Philip Adamson: Do your bit for the community and shop 'til you drop

Opinion

There's an expression from Britain's distant past class system, "Noblesse Oblige". I've often wondered how it should be pronounced, but I am very clear on what it meant.

It referred to the obligations the wealthy upper-class landowners had to the surrounding commoners, the villages and the community.

If the local church was having a fundraising fair it was considered only proper that the lord of the manor would donate something substantial to help it along - perhaps some livestock to be raffled, or perhaps food for the workers.

The obligations were many and varied. Significantly, the duties of the upper classes in this area were discharged cheerfully, without question. Noblesse Oblige - we have a duty to help those less fortunate than ourselves.

Well, it is time for us to do the same, but with far less altruistic undertones.

Let me explain by example. My wife and I both have good jobs, they are with stable businesses, and it looks like we'll continue to be employed for the foreseeable future.

In order to avoid those money arguments that we hear many couples have we each keep our own salary in separate accounts and contribute a portion into a joint account, from which we pay all the joint expenses - everything from the mortgage, the power and the phone bills through to going out to dinner, away for a weekend, or buying a new Coldplay CD.

Normally at the end of each month the joint account has a couple of hundred dollars left in it before we start the cycle again.

But in the past few months there's been a lot more left as payday rolls around. The balance is now up over $1000 in fact. Why is this?

The only thing I can put it down to is that the constant media bombardment reminding us that there is a recession is causing us to slow down a bit with our spending.

It's not even a conscious thing, but we are indeed going out to dinner a little less, not buying luxury items, not going clothes shopping unless we really need to. And this is really stupid behaviour, as we both have good, secure jobs.

All we are doing is feeding the vicious spiral that the economy is in and we HAVE to stop doing this, we all have to! Yes, there are people losing their jobs, there are businesses in trouble, there are people having a hard time.

And of course there are families who will always need to be budget-conscious. I'm not talking about those individuals.

What I am saying is when those of us who AREN'T actually forced to cut back start doing so anyway, we really, really make it worse for everyone else and, in fact, push things over the edge for others as the ripples spread far and wide.

My deciding not to buy that new DVD player this month - even though I could happily do so - multiplied by hundreds of people all brainwashed the same way is seriously affecting retailers. And when they don't sell DVD players, they can't spend money and they can't buy shoes, or wine, or other luxury items themselves.

Or maybe even necessities. And the ripples spread further, for no reason other than the fact that we're being brainwashed by the media into keeping our wallets closed "just in case" something goes wrong.

This is such nonsense. Sure, don't run out and borrow in order to spend money you don't have, don't take risks and get into debt, but for goodness sake, if you have a job and you normally go out to dinner or buy shoes, then get out and do some shopping and do your bit for keeping the economy moving.

There really isn't any reason to do without; all you're doing is forcing other people to miss out.

It's not really the same principle as Noblesse Oblige, I know. In those class-divided days of glorious Britain the rich gave their money away to help the poor and got nothing more than a smile and some satisfaction from a charity carried out with dignity.

You don't do that, you actually get stuff for your money, stuff you want, stuff you decide to pay for with the money that you're earning.

But the effect on the recipient of that money, the retailer you spend it with, will certainly start putting smiles on faces - his because he made a sale and can pay the rent, and yours because you have a new appliance or a bottle of wine you're really going to enjoy.

Don't stop saving, that would be silly. But please, if you have a job, don't stop spending. You owe it to your community.

* Philip Adamson is managing director of Outsource IT Ltd, Auckland.