Everything is Backwards

Bankrate.com has an interesting article about how certain things we deem “needs” more likely belong in the category “wants” or even “entitlements.”

Jay McDonald writes,

A lot of us in wealthy, overspending America are either born or raised with a tremendous sense of entitlement. We say to ourselves, ‘I work hard or, I work at a job I hate — at least I should be able to have a Starbucks coffee every day or eat out for lunch.’ But of course, those are not needs, they’re wants. They’re pleasures.

A more theological treatment can be found here.

Personally, about 10 years ago, I had been buried under a pile of credit card debt that took a lot of discipline to pay for. I wish I had this perspective during those childish years of plastic swiping foolishness.

McDonald lists 12 things many Americans feel entitled to that can be a big drain on your budget.

12. The Daily Latte; this costs about 100 times the price of a home brewed variety.

11. Cable TV. This costs up to $780 per year.

10. Manicure/Pedicure.

9. Botox.

8. Bottled Water. This is one of the funniest scams ever perpetrated on the American public. Honestly, planet earth’s most abundant resource is bottled and sold for more than the cost of a soft drink. Buy a Brita filter.

7. Second Car.

6. Cell Phone. This is a tough one, because certain professions require constant contact. But a teenager? No way.

5. Lawn Service.

4. Clothes (excessive)

3. Private School

2. Childhood parties

1. Pet Grooming.

This is just a start, but most American middle class people could probably find several places to trim the budget and be more frugal. I know I could.

So write Joel Kotkin, in The American.

In this article, Kotkin asserts that large metropolitan areas have become havens for the uber-rich while the poor insist on sticking around since they can be difficult to displace.

What he argues is that there is something missing in this equation: a thriving middle class. And a staple of the American middle class is strong, healthy churches. Without a middle class, cities become playgrounds for the rich and their “servants,” and are largely “without children, particularly of school-age.” Even though large cities boast about being places of great diversity, the lack of a strong middle class makes them “hip, dense versions of the most constipated suburb imaginable.”

Large cities should look beyond the “luxury city” and begin to work hard to attract middle class people with families. Of course, this isn’t as ritzy and glamorous as other alternatives, but long term, middle class residents are necessary for the viability and sustainability of large cities long term.

Kotkin adds,

the sustainable city of the future will depend precisely on commitment and long-term residents. It also will rest on the revival of traditional institutions that have faded in many of today’s cities. Churches—albeit often in reinvented form—help maintain and nurture such communities. Similarly, extended family networks will be critical to future successful urban areas. As Queens resident and real estate agent Judy Markowitz puts it, “In Manhattan people with kids have nannies. In Queens, we have grandparents.”

By any reasonable measure, the urban core of Cincinnati needs more of these “traditional institutions” to build into the infrastructure of the city. What that means is this: middle class families need to start churches in the cities, as well as revitalize old and dying congregations, by moving into the city and enmeshing themselves into local neighborhoods. This creates a bedrock upon which future generations can build.