image by Rusty O.P.
image by Joe-ks
Aidan's Independence Day Decorations
As Matt Taibbi’s article points out, the problems in our banking system aren’t anything new. In fact, the system has been corrupt since…the beginning. Andrew Jackson said this about it: “If the people only understood the rank injustice of our Money and Banking system, there would be a revolution before morning.”
Now consider the origins of our July 4th holiday. One of the biggest problems the colonists had with the King was that he taxed them excessively and didn’t give them any say in how that tax money was spent. In 1773 they dressed up in disguises and dumped over-taxed imported goods (tea) into Boston harbor. That touched off the Revolutionary War which ended in the birth of our nation. Of course, the war was about more than just money, but my point is that Boston Tea Party was to the Revolutionary War what Rosa Parks was to the Civil Rights movement. Someone finally did what everyone else had been afraid to do, and that ignited the courage and resolve of the less bold.
So this 4th of July I’m looking for, hoping for, a hero who confronts the economic tyranny we are under. But I don’t see any heros on the horizon. The new government hasn’t done anything to hold banks accountable for their monumental swindle mistake. The previous administration did even less. Maybe we need a grass roots movement? But short of pulling our money out of the banks and stuffing it in our mattresses, what can we do? I’ve been writing this blog thinking that the little things would be enough. That if we could learn to consume less, then our greed would atrophy and our culture would shift its focus. But when I think about the enormity of the problem and the powerlessness of “ordinary people” like me, I get overwhelmed and discouraged.
The Declaration of Independence
I know this sounds boring and kind of depressing, but that’s what I’m thinking about on this July 4th – economic freedom – how do we get it? I’ll take heart by reminding myself that against the odds the founders of our country declared their independence from tyranny, won that independence, and started a new kind of nation.
We need a new declaration of economic independence. Anyone have ideas?
By Carolyn Lengel
I grew up frugal—or, as friends put it, “cheap”; my family had the whole reduce-reuse-recycle thing down, or at least the reduce and reuse part (municipal recycling didn’t exist yet where I lived). We grew vegetables, drew on the backs of papers my dad brought home from work, and wore sweaters indoors all winter. And we kept things, even if we didn’t need them anymore, because they were “perfectly good.”
I’m glad for some of the things my parents kept and handed down to my family, like wooden trucks and kid-sized rocking chairs—but these days I’m amazed at how suddenly all the perfectly good things can stop being useful and start being clutter. The lavender and hot-pink bicycle with training wheels was great when my daughter was four, but she’ll never ride it again. The local consignment shop where I used to unload baby items lost its lease years ago. There’s the dump, of course, but how could I stand to throw out all these perfectly good things?
So how to connect my unwanted but still eminently usable stuff with people who would snap it up? I signed up for Freecycle. Local online groups exist all over the country for the sole purpose of connecting one person’s trash with another person who sees it as treasure. Once you join your local Freecycling group, it’s a simple matter to post messages (“Offer: little girl’s bicycle”) and tell respondents where to pick items up. The recipient gets something for nothing; I get rid of things without having to throw them away. And even more satisfying than the extra space in my basement is knowing that somebody else’s little girl is learning to ride that perfectly good bike.
Freecyclers join to get free stuff, too, and sometimes I’m surprised by what’s on offer—just this week, in addition to the ubiquitous baby clothes and (surprisingly) televisions, I saw a pasta machine, a sailboat motor, and a 50-year-old metronome kit still in its unopened box. I try to resist; after all, I’m in it for the joy of unburdening. But every now and then I’ll see an item that makes my frugal heart skip a beat. Tomato seedlings! Extra paint! All the zucchini you can pick! And hey, couldn’t I find some use for that bag of switchplates? After all, they’re still perfectly good.
photograph by Tami Silicio
This is just a short post to remind you that today isn’t just an extra day off to relax, picnic, and barbecue; it’s a day for thinking about and remembering how real people (not abstract monuments) have spent themselves in our nation’s wars. The point of today is not to glorify war, but to become more mindful us of its costs–lives cut short, families devastated, and in some cases whole generations disrupted.
I’m taking some time today to meditate on the sorrow and the sacrifice, to think about members of my community who have died in recent wars, and to hope for an end to our current conflicts.
Nothing is more frugal (and utopian) than peace.
As of today, I’m one of the ten gazillion people who have started a frugal-themed blog. It’s a totally unoriginal idea. It seems like everybody is writing about how they are surviving our generation’s great depression. But maybe that’s what makes the project so worthwhile. It’s not just a few people here and there writing about frugality, it’s a groundswell of people looking for ways to enrich the quality of their lives by embracing a frugal lifestyle.
But this blog wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for my friends. I’m lucky. I’ve got amazing girlfriends who know how to find the “joie” in “de vivre” no matter what the circumstances. Our project is to learn how to see the frugal life as a good life, as a wonderful life.