Less is more

A version of this article was originally published in the Global Times on January 27, 2010.

During a dizzying holiday airport transfer in the United States, a headline on one of the newspapers caught my attention: “In Recession, Americans Doing More, Buying Less,” it said.

The magnitude of such an assertion, whether it was true or false, pricked my curiosity and stopped me in my tracks.

I tried imagining it. Cash-strapped, out-of-work, debt-laden Americans, still reeling from the recession of the past year, opting to pursue a hobby rather than buying a new house, spending a day perusing the museum rather than roaming the mall, taking a road trip rather than going on a spending spree.

Could it be true: a re-prioritizing of life prompted by the economic crisis? Since the subprime mortgage crisis triggered the global downturn, Americans have been maligned in the media as a horde of greedy consumers unable to control their credit cards. This stereotype sometimes finds validation during the holiday season, when the custom of giving Christmas gifts combined with the supposed force of unchecked American consumerism results in a maddening onslaught of the shopping malls that puts retailers in the black for months. So the alternative reality suggested by the headline – that Americans were taking the family to the movies rather than taking out a loan – struck me as both out of the ordinary and, I hoped, true. Maybe it even contributed to the success of “Avatar.”

The fascinating article by Damien Cave was published in the New York Times on January 2, and several factors examined in the article including sales of movie tickets, attendance at major museums and the findings of a New York Times/CBS News poll reveal that in the wake of the downturn, “Americans are not just getting by with less. They are also doing more.”

In my own circle of family and friends, the high rate of unemployment and underemployment was undeniably felt during the holidays, most noticeably by people scaling back on the purchase of big-ticket items (though if you factor in plane tickets, some of us weren’t so lucky). But Christmas we had, nonetheless. And this year, the New York Times’ research panned out in the gifts beneath our Christmas tree: concert tickets and museum memberships. We had chosen to give each other experiences, things we could do together, rather than material objects.

Money is said to be the root of all evil, but to some extent it is a necessary evil. You know it’s not money that is most important, but you need money for what is important, like providing for your family … or buying “Avatar” tickets. Unfortunately our good intentions are all too often consumed by the lure of money itself. The economic crisis painfully disrupted that pattern of thought for many people.

Now that most economies have emerged from the recession (at least on paper), everyone is trying to figure out how to safeguard their future investments. The best way is to change priorities. And maybe invest in movie theaters.