The most perilous risk to our lifestyles

You might think the most dangerous ideas in the world at the moment are those bouncing around in the skulls of Donald Trump, North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un or whoever is leading ISIS.

However, there is an idea gaining momentum which is far more hazardous to our lifestyle in the developed Western World. This perilous idea is called thrift.

Admittedly it’s not new and you could argue that thrift in today’s climate is just voluntary poverty for people who can afford better and who have the resourcefulness and intellect to enjoy life without all the products and services we consume to alleviate the misery of our sad lives.

The practitioners of modern voluntary thrift are many and varied. The latest of its gurus gaining attention is English financial journalist Michelle McGagh, who has just written a book about not making any discretionary purchases for a whole year.

She paid her mortgage, utilities and insurances, bought the essentials like basic toiletries and cleaning products and followed a strict food budget. But no cinema trips, no nights in the pub, no takeaways or restaurant meals, no new clothes, no holidays and no takeaway coffees.

Suffice to say McGagh saved a lot but only because she maintained her more than adequate income from her job.

‘‘I also came to understand that I don’t need things to make me happy. Spending time with the people I love makes me happier and if I do have money available, I’d rather spend it on them – like travelling to see my grandfather or visiting my friend in Australia,’’ she says.

One year on a no-spend budget does not, of course, make a lifestyle in the way it does for Peter Adeney, a 41-year-old Canadian who lives in Colorado and writes a blog under the name Mr. Money Mustache.

Adeney began practising thrift at an early age and after working as a software engineer managed to retire at age 30. Since then his mission has been threefold:

To make you rich so you can retire early.

To make you happy so you can properly enjoy your retirement.

To save the whole human race from destroying itself through over-consumption of its habitat.

In an article in the New Yorker, Nick Paumgarten describes Adeney as ‘‘a kind of human optimisation machine, the quintessence of that urge, which is stronger in some of us than in others, to elevate principle over appetite, and to seek out cheaper ways of doing things. He presents thrift as liberation rather than as deprivation’’.

Adeney and his wife have a car but hardly use it, preferring to bike most places, and he monitors spending zealously. As an ‘‘enginerd’’ (his word), he is different to McGagh, in that he has the practical skills to save money by fixing things himself and coming up with clever solutions to common day problems.

As a disclosure I have to say the urge to frugality is stronger in me than others I know, including Mrs VB.

It’s heartening to see that my instincts are in tune with saving the planet but you can see how a lifestyle of saving and frugality is so dangerous.

Thrift pursued religiously by a large part of the globe’s population would collapse the world economy, a large part of which is based on unnecessary consumerism.

It’s not hard to find an illustration. As a relatively recent regular pub-goer and social drinker, I am often appalled at how much money my younger colleagues will willingly fork out for the grossly inflated and unjustified prices at the commercial bar.

Such behaviour is irrational. They have higher debts and need to be saving so they can buy homes and be independent from their parents. The same product can be bought much more cheaply at the liquor store or the supermarket.

But if they curtailed their behaviour, as they should, many people would be out of job and, in the downstream effects, they might lose their jobs too.

Worldwide frugality would not hurt just the developed world. Coffee is one of the main products of many dirt-poor countries so if we stopped buying our flat whites and cappuccinos, many povertystricken economies would be even worse off.

The other point to make is that the frugal lifestyle pursued by people like McGagh and Mr. Money Mustache is only viable if the rest of us continue to consume like mad.

If everyone was frugal, McGagh would not have her basically unproductive and parasitic job. Mr Money Mustache would never have earned the nest egg he needed to retire early.

Of course there is a balance but even in that balance, Western lifestyles would have to undergo huge change. I can’t help thinking that in that change lies our salvation.