Tuesday, December 02, 2008

How to Change the Culture

... or at least the financial part of it comes from a tidbit in this post over at Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis.
Children who have seen their parents wiped out in bankruptcy or foreclosed on are going to have a completely different attitude towards debt than their reckless parents did. Expect to see more frugality from parents and their children alike.
You can't force prudish and thrifty behavior on people. Having said that, you can't escape the consequences of wild self-gratification, either.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

If Mish were right, Argentina would be a rich country.

Dean said...

KT, in isolated cases, I can see these life lessons take hold with those so effected.

However, the over-arching theme in the news today and ultimately, our culture is that failure is rewarded and reckless and stupid behavior will not be punished

Ohioan@Heart said...

I think that there will be some tendency for the youth of today to learn fugality. The great depression molded that generation, and the thrift they practiced left
them with money. This resulted in their children, and due to an unprecedented continued growth cycle, their grandchildren, with a feeling that debt was OK.

Sadly, the lesson is going too late for most of the baby boomers, and will cost the Gen X-ers and Gen Y-ers, and Millenials, and ...