More on that "Austerity" Thing

Several days before I wrote yesterday's article, I sent Mr. Livingston an email in hopes that I'd have a chance at a dialog on the subject of his article against austerity. When he didn't respond, I decided that the only way to carry the dialog forward was to write and post my article, and also post a comment on the Bloomberg excerpt.

The comments on Bloomberg seem to go heavily against Livingston. I'll cite some of the comments you can find on Livingston's excerpt:

"This is outright wrong...."

"The logic here is horribly flawed...."

"Austerity is bad??? Badly-wrong sentence...."

"...the idea that work is a function of what is wrong with the human condition flies in the face of not only some of the most enlightened thinkers throughout history but also most people's own feelings...."

"The more I read this the less sense it makes..."

Another Bloomberg columnist, Caroline Baum, posted a different viewpoint that also tilts against Livingston's thesis. Her piece, Mall Rats Can’t Bring About the Wealth of Nations, starts out as a comment on Black Friday and retail sales as an indicator of economic health, but necessarily turns deeper and more analytic, concluding with a definition of consumption from Webster:

"the utilization of economic goods in the satisfaction of wants ... resulting chiefly in their destruction, deterioration, or transformation."

Why harp on this? Over-spending is a bad idea, but although some people think it might be bad for the individual, I don't get the sense that they feel that it hurts society. There is the underlying assumption that an over-spender slightly hurts themselves while benefiting the rest of us by making the economy go faster. And this is absolutely incorrect. A unnecessary purchase is the opposite of a vorpal trade. Poor purchase decisions harm the economy for everyone.

I am not against spending or consumption. Several articles in Vorpal Trade have described what a good purchase might look like. This might be a good time to write down some of the characteristics of a purchase that fits the definition of a vorpal trade:

- it costs less than you budgeted

- the purchase comes at exactly the right time for the seller

- it arrives just in the nick of time

- it generates cash shortly thereafter, or significant time or cost savings

- the payback period (moment at which net benefits exceed the price) is very short

- it is elegant, beautiful, or has character in its form or function

- it lasts

- it is a good candidate for using it up, wearing it out, making it do

- it greatly empowers you professionally, artistically, or personally

- it fits in your budget

You know a vorpal trade when you see it. When you think about the all-star products you have owned in the past, or present, it is quite clear that some things were simply vastly better investments than others. Couldn't we all use a few more things like those?