Redefining the word 'thrift' over the years

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After Sept. 11, 2001, President Bush suggested that it was a citizen's patriotic duty to shop as if the nation's economy depended on it. But he wasn't the first to promote this idea.In a radio address in 1931, economist John Maynard Keynes told the British people that saving more was the worst thing they could do to end the Great Depression because "whenever you save five shillings, you put a man out of work for a day. Your saving that five shillings adds to unemployment to the extent of one man for one day -- and so on in proportion."Keynes' fix?"Patriotic housewives" should "sally out tomorrow early into the streets and go to the wonderful sales which are everywhere advertised."In this spirit, I announced to my husband the other day that I was going to spend the afternoon "shopping for America." I was only half-joking. Because more than two-thirds of our economy is made up of consumer spending, if we "get religion" about saving during an economic downturn, I worry that the recession will only get worse.A call to shop is wholly inappropriate when it's all too clear that spending beyond our means with the help of easy credit contributed to our current financial mess. Notice that the president hasn't asked the American public to hit the malls to solve this latest crisis.So if consumer spending isn't the answer, what is?Thrift is the "miracle cure" for the economic ills of our society, according to David Blankenhorn, author of a new book about the misunderstood word."Thrift: A Cyclopedia" is a collection of historical quotes and images -- many of which pay homage to a word that today is narrowly defined by Americans to mean "to be cheap" or "to save."Many misguided consumers think of thrift in a negative light. To them, it reminds them of secondhand stores you shop at if you are poor and unfashionable. Being thrifty is being tight with money like your Uncle Al who lived through the Great Depression.But that's not the word's entire meaning. In fact, being stingy is not being thrifty at all, according to a 1920 speech by Harvard economist T.N. Carver that's included in Blankenhorn's book: "The thrifty person is not a miser. He is one who spends money just as freely as the extravagant man, but he spends it wisely."Look back in history, and "thrift" had many positive definitions, including "growth," "good fortune" and "prosperity." The Treasury Department in 1918 even referred to thrift as "practical patriotism."So how did we transform from a culture that celebrated the virtues of thriftiness with a "National Thrift Week" to a culture that's all about keeping up with the Joneses using borrowed money?A report written by the Commission on Thrift -- a diverse group of scholars and think-tank folks -- says that the shift took place as payday lenders and fee-laden credit cards multiplied and low-income earners began playing the lottery instead of saving their nickels at "thrift institutions," or banks and credit unions.Over time, the stigma attached to being in debt gave way to the sense that overindebtedness is commonplace and, therefore, acceptable, the report's authors say.Unfortunately, it took millions of Americans losing their homes to foreclosure, fat-cat credit-card companies raking in billions in sneaky fees and trillions lost in the stock market for us to realize that being a society of debtors is unacceptable.It's time for a change. The authors call for a national re-education campaign for thrift as well as a revival of National Thrift Week, which started in 1917 and ended in 1966. They also have several policy suggestions listed at their Web site, www.newthrift.org.I'm all for an official celebration of thrift, but there's no need to wait. I see hopeful signs that thrift is making a comeback without a mandate. Consumer spending fell 0.3 percent last month -- the largest decline since June 2004. Thrift stores are the rare retailers experiencing sales increases. And the incomplete-but-oft-cited personal savings rate is now 1.3 percent, not zero, according to September data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis.To be sure, we have a long way to go before we can say we've returned to our thrifty roots, and getting our mall-centric society there will be painful.But it will be worth it. The root of the word "thrift," Blankenhorn points out in his book, is "thrive." Sounds pretty good to me.(kara(at)startribune.com.)(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)