The Money Mustache Community
Around the Internet => Mustachianism Around the Web => Topic started by: Plugra on September 19, 2018, 08:38:58 AM
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The content of this frugality op-ed in yesterday's NYTimes won't be news to anyone here ...
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/18/opinion/cut-spending-budget-cult-of-thrift.html?
What is remarkable to me is the incredibly nasty reactions in the reader comments. Most of the readers seem to be making one of the following complaints:
- Only rich people can enjoy the luxury of learning to live frugally. The poor already know how by necessity.
- Being a cheapskate is uncomfortable and unnecessary (and pointless since you might get hit by a bus at age 55)
- I have always lived frugally and don't need any blog or community to show me what's common sense.
- Religious people with lots of kids have no business lecturing the rest of us about how to live
That is, pretty much missing the point. Talk about threatened and defensive!
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I'm too frugal to get past the paywall. Too as, I really wanted to read the other NYT article on here.
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MrsWolfeRN, if you open a private browsing/incognito tab, you can get around the paywall. Or clear your regular browser's cookies.
Thanks for the link, OP. Lisa Pryor wrote one of my favorite NYTimes op-eds of the year so far:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/05/opinion/doctors-naturopaths-health-science.html
Some of the comments in response to the thrift article were decent, like valid criticisms of Dave Ramsey and endorsements of "Your Money or Your Life." The angry and dismissive comments made me appreciate them all the more.
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First, the people who drank the fucking Kool-Aid are D-E-A-D. That expression is sloppy and incredibly insensitive. It should just go away. (Related rant: No, it doesn't take a little time to turn the Titanic around. It sank. People died needlessly. Stop already.)
Second, multiple mentions of DR who lives like a rich man (i.e. doesn't walk his talk vis a vis frugality), and none of our own MMM? Sketchy credibility, IMO.
Third, I fucking hate when I read what "society" needs to do. It's just not going to happen. Do what you need to do and stop waiting for someone/some other entity (society, government) to hold your hand. Oh, wait, we hold people's hands here all the time. They're called Case Studies. Maybe the author should join our group and post her own instead of waiting for "society" to change. Hell, she could be FIRE before "society" gets a clue.
Fourth, who called the peak in 2015? Really? I don't think do. I suspect readers of this forum+blog would also disagree. Pete's success seems to clearly prove otherwise.
At least the subject of frugality is being discussed where it might do someone some good.
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MrsWolfeRN, if you open a private browsing/incognito tab, you can get around the paywall. Or clear your regular browser's cookies.
Thanks for the link, OP. Lisa Pryor wrote one of my favorite NYTimes op-eds of the year so far:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/05/opinion/doctors-naturopaths-health-science.html
Some of the comments in response to the thrift article were decent, like valid criticisms of Dave Ramsey and endorsements of "Your Money or Your Life." The angry and dismissive comments made me appreciate them all the more.
Thanks for the advice, I was able to read this article and the poverty/ jobs one in the other thread.
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The content of this frugality op-ed in yesterday's NYTimes won't be news to anyone here ...
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/18/opinion/cut-spending-budget-cult-of-thrift.html?
What is remarkable to me is the incredibly nasty reactions in the reader comments. Most of the readers seem to be making one of the following complaints:
- Only rich people can enjoy the luxury of learning to live frugally. The poor already know how by necessity.
- Being a cheapskate is uncomfortable and unnecessary (and pointless since you might get hit by a bus at age 55)
- I have always lived frugally and don't need any blog or community to show me what's common sense.
- Religious people with lots of kids have no business lecturing the rest of us about how to live
That is, pretty much missing the point. Talk about threatened and defensive!
Thanks. The "Only rich people can enjoy the luxury of learning to live frugally........" and other sweeping generalizations in the comments about the poor really irk me. I've been poor and I've been working class. I'm also, finally, middle class. Having spent my entire life living among poor people, I can confidently state that there is not one cause, circumstance or descriptor that covers all. They (we) are as diverse as any other groups. Just as savvy, innovative, wise and frugal and also just as frivolous and lazy and dumb. As with physical fitness or education, no matter who you are or what your condition is right now, one can always learn more.
But you nailed it with "threatened and defensive." If they are certain they don't need it, why bother to read and comment? It's toddler behavior, ie.. that food I've never eaten tastes yucky!