Sheer lack of thrift has caused more financial failures than anything
else. How many men there are to-day who might have become wealthy had
they only known how to save money! During the course of their careers
they have earned large sums, but these have slipped from their fingers
from day to day. They had the natural gift of making money, just as
their successful rivals, but they lacked the quality of permanent
success-which is thrift. -from "Money-Making and Money-Saving" The
United States in the late 1910s was a nation reeling economically from
the cost of fighting World War I, a cost that was ultimately
borne-according to Simon William Straus, president of the American
Society for Thrift-through a prudent parsimony. Here, he entreats the
nation not to forget this vital lesson of the war, and to begin a new
battle against the "crime of wastefulness." No mere matter of simply
saving money, thrift is, Straus explains, the strength of character to
spend wisely and with a thought toward the future, toward conserving
natural resources, and toward freedom from the shackles of mindless
consumerism-Straus' wise and sensible philosophy positions thrift as a
necessary cornerstone of morality and patriotism. As startling relevant
today as it was in 1920, when Straus laid out his plan for a frugal
America, this is a book to make us reconsider, as individuals and as a
nation, our financial strategies and priorities.
