Reading Group Guide

1. What’s your definition of thrift? Of cheapness? What do you think is the difference between the two? Is it cheap or thrifty to save tin foil, or turn off the light when you leave a room, or suggest to a friend that you carpool to work?
 
2. Americans have often adopted frugality en masse during times of necessity – war, financial panics, poverty. Do you think Americans will ever embrace thrift for its own sake? And would that be desirable?
 
3. Television shows like The Real Housewives of New Jersey, and articles about cleaning women who saved every penny and then gave their life savings to a good cause suggest that we take pleasure in both praising and criticizing people for how they spend (or save) their money. Why does it seem so easy (natural, even) to judge other people’s fiscal habits and proclivities?
 
4. Three behavioral economists developed a Tightwad-Spendthrift Scale (you can take their survey at www.behavioraldecisionresearch.com). On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is a Tightwad, where would you place yourself? What items do you splurge on? What items do you skimp on? How do you prioritize your spending?
 
5. What would our economy look like if Americans bought less stuff? What would our lives look (or feel) like?
 
6. Prior to the twentieth century, Americans made many of the household goods they relied on everyday (soap, candles, clothing, etc.). Most of us are now consumers, not producers, of those kinds of items. What are the benefits and drawbacks of our modern relationship to the “stuff of life”?
 
7. Even though we sometimes idealize an earlier, thriftier America, few of us would probably choose to return to a time when providing the basics for our families required relentless, arduous labor. So what’s the modern version of thrift? What should low-cost living look like today?
 
8. How does frugality relate to our use of natural resources? Where does it help the environment to be cheap, and where does it hurt?
 
9. What items in your home/life do you consider worth fixing when they break, and which would prefer to throw away (or recycle)? What are the barriers to fixing more of your stuff when it breaks?
 
10. Is it possible to be frugal at a time when Americans have high fixed costs – e.g., for mortgages, health insurance, property taxes, college loans, etc.?
 
11. How much of your spending is for essentials versus non-essentials? How do you distinguish between the two? What category does, say, a cell phone or high-speed Internet service fit into?
 
12. How do perceptions of cheapness help and/or hurt various ethnic groups?
 
13. What’s the difference between government deficits and personal debt? Are they equally bad or inadvisable?
 
14. What do you consider a “good” standard of living for yourself? What should be our national ideal for a good standard of living?