Ned, the newshead junkie, announced today that individual savings is at 4%. Now, I have no idea what that means (and it currently doesn’t pertain to me). However, when he started romanticizing about breadlines and the depression and how neat it would be if we lived in a box with only one outfit, I started to worry.
Now, Ned is a genius but he and hyperbole are on a first name basis so I have learned: questions first, panic later.
Hold on to your hats because this next bit is FASCINATING.
Apparently there is something called the “Paradox of Thrift” and everyone else probably learned about it in high school economics but I avoided any classes that had to do with numbers or politics, so this is completely novel.
During a recession the best thing to do individually is to cut spending and save money but if everyone does that, the economy as a whole suffers. Ned may have even used the word “plummet”. The why’s and wherefore’s have to do with my spending = another person’s income, supply and demand, blahdy meow meow.
The rest got boring but the important fact is this:
Today when I go out shopping with Rose, my plan to “look and covet but not buy” is actually detrimental to the entire economy. My attempts to not spend is actually very very selfish. I have always hoped that if called upon, I would (like Buffy) have the strength to sacrifice myself for the greater good. And now that time may have come. I think I’m ready.
While I may be forfeiting my own future well being, my shopping may actually SAVE THE WORLD. I’ll admit I have always suspected this to be true but it is great to have actual facts to back me up.
Ned always uses the word "plummet", uses that to describe everything.
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