Simplify to Survive

In our longing to find relief from the demands and stresses of our lives, the key to preparation and survival is often, simplification. One of the most visible symptoms of the intrusion of the world into our lives is the large flat screen TV. This obsession with huge displays was recently parodied in an episode of Monk. Police Lieutenant Randy Disher purchased a huge TV display to watch a major football game, in the course of trying to get the TV up to his apartment, the display became wedged in the staircase and Randy ends up watching the game upside down while lying on his back. He is joined in the hallway by Natalie Teeger, Monk's assistant who, at the end of the episode, possibly sarcastically comments, that watching the game upside down really is better than being there. (For all you fans, this summer is the final 8th Season of Monk).

The giant TV wedged in a hallway is a metaphor for how our desires to have the ultimate in possessions will often rule our lives. If we think that we will be that much happier or that much more important if we own a huge TV, then we need to reflect on the real values in our lives and start eliminating things that do not contribute to real security and happiness.

In a talk given at the October Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Elder L. Tom Perry of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles commented on the basic needs of life and the spiritual (and economic) benefits of a simplified life style. He listed food, clothing, shelter and fuel, borrowing the list from Henry David Thoreau. As a summary of the concept, he quoted Elder William R. Bradford, “In righteousness there is great simplicity. In every case that confronts us in life there is either a right way or a wrong way to proceed. If we choose the right way, we are sustained in our actions by the principles of righteousness, in the which there is power from the heavens. If we choose the wrong way and act on that choice, there is no such heavenly promise or power, and we are alone and are destined to fail” (“Righteousness,” Liahona, Jan. 2000, 103; Ensign, Nov. 1999, 85).

He concluded with these thoughts, which might be a good thing to remember as we think about buying another huge TV, "In our search to obtain relief from the stresses of life, may we earnestly seek ways to simplify our lives. May we comply with the inspired counsel and direction the Lord has given us in the great plan of happiness. May we be worthy to have the companionship of the Holy Ghost and follow the guidance of the Spirit as we navigate this mortal journey. May we prepare ourselves to accomplish the ultimate purpose of this mortal test—to return and live with our Heavenly Father"

Worshiping at the shrines of commercialism

It was Sunday again and the worshipers were filling the malls in their weekly devotions at the New Age Church of Commercial Enterprise. The crowds begin showing up before the doors even open to avoid sitting on the back seats. The music plays incessantly, repeating the words of veneration emanating from the Cathedrals of Consumption (Kowinski, William Severini. The Malling of America: Travels in the United States of Shopping. [United States]: Xlibris Corp, 2002).

Shopping has become the major cultural activity in our "united states of shopping" and many people have substituted a trip to the mall for sabbath worship. Although the actual day of observance is sometimes disputed, there is little dispute among Christians as to the existence of a sabbath day. See Exodus 31: 16-17 16 Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual ^acovenant. 17 It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in ^asix days the Lord ^bmade heaven and earth, and on the ^cseventh day he ^drested, and was ^erefreshed. See also Mosiah 18: 23 And he commanded them that they should observe the ^asabbath day, and keep it holy, and also every day they should give thanks to the Lord their God.

In an article entitled "The Sabbath--Holy Day or Holiday" Elder Charles Didier of the Presidency of the Seventy asked the questions "Now is the time to ask ourselves: Is the Sabbath a holy day or a holiday? Shall I worship the Lord or worship pleasures and recreation?"

We may ask ourselves the same questions.

The time to prepare for a layoff is before it happens

This week the news has been filled with gloomy predictions regarding employment. Major companies announced the lay off or laid off over 40,000 additional employees. Unemployment in the U.S. rose to 7.2 percent in December of 2008.

The time to prepare for a layoff is long before it happens. One of my friends confided in me that they will lose their home in a couple of months due to a layoff. But if you have no contingency plan in place, this could be a natural consequence. It is difficult in these times not to take an "I told you so" attitude but my heart goes out to those suffering, even if it is from their own choices. I feel so bad for those who are out of work and for their families.

President Gordon B. Hinckley, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints lifted a warning voice back in 1998. You can watch and listen as a prophet of God gives advice on the coming hard times, more than ten years ago.

President Hinckley said, speaking of his counselor, James Faust;

President Faust would not tell you this himself. Perhaps I can tell it, and he can take it out on me afterward. He had a mortgage on his home drawing 4 percent interest. Many people would have told him he was foolish to pay off that mortgage when it carried so low a rate of interest. But the first opportunity he had to acquire some means, he and his wife determined they would pay off their mortgage. He has been free of debt since that day. That’s why he wears a smile on his face, and that’s why he whistles while he works.

