I don’t know that this recession has made anyone more frugal. In fact, I was thinking about this as I walked around Walmart recently. When this recession hit, we had a chance to become more frugal like our grandparents. If we had, I would have expected fewer products but more made with great value. Instead, Walmart led the way through this recession by feeding our materialistic lifestyle with a lot of cheep junk. I just couldn’t get over the poor quality of the stuff that they carried. Low quality, low prices and people buying gobs of everything and everything made in a country that most shoppers couldn’t identify on a map.
What happened to Sam Walton’s signs, “Proudly made in the USA”? This recession made a generation of cheep stuff chasers if anything at all.

Frankly the whole argument is beyond reductionism:
It’s no accident that the psychology of entire generations is shaped by the milieu in which they grew up; economic research tells us that our lifelong behaviors are determined in large part by the seismic events–good or bad–of our youth.
So we are all defined now by “economic research?” It’s nice to know my whole life can now be neatly tied up in a Marxist package.

I have told my children on more than a few occasions, that after they tithe ten percent to the church, they need to put ten percent away in their savings for retirement. They should not wait until they are thirty or forty… they need to do it now.
In connection I have also said that they need to live simple lives so that they can save for retirement and give generously to others.

I’d say that there is already a “recession generation” that is quite active in the marketplace/workplace today. It’s also known as Generation X.
X-ers (my generation) bumped hard into the recessionary early- to mid-90s just when we were heading out of high school and college. That experience, I believe, differentiates the attitudes and actions of my cadre with the one before… and the more recent one after that came of age in the midst of the dot.com/real estate bubble of the late-90s to a year or so ago.

I think much remains to be seen. Many young Christians have reacted against the materialism (perceived or otherwise) of their parents generation, which I suspect *may* be deepened by the recent economic situation.
At the same time, there is an equal and opposite danger of accomodation, and spending patterns may not alter much.
The spending habits of young people will be an interesting thing to observe in coming years, including the way that they pass on financial values to *their* children as well.

Mich (#2) I don’t like economic reductionism any more than the next lady or guy, but what do you see that you are labeling “Marxist”?
Peace,
Randy G.

I think the stage is ripe for a rising culture of post-materialism. That is, a denial of instant satisfaction and consumerism. The ability to get things “instantly” will remain, of course, but it will necessarily be a commodity, rather than being perceived as a value-add. This is not a distinctively Christian movement either – it is much wider. Though a thoroughgoing Christian execution could emerge – with great influence. It is already being discussed, where most things start, on university campuses and classrooms.

I think the borrow-our-way-back-to-health idea ruined the corrective influence the downturn could have had. However, I do notice that more people in our circles seem to be trying to eat healthier and at home rather than eating out.
I am younger but I have noticed something common about those I’ve known from the Depression generation: a bucket of bent nails in the garage, just in case. Think about the guys you’ve known that experienced the depression – odds are on they’ve got a tin can somewhere with a bunch of nails and screws in it.

This recession, at least here int he UK, doesn’t compare anything like the 1930s… and will not produce similar long term results.
Additionally, here it was the war years (forced rationing) etc. that gave rise to the frugal generation of the 1940s’, not the recession of the 1930s.