Thrift

Cicero, the Latin poet, once said that men do not realize how great a revenue thrift is and this is indeed true because to be thrifty means to manage money in an economic way so that there is somehow always enough and often a little leftover. Philosophers and poets of the world, in many different countries, have extolled the virtues of thrift and as a result of this, there are many proverbs in almost every language which praise this human quality.

“Look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves,” is a European proverb. “Waste not, want not,” is another and there is considerable truth in all of them.

In primitive societies, the virtue of thrift was even more applauded and certainly more necessary than it is today. In those days, the law of the jungle operated and only the fittest survived. There was no money in the sense that we know it today and therefore barter was the order of the day. Primitive men and women had, therefore, of necessity to save bits of this and collections of that, so that they could barter and thus survive at all. Later on, in the history of the world when wages were low and money Scarce, the virtue of thrift was still very necessary In England, for example, before and during the Industrial Revolution, there was a great deal of poverty. Whole families had to survive somehow on a few pennies a week. A crust of bread was precious and the thrifty dare not waste it.

Today, fortunately, in most parts of the world, conditions of life are very different although there are regrettably, still some countries both in the East and West, where there is not enough money and where there is still a permanent struggle to survive. By and large, however, man is better off today than he has ever been. Machines and mass-production have made consumer goods become far more plentiful. wages too, in most countries, keep pace with prices and so, in modern times, thrift is not thought of as the virtue of the necessity it once was. Too many factors in our modern life are militating against it. “Hire Purchase,” “Pay as you wear” “Buy now, Pay Later.” are such slogans seen in most of the world’s shops and stores. All of them discourage thrift n the desire to save for something before buying it.

Practically everything from the cradle to the grave, even including air passages can now be paid by installments and in arrears, if necessary. the desire, therefore, to be thrifty and to save before having anything seems no longer to matter, since so many things can be obtained anyway. There is, of course, something to be said on the side of ‘Hire Purchase’. In the old days, the power sections of society were never able to possess very much simply because, however thrifty they were, they could never accumulate the necessary capital. On the other hand, a “reckless, couldn’t care less” attitude is often encouraged by this method of purchase.

There is, of course, the other side of the picture and although thrift is universally recognized as a virtue, it is all too easy to carry the virtue of thrift to extremes and to become mean, and ungenerous. Many so-called self-made men are guilty of this. In their youth, they have had to save and to work hard for every penny and so in later years they, having been thrifty for too long, lose the habit and the joy of spending money even when they have plenty of it. They still continue to be thrifty even when there may be big savings in the bank.

“Thrift” then, at its best, should b encouraged in ourselves and in our children. Everyone should be trained to know the real value of money and to be careful with it. Neither countries nor individuals can run their lives, unless this is so. The absence of thrift leads to the “eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die,” attitude which should never become paramount in a responsible society.