I urge you, brethren, to look to the condition of your finances. I urge you to be modest in your expenditures; discipline yourselves in your purchases to avoid debt to the extent possible. Pay off debt as quickly as you can, and free yourselves from bondage.

If you had given heed to President Hinckley's warning more than ten years would have passed and possibly, you would have freed yourself from the bondage of a mortgage. Possibly, you would not have ridden the waves of speculation in the housing bubble and you would have taken the time to pay off your mortgage and become debt free. There is certainly a lesson here.

I hope that if you were not one of the prudent ones who paid off your mortgage that you will take heed in the future. You will not continue to bind yourself through costly interest. As you seek work, seek also to follow the counsel of a living prophet. Get out of debt!

The Compulsive Shopper

Even in the best of economic times, a compulsive shopper can court financial disaster. In a crashing economy, compulsive shopping is even more destructive. In families and particularly between husband and wife, money management or the lack thereof, is one of the major areas for disagreement and disharmony. From a Los Angeles Times article, "A study published in the October 2006 issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry found that at some point in the lives of an estimated 5.8% of the U.S. population, shopping will become a source of shame, a cry for help, the cause of job losses and broken relationships, a road to financial ruin. They are “compulsive buyers” – troubled by intrusive impulses to shop, prone to lose track of time while doing so, plagued by post-purchase remorse, guilt and financial woes and sometimes given up on by loved ones."

The article quoted by the Times is called Estimated Prevalence of Compulsive Buying Behavior in the United States, published in Am J Psychiatry 2006 163: 1806-1812. The article notes that for "some adults, shopping is also a leisure activity (1), a means of managing emotions (2), or a way to establish and express self-identity (3). For others, the inability to control buying urges brings significant adverse consequences (4, 5). Uncontrolled problematic buying behavior has been referred to as uncontrolled buying (4), compulsive buying (6), compulsive shopping (7), addictive buying (8), excessive buying (9), and "spendaholism" (10)." [numbers are to references in the article].

The article notes that "[t]he adverse consequences include guilt or remorse, excessive debt, bankruptcy, family conflict, divorce, illegal activities, such as writing bad checks and embezzlement, and even suicide attempts." In my personal experience, I have seen nearly all of these consequences.

I think there is an appropriate quote from Blaise Pascal (1623-1662):

Qu’est-ce donc que nous crie cette avidité et cette impuissance, sinon qu’il y a eu autrefois en l’homme un véritable bonheur dont il ne lui reste maintenant que la marque et la trace toute vide, qu’il essaye inutilement de remplir de tout ce qui l’environne, en cherchant dans les choses absentes le secours qu’il n’obtient pas des présentes, et que les unes et les autres sont incapables de lui donner, parce que ce gouffre infini ne peut être rempli que par un objet infini et immuable, c'est-à-dire que par Dieu même. (Project Gutenburg)

Translation: What does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace? This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object, in other words by God himself.

Diderot Effect

The Diderot Effect was first described by Denis Diderot (1713-1784) in an essay entitled Regrets on Parting with My Old Dressing Gown [Regrets sur ma vieille robe de chambre]. Wikipedia explains the Diderot Effect as follows:

The Diderot Effect is the result of the interaction between objects within "product complements", or "Diderot unities", and consumers. A Diderot unity is a group of objects that are considered to be culturally complementary in relation to one another. For example, items of clothing, furniture, vehicles, etc. McCracken describes that a consumer is less likely to veer from a preferred Diderot unity in order to strive towards unity in appearance and representation of one's social role. However, it can also mean that if an object that is somehow deviant from the preferred Diderot unity is acquired, it may have the effect of causing the consumer to start subscribing to a completely different Diderot unity.

In simpler terms, the Diderot Effect describes the propensity people have to either complete a set of something or to make things match. Carried to an extreme, like some people I have known, purchase of new curtains ends up with the purchase of a new house, i.e. you need new furniture to go with the curtains, new carpeting to go with the furniture, new paint to go with the new carpets, then on to a new house for the new furniture and so forth.

This compulsion can only be overcome by recognizing the effect before the second purchase. You do not need new dinnerware because you bought a new set of glasses. Unfortunately, almost every ad you see tries to tell you otherwise. HomeDepot's success in "home improvement" depends, to a large measure, on people upgrading everything all the time. This effect is particularly pervasive in the area of fashion. You buy a new shirt and need matching tie and pants, or a new skirt and need matching blouse and purse.

