Mining our non-financial resources

You can get lots of advice today about how to invest your money and how to cut your living expenses during this turbulent economy. You can also get many, often conflicting, opinions about what lies ahead financially. What has been less easy to come by are discussions of the resources we can draw on that have nothing to do with money.

In this economic crisis, who will we be for each other? What values and virtues are we drawing on in this storm? What are the qualities of human nature that determine our economic markets? These, and more, are questions that Krista Tippett, host of the "Speaking of Faith" radio program, asked many thoughtful people from the fields of economics, theology, literature, philosophy, banking, and urban activism. A sample of what they have to say:

• One of the things that should make us closer is our vulnerability...Riding the crest of the wave was exciting and exhilarating but there may be some advantages to being landed on the beach. Vigen Guroian, Armenian Orthodox theologian/educator


• The economy is based not on scientific principals, but on beliefs of what is a good life...money is simply stored energy...What's happening today is an opportunity to live more consciously according to your values, not the values of the culture. Rachel Naomi Remen, physician


• What is the dignified thing to do? They can take away our money, they can take away our jobs, but at the end of the day we have our conscience. What people have the opportunity to focus on right now is being there for the people in their lives. Greg Epstein, humanist chaplain

The complete discussion aired recently on Krista Tippett's weekly radio program, "Speaking of Faith," on National Public Radio. You can listen to it, as well as unedited interviews on this topic with more than a dozen thoughtful people, at the Speaking of Faith web site.

Keeping down with the Joneses

In the Conspicuous Consumption Department, peer pressure has been turned upside down. As the number of people losing their houses and their jobs rises, those who are still able to spend lavishly are losing their desire to do so. It's unseemly, decadent, even immoral, according to the could-be spenders interviewed for the New York Times article.

It shows that, for some, today's downturn may be the cure for compulsive shopping. “It’s kind of funny, but I feel much more satisfied with the things money can’t buy, like the well-being of my family," said Maxine Frankel, 59, a high school teacher from Illinois. "I’m just not seeking happiness from material things anymore.”

One of the experts, Juliet B. Schor, an economist at Boston College and the author of “The Overspent American: Upscaling, Downshifting and the New Consumer” (Basic Books, 1998), says the downturn has eliminated the need to compete, as we focus on those who are worse off. And, no doubt, as we focus on the fact that we are just one layoff away from being worse off, too.

What price fun?

Advance word on this year's Toy Fair, which starts Sunday in New York for some 20,000 buyers and sellers in the $22 billion industry, is that price matters. In an interview with MarketWatch, Hasbro CEO Brian Goldner said the company would be "dialing back" on some of its pricier toys in light of the recession and emphasized that most of its products retail for $20 or less. This doesn't include its Transformers line, based on kids' movies, which has roughly $500 million in annual sales.

Will one of the prominent players in today's dialing-back economy, Bernard Madoff, be on display at Toy Fair? Two months after Madoff was arrested and allegedly admitted to a decades-long Ponzi scheme that has liabilities of roughly $50 billion, HeroBuilders.com is selling the Bernie Madoff action figure, complete with a fistful of cash, for $149.95. Yes, of course there's a Rod Blogojevich figure, too. Same price.

If all this makes you want to snap your wallet shut, may I suggest Good Times Made Simple: The Lost Art of Fun and Tips for Parenting in a Consumer Culture, free booklets from the New American Dream organization. They may be the antidote for kids of all ages who are attracted to action figures of all kinds.