A Nation of Shopaholics?

Posted by Jeffrey Strain
November 28, 2009

There is an image that the US has become an nation of shopaholics driven primarily by consumerism. Lee Eisenberg, the author of Shoptimism, believes that this is not truly the case. He sees that the average person still retains some of the frugality on which the US was founded and believes that most people that spend still struggle with the feeling of guilt..

What do you think? Are we a nation of shopaholics, a nation of closet frugalistas or a combination of the two?

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Information: November 28th, 2009; 7 Responses

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Categories: Financial Videos; Frugal; Personal Finance; Shopping

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Reader Comments

Comment Number:: 1
Written by:: John DeFlumeri Jr
Posted on:: November 28, 2009 at 3:21 am

Shopaholics all the way. Buying stuff we don’t need.

John DeFlumeri Jr

Comment Number:: 2
Written by:: LuxLivingFrugalis (Subscribed)
Posted on:: November 28, 2009 at 5:05 am

Hubster and I both old school frugalists! Our training, which was from those Great Depression era parents who harped economical pragmatism, has stuck with us and stood us in good stead. Thanks folks! For a bit of a while there in the mid to late 90’s we got off track for a bit, but were able to reign ourselves back in.

Waste not, want not!

Viva la thrifty!!

~~L.L.Frugalis,
69 days totally Debt-FREE

Comment Number:: 3
Written by:: Sue
Posted on:: November 28, 2009 at 6:29 am

i believe that there are many more closet frugalistas than people believe. otherwise why would companies spend so much money on advertising? if we were all shoppers than we would buy products without any hesitation. thus negating the need for large advertising funds.

Comment Number:: 4
Written by:: Broken Arrow
Posted on:: November 28, 2009 at 11:34 am

To me, he’s saying that the pendulum is swinging back from conspicuous consumption to a more normalized form of consumption….

I agree with that.

Yeah, I think that in only 2 or 3 years ago, we were kind of a nation of shopaholics. You don’t get into this sort of recession without a systemic problem spanning the whole nation.

Comment Number:: 5
Written by:: ProFuzz
Posted on:: November 28, 2009 at 1:54 pm

Shopaholics 50/50. Usually we don’t buy the not needed stuff, but everybody will agree with me that sometimes it happens!

Comment Number:: 6
Written by:: Financial Samurai (Subscribed)
Posted on:: November 28, 2009 at 5:23 pm

I think it’s important for others to shop till they drop, so the rest of us can get rich.

Best

Sam-urai

Comment Number:: 7
Written by:: luke
Posted on:: November 28, 2009 at 9:08 pm

I think it comes down to a simple thing….I have kids. My kids don’t know how crappy the economy is, nor how crappy the world is going to treat them. I look at my 401(k) more than I should, and I worry about money more than I should. But Christmas is looming…should I punish my kids because of the global melt down and my worries of the future? No. Should I explain to them the cause and effects of a bad economy? Absolutely. My son wants a .410 shotgun, my daughter a guitar, my youngest boy a computer game he can play. Am I going to say sorry kids I’m struggling to pay the mortgage and not get you those things? No. I”ll make it happen. That doesn’t make me a shopaholic, that makes me a dad who doesn’t want to destroy his children’s view of the world.