In Cheap We Trust, Lauren Weber
In Cheap We Trust, Lauren Weber
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In Cheap We Trust
The Story of a Misunderstood American Virtue

Author: Lauren Weber

Narrator: Marguerite Gavin

Unabridged: 9 hr 5 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Ascent Audio

Published: 01/29/2010


Synopsis

Cheap.

Cheap suit. Cheap date. Cheap shot. It's a dirty word, an epithet laden with negative meanings. It is also the story of Lauren Weber's life. As a child, she resented her father for keeping the heat at 50 degrees through the frigid New England winters and rarely using his car's turn signals-to keep them from burning out. But as an adult, when she found herself walking 30 blocks to save $2 on subway fare, she realized she had turned into him.

In this lively treatise on the virtues of being cheap, Weber explores provocative questions about Americans' conflicted relationship with consumption and frugality. Why do we ridicule people who save money? Where's the boundary between thrift and miserliness? Is thrift a virtue or a vice during a recession? And was it common sense or obsessive-compulsive disorder that made her father ration the family's toilet paper?

In answering these questions, In Cheap We Trust offers a colorful ride through the history of frugality in the United States. Readers will learn the stories behind Ben Franklin and his famous maxims, Hetty Green (named "the world's greatest miser" by the Guinness Book of Records) and the stereotyping of Jewish and Chinese immigrants as cheap.

Weber also explores contemporary expressions and dilemmas of thrift. From Dumpster-diving to economist John Maynard Keynes's "Paradox of Thrift" to today's recession-driven enthusiasm for frugal living, In Cheap We Trust teases out the meanings of cheapness and examines the wisdom and pleasures of not spending every last penny.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Jacki

[URL not allowed] The Story: The first half of this book was basically a brief history of America’s spending and saving habits. It started from the Puritans who first settled here and went through May of 2008. She talked a lot about the role that women have played in household......more

Goodreads review by Susan

In an era when a president encourages us to buy-buy-buy in the aftermath of an enemy attack and "consumer confidence" is measured by how willing we are to shell out our shillings for things we may or may not need, a book about our complicated attitudes toward consumption and thrift is timely, to say......more

Goodreads review by Jo

I listened to the audiobook and enjoyed it. I’m interested in American history and thrift (and all the related and/or competing things like sustainability, materialism, commercialism, and investment) so this book was right up my alley. If nothing else I learned that you can make your own Hersey’s sy......more

Received for free through Goodreads First Reads. This was not at all what I expected it to be, but I was pleasantly surprised. In CHEAP We Trust is both a history of cheapness (you can call it thrift if you like, if it helps you sleep at night, but let's face it, you're cheap) and a guide to how to l......more

Goodreads review by Kara

3.5 stars. I wouldn't consider myself an overly thrifty person, but I do hate waste, which is why this book's premise intrigued me so much initially. However, this book is more of a historical review of America's economy through the lens of cheapness than it is a how-to guide about living a thrifty......more