren’t affected by gas prices because they can’t afford cars, and the cars they do have are usually the European versions with much better MPG than here. The public transportation works pretty well and is pretty available.
By the way, they do get something for their 70% taxation: healthcare is covered, unemployment is covered, retirement is covered, education is covered (even university and beyond, AFAIK) — so many of the expenses we have don’t come out of their much smaller takehome. At Nokia (don’t know if this is company or national policy) I believe they even get “vacation pay” — that is, a second paycheck during vacation weeks so that you don’t have to budget for vacation + normal expenses; it’s done for you.
However, Finns seem to face different tradeoffs than we do. For example, the company has instituted a travel ban this year; you have to have a REALLY good excuse to travel anywhere. I work in user experience design, and there’s an annual internal conference in Helsinki. But because of the travel ban, the people from Tampere (one-hour train ride away) couldn’t get the cost of the train and lunch reimbursed. So they couldn’t afford to go. By many measures you could say their “quality of life” exceeds ours, but also by many measures you could also describe them as significantly poorer — at least in the sense of being very careful with any discretionary income.
Oh, I thought of another piece of Finland trivia: tipping is not customary, and in restaurants I’ve often had to get up to find the waiter or waitress, especially to get the check. (In a hotel restaurant one time I was the only one there, it was late, and I think they left!)
Those Fins must have a great sense of humor. Sounds like a really nice country to me
)
The financial crisis is alive and well in Finland; I work for a Finnish company and talk to people there every morning. Some random things about Finland:
– they share borders with Sweden and Russia and view both with suspicion. Norway too, but they seem to like them better.
– it’s about twice the size of New England, but the population is only 5 million
– higher rate of gun ownership than the US
– Nokia is the biggest Finnish company by far (closing in on the whole GDP).
– Nokia dates back to about 1850. Finland has only been independent since 1917.
– highest suicide rate in the world
– Finns are not Scandanavian
– Finnish is related to Hungarian and Estonian, but not Swedish or Norwegian
– “Nokia” is named after a town and river where it was originally a sawmill.
– in Finland, wall-to-wall carpeting is considered unhealthy and there isn’t any to be found
– Every house, apartment, and office building has a sauna. Nokia buildings worldwide have saunas.
– in Helsinki (largest city and capital) the traffic lights are all turned off in the middle of the night.
– everybody learns English from about 3rd grade to the equivalent of high school
– There’s a chorale group in Helsinki called the “Helsinki Complaints Choir”.
– Heavy metal music and motorcycle gangs are a lot more popular than you’d expect.
– FinnAir flights are fun because they mount TV cameras to the landing gear and tune the cabin screens to them during takeoffs and landings.
– You don’t need to carry cash in Finland as long as you have a credit or debit card or, increasingly, a cell phone (you can pay for things by waving your phone near an ID panel)
– there is no place in Finland where you can’t get a cell phone signal (so I’m told), even north of the arctic circle
– the worst cell phone service in Finland is at least 4x faster than the best service in the US (this is true of many countries)
– They’re worried about their very low birthrate; their population is not growing
– They have a higher life expectancy and lower infant mortality rate than the US.
– Notwithstanding that, they drink a LOT of vodka, and alcoholism is a big problem
– Most Finns take the month of July off.
– The workday and workweek are shorter than here, and they get more vacation. They’re sometimes embarrassed about this, or claim to be.
– There is 100% tax on cars. Plus all cars are imported. Plus there are VAT taxes on most things. Plus Finns make about 50% of what we make for the same jobs. Plus they pay 70% income tax. Plus gas costs about 4 euros per liter. Plus food is more than twice as expensive.
– Licorice is incredibly popular there. They have this one kind filled with hot pepper, which they don’t warn you about, and they’re very amused when you find out about the pepper. You, on the other hand, are not quite as amused, particularly if you don’t really care for licorice anyway and were only being polite.
Want your own blog page, Pete?
Ah Finland, I wonder if and how the financial crisis hits Finland?
My sister cannot even afford a car and my brother has a Bentley…a speeding ticket Finnish style would only be fair.
I’m still trying to figure out how people who make 50% of what an American makes and pays 70% tax and more for food and gas survives. Must be the licorice and vodka.
There’s no question that things are getting tougher for most people. Didn’t mean to imply they weren’t.
Here’s a thought from Finland: traffic fines are based on your income. Make a lot of money and a speeding ticket can cost you $300,000. (Finland DOES have a 70% tax rate. But AFAIK they don’t have any uber-rich people, so the rate applies to everybody)
When will there be a 70% tax for the wealthiest people of the USA?
Sometime around the same time we can ice skate across the River Styx!
I think there’s another way to look at this. I’ve hired housecleaners, but I’m not uber-rich. Expenses like that are not “peanuts” at all for most people. If you have a small business (or even if you’re an employee), sometimes that extra hour of productivity is worth the price of paying someone to do the vacuuming. I don’t agree that the population can be described by just “working poor” or “incredibly rich”. Somebody pretty smart recently wrote “This need for duality in our culture fascinates me. We seem to enjoy the dividing line.”
I’m not sure if I want to hug you or smack you, but I love reading your responses. I get the hired housecleaner as time-saver, too. I used to have one. But now that I live in a very poor state, I’m seeing a different side of things than when I lived in Alexandria, VA. While there are many strata, I am seeing a widening of the gap between the rich and the poor and a thinning out of the middle class, many of whom are working just as hard, but not keeping up with their expenses. The article I mentioned was also written for people who have live-in maids and drivers.
My heart goes out to the nanny, the gardener, the housecleaner and the manicurist. They are the little people and they lose their income..
Also what those ueberrich people save with such actions is merely peanuts for them.
That NYT article is totally anti-social!!
I’m still fuming over this article. I even wrote a letter to the editor, and I haven’t done that in years.
Thank goodness I don’t have the burden of dealing with nannies, gardeners, or travel to Disneyland! OK, I’m being snarky, but those articles make my blood pressure rise.
I don’t even think you are being snarky, I think the article was in incredibly bad taste.
Hey, even those of us who feel for the little people (or at least hired somebody to “feel for the little people” for us) are feeling the pinch! I had to lay off the guy I hired to lay people off, so now I can’t stop paying some of my nonessential personal personnel, including the one who writes blog comments for me.
P.S. He’s doing a really spectacular job and should definitely not be laid off.The blog commenter is nonessential; the blog comment editor is more important.
My blog comment reader has the day off, your comment will be read tomorrow.
Well said, Quinn, my sentiments exactly.
Thanks!