Hubris
Yesterday, I heard a commentary on American Public Media’s great program, Marketplace. The piece, by Moira Manion, was about how Ms. Manion is looking forward to a recession. It seems Manion is debt-free and she feels fully confident she can always bring in enough for monthly expenses (she proudly proclaims she nets $1,200 per month working a retail job at an airport).
Not only was the piece distasteful, it reflected a stunning hubris. Manion seems to believe that anyone with debt (any debt) is an irresponsible consumerist, buying big screen TVs and expensive shoes.
“No, the people who need to worry are the people I see every day: Customers with 10 credit cards that are all maxed out. People with two cars, two kids, a mortgage and no savings. The fresh-out-of-college guy who bought a $190,000 condo, while owing $40,000 in student loans, and who still hasn’t found his ‘dream job.’”
Better than you
One of the complaints I read about personal finance writers (including bloggers) is that they exude a holier-than-thou attitude. I truly hope I don’t ever sound like Ms. Manion on this blog. If I do, please feel free to cyber-slap me. I’m not writing to proclaim how awesome I am. The fact is, my family often busts our budget, we owe money on a mortgage, and I don’t have all the answers.
On the contrary, I feel an almost constant underlying dis-ease. I suffer from the feeling that financial disaster is only one step away. And I feel this way regardless of our current financial situation.
I’m sure it’s a combination of biology and experience causing this. Economic behavior is funny that way, I guess. I read that the same percentage of people polled agree with the statement “I always/often worry about my finances” regardless of whether they were middle class or extremely wealthy.
So as for me, I hope there isn’t a recession. Because I know people with debt aren’t bad people, and they certainly don’t deserve the pain a recession would bring. Regardless of how many credit cards they’ve maxed out.
I understand the phrase, “There but for the grace of God go I.”
media
November 8th, 2007 at 12:08 pm
Those people she looks down on are the ones keeping her in her retail airport job. If no one buys anything she’s a bit up a creek, eh?
November 8th, 2007 at 12:16 pm
[…] KMC at Advanced Personal Finance just read (heard?) a piece on Marketplace which exemplified the hubric some people see in PF bloggers. He hopes you’ll smack him if he ever talks like that. And you can smack me too. It’s not all skittles and bunnies. […]
November 8th, 2007 at 12:21 pm
Wow, you really read in a lot into a two minute commentary. I’m in the same situation as Ms. Manion, and I feel the same way she does. I didn’t get her saying that she’s always going to have enough. I listen to Marketplace all the time and have heard her otehr commentaries, and she’s said lots of times that she knows what it’s like to not have jobs or insurance and to be broke. I work retail clothing and people are always bragging about how much they spent and how they’re responsible for my job (dream on). Their credit cards bounce and I have to cut up their cards right there.
Like she says people like me will find a job because I’m resourceful and I live within my budget. I don’t see anything wrong with saying that people who don’t will be in trouble. She didn’t say debt was wrong, she said too much debt is. she’s talking about people I see at work too, people who buy a Coach bag for a thousand dollars and don’t save because they think they’ll always have money.
November 8th, 2007 at 4:04 pm
@ Anonymous - I appreciate your comment. What galled me about Manion’s piece was her G.W.Bush-like “Bring it on.” She was actually welcoming a recession as a way of punishing people she felt ‘deserved’ it. I can’t go for that.
November 8th, 2007 at 4:14 pm
I’m also in the money - security issues camp, as well as not being as successful as I know I should be with my own finances. I think extreme examples of overspending are largely a myth, in that it’s the overspending by a little over a long time can be more damaging.
November 8th, 2007 at 4:28 pm
Wow, a very interesting article, and I agree with much of the spirit of your post. In fact, so much so that my own personal finance blog is title “There But for the Grace of God.”
When reading certain personal finance posts and stories I often comes across writers who seem put down the behavior and choices of one group in order to promote those of another (or their own) group. I think it’s always possible to promote and advocate for certain behaviors without bashing others or making an us vs. them situation out of it or demonizing those who do things differently or are in different situations. (And by the way I haven’t heard the piece you refer to so none of my comments refer to that commentary in particular.)
