Ready, set… consume!
This article from the New York Times was interesting. Turns out that by being very frugal, the Japanese have possibly made their economy worse.
However, I’m not sure if “underconsuming” is really that bad of a thing, even if it causes some economic pain. I love the quote from a 20 year old Japanese woman, ““I’m not interested in big spending, I just want a humble life.”
Maybe this is where we are headed, and it might do us some good. If we had all lived more simply sooner, the current financial crisis would probably have been avoided from the beginning.