Misdirected Economy

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MISDIRECTED ECONOMY.

Mankind is a creature of impulse, and is ever prone on quitting one extreme to rebound to the opposite. A very general conviction prevails that the financial crisis through which we have passed, and the stagnation of trade which has followed it, are due to the systematic extravagance and foolish display which every class in the community has for some years indulged in; and the effect of such a conviction seems likely to be that of driving the penitent offenders into the opposite extreme of penuriousness, which can only have a tendency to prolong and deepen the misfortunes which have befallen us.

Every day we find men of undiminished income “reducing their expenses” in such a way as to add another mite to the vast aggregate of depression and suffering which exists in the community. We see in many of the papers estimates of how cheaply families can be supported—dissertations on the nutritive qualities of beans and turnips, exhortations to mechanics to practise vegetarianism, and so-forth, together with calculations as to the saving which may be made by using newspapers for bed coverings instead of blankets, revivifying napless hats and threadbare coats, and other ingenious devices for preventing the expenditure of money.

Now all this is utterly wrong and foolish. Economy is a virtue, and to live within one’s means a duty; but the practice of parsimony, and the hoarding of money that we can afford to spend, and that our comfort demands the outlay of, is not only an injustice to ourselves, but an injury to others of the community. If every man gets his old hat refixed instead of buying a new one, pray how is the hatter to pay his way? If every body adopts the suggestion of the Evening Post, of using old newspapers for bed coverings in lieu of blankets, will not the blanket trade and all depending on it for support, be thrown into a worse position than ever? If the public at large, or a considerable portion of it, put in practice the dietetic theories to which we have alluded, and feed on beans and turnips at $1 a week per family, will not the butchers and bakers, confectioners and provision dealers, have to starve? Is not such “economy” calculated to extend and prolong the prevailing distress?

It does not follow because extravagance has caused the present convulsion, that parsimony and avarice are the remedies for it. The true way for us to emerge from our present difficulties, and to avoid such misfortunes for the future, is not for every man to reduce his expenditures to the minimum, and deny himself any of the necessaries or even comforts adapted to his station in life. On the contrary, if we wish to set trade agoing again, the way to do it is for each man to buy whatever he wants, that he can fairly afford to pay for: and having bought it, to pay promptly for it. In a word, each should live as well and as comfortably as possible, provided always that he lives within his income, and promptly meets all his obligations.