Frugality on Trial

I saw this article in the NY Times yesterday.  The article talks about how following Japan’s Lost Decade, consumption continued to lag.  People were so affected by the past economic problems that they never got back up.  For example:

Today, years after the recovery, even well-off Japanese households use old bath water to do laundry, a popular way to save on utility bills. Sales of whiskey, the favorite drink among moneyed Tokyoites in the booming ’80s, have fallen to a fifth of their peak. And the nation is losing interest in cars; sales have fallen by half since 1990.

Honestly, I don’t see how this is a problem.  Whiskey consumption kills people’s livers, Japanese youth replace cars way more often than in other countries, and using bath water conserves water (I’ve never heard of people using bath water to wash clothes in Japan, but if they do, the article is probably referring to the clean, unused water in the Japanese o-furo.)

I think we need to get used to the idea that moderate consumption is a good thing, unnecessary consumption is bad.  Why replace your car if your old one is good?  Why drink whiskey if you don’t have to?  Why use new water if the clean water from your bath works just as well?  By consuming less, one saves money AND helps reduce one’s carbon footprint on the planet.  We’re going to have to find other ways to spend and make money.

I don’t know how or when the economy will rebound, but I think it’s going to have to take place without the conspicuous consumption of the past.  I don’t see how things can ever return to the way things were.  We’re dealing with a warming planet with a growing population, and even though a strong economy requires robust and frequent exchanges of money, I just don’t see how the old patterns can ever come back.

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