Part of the effect also concerns the desire to have items that will fulfill a supposed need, i.e. if I just get a little bit faster computer, I will be able to do my work that much faster and better. Although some of these desires may be valid, to avoid a never ending spiral of purchases, you have to evaluate each purchase in terms of real value added and whether or not you will really use the newer or replacement item. If you haven't used that camera for a year, will purchasing a new one really change your pattern of use?

Being prepared includes the idea that you can actually cope with modern life and prosper, not just survive. Prosperity comes through making right choices consistently. Buying something new is not bad, by itself, but it can be, if you fail to understand that prosperity does not mean having new everything.

Deciding between needs and wants

How we chose to spend our time and resources decidedly influences our spiritual and material well being. An important factor in that choice is our ability to distinguish between needs and wants, between those items of our material culture that improve our life and those that have a negative impact on our spirit. As Evita sings:

And as for fortune and as for fame
I never invited them in
Though it seemed to the world
They were all I desired
They are illusions
They're not the solutions
They promise to be
The answer was here all the time

The choices we make concerning our possessions will affect our spirit. As it says in Moses 3:5; "For I, the Lord God, created all things, of which I have spoken, spiritually, before they were naturally upon the face of the earth.... And I, the Lord God, had created all the children of men; and not yet a man to till the ground; for in heaven created I them"

If we can recognize the spiritual nature of the physical world, we may be able to begin to separate those physical things that we need, food, clothes and shelter from those that we only want and can live without. There is a danger that this consideration alone, in its extreme, can lead to asceticism and withdrawal from society. But, contrary to this form of extreme denial, we can achieve a higher potential by focusing on a balance between the material and spiritual. Much of the fear we experience comes from our concern about our material well being, when our concern should be directed more to the well being of our spirit. We should consider whether acquiring another physical item will in itself add to our spiritual well being or decrease our ability to appreciate what is really important to our lives.

It is basic human nature to trust in the security of objects, however, security never comes from the acquisition of more objects, no matter how many things we have around us it is never enough to make us secure. We always believe that one more (fill in the blank) will make us truly happy. When true happiness comes as a condition of the soul, the result of righteous living in accordance with eternal principles. True happiness is a conscious decision. The security we all seek, to overcome the fear of loss comes only from this willingness to do the will of God even in difficult circumstances.

The cost of status consumption

Branded selling is so pervasive in our society there is virtually no refuge from viewing advertisements aimed at convincing us that we must purchase a certain named product. Even the lunch trays in airplanes are now covered with ads. It is amazing that years after purchasing a car, the owners are still driving around with a decal and or a license plate holder advertising the dealer where the car was purchased, many of whom have long gone out of business. Even the receipts you get at the store now carry a heavy dose of advertising and special sales promotions.

Our susceptibility to brand advertising is linked to our propensity to make status purchases. We may be able to find exactly the same quality or even the same goods at Walmart or other discount outlets, but we still pay more for the same product. The generic oat cereal may be exactly the same as Cheerios, but we buy the brand. I have known people who would literally rather die than eat cracked wheat. Not because they didn't like the flavor etc. but because they associated eating cracked wheat with poverty. The same people would pay five times more for cosmetics or clothes, simply because they came from a prestigious department store rather than from an outlet.

It is absolutely undeniable that consumers will purchase brand-oriented products and pay a large percentage of the price for advertising when the higher priced products are only symbolically different but not functionally different from lower-priced products. For a good discussion of this phenomenon see Schor, Juliet. The Overspent American: Upscaling, Downshifting, and the New Consumer. New York, NY: Basic Books, 1998.

If you doubt this conclusion, go into any mall and sit and watch the people who pass by and see how many logos and trademarks you can count on shoes, shirts and pants.

Why is this an issue? Do our children really need babygear from Fisher Price? Will our child's development be stunted because we don't buy him a GeoAir or her a Snuggle-Kins baby swing? will our lives be of any less value if we drive a Hyundai rather than a BMW? Thinking about how and why we make purchases is one large step to financial independence. It is also part of living in the world and not being of the world. If we purchase a toy for our child or grandchild and find it in pieces scattered around the house, doesn't that tell us something about the real value of the product? Think of all the great men of history who grew up without Legos?

Let's think about our needs and not our wants.