Attitudes like that forum poster make things worse. Quite honestly, even if I could afford to buy a coffee at Starbucks every morning (assuming I liked coffee, that is), I wouldn't on principle, since I dislike their company. I don't have cable TV either, and even if right now I can't afford it, when I could afford it I didn't have it because there was too little worth watching and not enough free time to watch it anyway. But when a lot of people start thinking that the standard "living zone" begins at being able to buy $4 drinks in the morning and spend money on things you won't use enough, there's a serious problem.
People also seem to have a problem accepting the lifestyles of those who aren't blatant consumerists, too. The shift in attitude from penny-pinching to spending money all over the place isn't really a good one. I noticed during the US recession that it was people who had practiced frugality for years who didn't have much of a change in their standard of living, if any change came at all, and a lot of them were doing very well for themselves.
Hell, I went for years without a cell phone, figuring that for the amount of calls I make when I'm outside, spending 25 cents on a payphone would be cheaper than $30 a month for a cell phone just made the most financial sense. The only reason I have a cell phone now is because my mother offered to pay for it until I get a job again, and an emergency last winter in which a cell phone would have been very handy convinced me that it would be foolish of me to refuse that offer.
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People also seem to have a problem accepting the lifestyles of those who aren't blatant consumerists, too. The shift in attitude from penny-pinching to spending money all over the place isn't really a good one. I noticed during the US recession that it was people who had practiced frugality for years who didn't have much of a change in their standard of living, if any change came at all, and a lot of them were doing very well for themselves.
Hell, I went for years without a cell phone, figuring that for the amount of calls I make when I'm outside, spending 25 cents on a payphone would be cheaper than $30 a month for a cell phone just made the most financial sense. The only reason I have a cell phone now is because my mother offered to pay for it until I get a job again, and an emergency last winter in which a cell phone would have been very handy convinced me that it would be foolish of me to refuse that offer.