Sunday links - Budget edition aka "How to Get Rich Quick"

The Australian Government announced its 2013-2014 Budget this week, which led to the usual flood of analyses in the mainstream and social media. With inevitable spending cuts announced, there were a lot of cries of "poor me". There are certainly many Australians living under the poverty line, but the ones that cry poor the loudest always seem to be those with large incomes - large incomes but large expenses. These stories from my local paper are just two examples. (Blogger Nathan Lee has a term for these types of complainers - the "Plasma Proletariat".)

This article gives a good idea of where your income sits compared to other Australians, based on income and household size (and both families mentioned in the articles above are in the top 20%) - We Are All Dead, via @kylie_pc

We tend to live nearby and socialise with people who earn the same amount as us and, increasingly, high earners marry other high earners. This gives us a skewed perception as to what classifies as an "average" income. - Peter Martin

Want to see where your income sits on a global scale? An Australian earning $100 000 net pa is in the top 0.14% of earners in the world. An Australian earning $21 000 net is still earning more than 90% of the world's population. - Giving What We Can, Care Global Rich List

Meanwhile, some of the world's poorest people will be affected by the Australian budget. - Oxfam

Rachel Hills writes about The Privileged Poor this week - "When you're declaring social bankruptcy over drinking cleanskin wine instead of $17 cocktails... there is a little less room in your heart for those for whom poverty means having no choice at all..." "The result is a false dichotomy: either you are 'poor' and poised on the edge of bankruptcy, or you are 'comfortable' and you never have to think about money at all. But being middle-class doesn’t mean never needing to make a choice about what you spend your money on. It means having the wiggle room to choose in the first place." - The Daily Life

So, now that we've established that we're rich (based on the fact that most of the traffic to this blog comes from my Facebook page, which means we're Facebook friends, which means we probably have similar incomes and standards of living - see the Peter Martin article above) how can we feel rich?

I have a few ideas that I'm trying.

Not trying to keep up with the Joneses is a start. As Roosevelt said, "comparison is the thief of joy." If your salary increases, do not feel compelled to buy a bigger house, drive a flashier car and accumulate more gadgets (and more debt). Think of government benefits (eg the baby bonus) and tax cuts (eg private health insurance rebates) as privileges, not entitlements. Measure richness in concepts other than income, possessions and status - like friendships, health and freedom (including the freedom to make poor financial decisions). Spend time with people out of your income bracket - volunteer with newly arrived refugees, or old age pensioners.

I was reminded of this video today, the High Price of Materialism, which is relevant to this theme. - Center for a New American Dream

I hope you feel rich now.

Disclaimer: I am a rich single, employed home-owner with no dependents and I have never been poor.

Buy Nothing Day

Today was Buy Nothing Day. I bought nothing. I feel that I cheated a little, in that I didn't go near any retail or entertainment districts. However, yesterday I did brave the one day sale "event" of the big department store here in Perth. Whereas in previous years I would have fallen victim to heavy discounts on electronics, manchester, luggage, cosmetics and fashion, yesterday I just felt a bit ill about joining in the consumer frenzy and accumulating more stuff. I am finding it very easy to avoid buying new clothes, as I am currently reading To Die For: Is Fashion Wearing Out the World? by Lucy Siegle, about the environmental and human costs of garment production - not only of cheap, "fast fashion" labels but also of luxury brands.  I thought I already had pretty strict criteria for new clothing and accessory purchases (ethically made in Australia, made in a developed country or fair trade) but reading about the cotton and leather industries has put me off completely. 

Even staying away from stores today, I was bombarded via my RSS feeder to SAVE SAVE SAVE in online Black Friday sales from the USA. Black Friday sales occur in the USA (and even Canada) on the day after American Thanksgiving - Friday 23rd November this year. (Buy Nothing Day coincides with Black Friday in North America, as opposed to other countries where it is held on Saturday.) This year, some big businesses commenced their Black Friday sales on Thursday (Thanksgiving). The Seattle Times interviewed some people who left their family celebrations early to line up for sales (probably to buy gifts for the same family members they've abandoned with the cold turkey). Consumers will have a little time to rest up over the weekend before the onslaught of Cyber Monday online sales (an event that Australia's big retailers tried, and failed, to emulate this week with "Click Frenzy" aka #ClickFail).

Buy Nothing Day is not the only protest against Black Friday. As I mentioned in my previous post, Occupy Christmas is a movement to encourage consumers to purchase from local, independent designers and retailers, instead of "big box" retailers and global brands. Small Business Saturday, the day following Black Friday, also encourages North American consumers to patronise their local businesses. (It was founded in 2010 by American Express - think what you will about that.)

Online lifestyle retailer Holstee are promoting the idea of Block Friday to replace Black Friday, encouraging consumers to be mindful of how they spend their money and "seizing an important chance to spend quality time with friends, loved ones, and ourselves". True to their word, Holstee take their store offline on Black Friday, to allow their staff to spend time with loved ones. (Discovered via Unconsumption.)

This year on Black Friday, there were multiple demonstrations outside Walmart stores, protesting for better wages and conditions for Walmart's employees. You can support them here via the Story of Stuff site. Time will tell whether pay and benefits for employees of America's big retailers, many of whom live under the poverty line, will improve.

As for me, I will be following up Buy Nothing Day by attending local handmade design markets tomorrow, followed by a community street festival. I don't think my wallet will stay closed for long but at least the purchases will be thoughtful.

Occupy Christmas

A wise colleague told me earlier this year that we must "decry the rampant materialism" that has led to individualism.

The local TV news last night reported that there are 39 days until Christmas, then warned those us who have not commenced Christmas shopping that we had better start now. They also reported that residents of my state (Western Australia) are expected to spend $5 billion this Christmas (based on this report by the Australian Retailers Association). While I don't begrudge local retailers and producers a living, I do wonder how many Christmas gifts, decorations, cards and other purchases will end up in the bin long before next Christmas rolls around.

In 2012, Saturday November 24th is Buy Nothing Day. I first heard about BND via Adbusters magazine, which I used to read in Borders on Oxford Street. (Appropriately, I never purchased it.) BND is a protest against consumerism. It will be nearly impossible for most people reading this blog to buy nothing for one day because most of us are continuously paying things like rent, mortgage, insurance, utilities, education fees, phone bills and so on. However, it is possible to plan your day so you are not buying any food, drinks, fuel or "stuff" on BND.

A variation on BND is Occupy Christmas. This movement encourages us to purchase locally produced goods from independent retailers. Visit design markets, small independent stores and farmers markets and you won't be disappointed.

Will you give Buy Nothing Day or Occupy Christmas a go? I've found that participating in Buy Nothing New Month is still having a positive influence on my purchasing patterns.

I leave you with the words of the "world's poorest president", Jose Mujica of Uruguay, who decries the model of consumption in rich countries. He is interviewed in yesterday's BBC News Magazine:

"I'm called 'the poorest president', but I don't feel poor. Poor people are those who only work to try to keep an expensive lifestyle, and always want more and more. This is a matter of freedom. If you don't have many possessions then you don't need to work all your life like a slave to sustain them, and therefore you have more time for yourself. I may appear to be an eccentric old man... But this is a free choice."