Savings or Social Engineering?

There are lots of suggestions about how to save your money at FeedThePig.org. The theory is, if you strictly follow the instructions on saving money, eventually you will have enough to start living a better lifestyle. Does that math really work? You must look beyond your normal perception of events to the long-term consequences of your behavior.

What would happen if you decided to do what you normally thought was the right thing and stopped buying foreign-made products? If you chose not to purchase something that was not made in your country, who would get hurt? The factory workers in another country, but also everyone involved in packaging, shipping, distribution, purchasing, displaying and selling at the destination, your own neighborhood. How likely would you be able to find a similar product that was made in your country? By now it would have been priced out of the market and made extinct, because everyone's a bargain shopper.

Let's pretend that everyone eating at restaurants decide to only order water as their beverage, skip the appetizers, and share one dessert like so many penny-pinching tipsters suggest. How much overhead does the restaurant charge for operating expenses on only the main course? Could the restaurant stay in business only on the profits from the main course? If not, what do you think would happen to the cost of the main course? Clearly the lack of interest in more expensive beverages, appetizers, and desserts for individuals would require that costs be shifted to the main course.

Cost redistribution by suggestion is one type of subtle market manipulation that occurs outside normal human narcissistic perception of reality. Some people proudly brag about saving twenty cents per gallon at the fuel pump, but they likely didn't think about the time and fuel they used driving to that particular station. The costs are actually the same or higher, they are just redistributed to you in a way you cannot perceive, clouded by distorted values that appear to be satisfied on an immediate level.