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The Story of a Misunderstood American Virtue
Little Brown and Company
September 2009
On Sale: September 1, 2009
320 pages
ISBN: 0316030287
EAN: 9780316030281
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction | Self-Help Money
Cheap.
Cheap suit. Cheap date. Cheap shot. It’s a dirty word, an
epithet laden with negative meanings. It’s also the story of
Lauren Weber’s life. As a child, she resented her father for
setting the thermostat 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. Should she be horrified…
or proud? In hard times, questions about Americans’ conflicted
relationship with consumption and frugality become more
urgent and provocative. 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.
Lauren 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.
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