Saving vs Spending

Today's Wall Street Journal reviewed two new books on the topic of consumerism: Shiny Objects by James A. Roberts and Against Thrift by James Livingston.  The gist of the former seems to be that buying new things generates an endless and soul-sucking cycle of keeping up with the Joneses; the gist of the latter seems to be that buying things not only provides personal pleasure but provides economic growth.  The author of the article rightly takes the books to task for recycling old ideas: many other books as various as The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas Stanley and William Danko and The Complete Tightwad Gazette by Amy Dacyczyn address these points of view.

I would argue that both ideas are valid -- up to a point.  There is real pleasure in acquiring special, longed for possessions and this pleasure should be as acceptable as any other human endeavor.  The problem lies with the excess of stuff, with obsessions in accumulating things, and with trying to buy more than you can afford -- which all tend to be related.  If you think about purchasing items as a series of choices -- spend now vs later; buy this and not that -- rather than an all-you-can-eat buffet, the lure of shiny objects becomes more reasonable -- and life is ultimately more pleasurable.