“I’m not there, yet” says Janie Pryor when asked if she’s ready to eliminate her regular Botox treatments in an article titled, “The Latte Era Grinds Down” (Newsweek, Oct. 13, 2007). Written by Daniel Gross, the very astute observer of money and culture for venues including Slate.com and Wired, this article introduces us to affluent Americans like Pryor, an L.A.-based jewelry designer who claim that rising interest rates, falling real estate values, and higher gas prices have caused them to consider living a more frugal lifestyle.
From the latte lover who cut his daily coffee bill from $8 to $1 by buying his own espresso maker, to the couple who put their Dallas McMansion on the market because “I find myself going into rooms I haven’t been into in a couple of months,” this story paints a picture of economic hardship that would have been hard to believe a decade ago. We’ve become an affluent nation where the cutbacks from the heights of our spendthrift ways have reduced us to merely living very, very well.
While I don’t doubt there are well-to-do Americans who’ve been touched by the meltdown in housing values, it seems as though any efforts to rein in spending are more a matter of defensive lifestyle adjustments than any real experience of hardship, based on Gross’s account. Read the rest of this entry »
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