Not at all or necessarily even most pf writers do this of course, as you noted, but I think without that type of attitude from those who do, all parties would likely benefit. If the point of the posts is to help others (that is the point right?), why alienate so many who may need the help anyway? Plus, that type of attitude can turn off even those who are in the demographic the writer is trying to relate to. Worst of all,when we continually judge others we are doing ourselves a disservice, I believe.
I am guilty of it too, of course; it’s human nature to judge others esp. because it often makes us feel better about our own situations. But it is not the answer, at least not for me, and I find that type of approach to be polarizing and divisive instead of unifying and supportive (in my opinion).
Thought provoking post!
November 8th, 2007 at 6:52 pm
I think of lot people who are now financially secure are rather smug. I’ve blogged in the past that personal finance bloggers are smug. I think people should take credit for their accomplishments, I don’t think false modesty is such a great thing. However there’s now need to disparage others, everyone has their own financial journey to make. Educate others, don’t disparage them.
November 9th, 2007 at 8:39 am
@ plonkee - You have a really great point. I think you’re right that, in many cases, it’s the occasional budget overage that just snowballs until you have a great big credit card debt.
@dong - I do write in the hope of educating. That’s why I started this blog - educate and learn.
November 9th, 2007 at 2:50 pm
I agree with you and I always say there but for the grace of God go I.
I’m impressed that Ms. Manion can live on $1200 per month.
November 11th, 2007 at 6:44 am
Well said KMC. There are people out there who have borrowed too much and live beyond their means but for most people this does not apply. PF bloggers have to stop assuming that everyone makes “average” wages, a lot of young people, especially these days, make a lot of money. Moira Manion probably takes comfort in looking at people who have luxury goods and assuming they have no cash but most of those people probably do very well while some may just be overextended. I know a lot of people who have bought expensive apartments and cars at pretty young ages and people may assume they are overextending themselves because they are so young and buying these things but they are actually doing very well. In a lot of places making over $100K per year for a 25 year old is no big deal. Friends of mine that work in IT make that much and that is not a hard field to get into! My older brother is 28, he graduated from a top law school 3 years ago and has over $100k in student debt. But he is earning almost $400K per year now and it is growing quickly. Someone like Ms. Manion would probably hear about his student debt and feel so superior to him even though in one year he makes what she does in 10 years and probably saves more in one year than she has saved up in her entire life so far.
November 12th, 2007 at 8:58 am
@ James - good examples. I’d also add that many young people like your brother don’t have many expenses someone a bit older does (children, mortgage, parents to help). That alone frees up more money for consumption.
June 28th, 2008 at 8:45 am
Those of you who think Ms. Manion is the greatest thing since sloced bread don’t know her. This woman has schliped from one retail outlet to another every 6 to 9 months because she is one of the worst employees ever to have worked at the MSP airport.
Take any position she has worked at and talk with any employee at any location and they will tell you just how lazy, inept and incompetent she is. She is running out of retail options and burns her bridge at every retail spot she has ever worked at.
This woman is a lose cannon. Not one employee will tell you she is liked. She alienates herself from management to customers and then complains that she is underpaid and unliked. Give yourself a BREAK, Ms. Manion. I have seen you at what you call WORK. You stand there like a statue, seldom engage customers, have the lowest self esteem and energy of any employee, don’t fulfill any shift duties and then whine you are being treated unfairly.
Your Opp EDs on various blogs, web sites and with stump sitters at MPR is a joke. You claim you’re being treated unfairly, but ask anyone of the people who have had the druggery of having to put up with working with you and you will see just how few friends you have. I don’t know of a single person who has anything good to say about you, your ethics, ability to get along with others, your sad customer service skills, your whinning about everyone and that you have anything positiove to contribute to any job. You are a train wrek in the making and everyone at MSP knows it.
You need to take your paddle and conoe and head down river and don’t come back. You are a disgrace to all workers at MSP and don’t deserve to work along side of the many good people in all the stores you have burned your perverbial bridge with.