Broke is Beautiful: September 2009

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Things You Can Do with Duct Tape

Thank you to Jen Lee for making me aware of the "There, I Fixed It" page. A collection of images of unglamorous fixes. It is a celebration of making do that is completely in the "Broke is Beautiful" spirit.

Think You're the Only Poor Slob in the "Richest Nation on Earth?"

Broke is Beautiful: Living and Loving the Cash Strapped Life, due out in Spring, is now listed on Amazon.com for pre-order. It has no cover yet, but you can put in your order anyway!

As we get closer to its release date I will start posting stories related to its theme: Enjoying your life as a broke person and being the best darned broke person you can be.

The Huffington Post put up a clip today from Bill Maher's show on HBO. (Who can afford premium channels?) I am passing it along because the panelists discuss one of the themes in the book. You're not worse off than everyone around you! Studies have shown that television viewers tend to mistake the characters they see on the box for their actual peers on some level, yet the folks on TV live lives of material abundance well beyond what you can get with your meager salary. How? The magic of fiction. Unfortunately those of us in the reality-based economy find it a bit hard to keep up, which gives us the impression that we're the only ones treading water. Relax. There's a lot of company in your pool.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Broke is Beautiful

Coming in Spring 2010 is my new book Broke is Beautiful. As the release approaches I will be using this space to talk about the upsides of the down economy. In the meantime, here is a film from The Onion on culture clashes between the old poor and the nouveau poor.

Report: Growing Ranks Of Nouveau Poor Facing Discrimination From Old Poor

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Do Not Tire of Doing Good

In an article published last September. MSNBC reported that Pope Benedict continued with a campaign started by his predecessor, John Paul II, who worried that the affluent West was turning consumerism into a kind of religion and ignoring its Christian roots of spiritual values.

Paraphrasing from the New Testament, Benedict decried “insatiable greed” and said “the love of money is the root of all evil.”

“Have not money, the thirst for possessions, for power and even knowledge, diverted man from his true destiny?” the pope asked.

Benedict blasted modern society’s thirst for these new “pagan” idols as a “scandal, a real plague.”

The pope urged the faithful to “shun the worship of idols. Do not tire of doing good!”’