The AUSTERITY CODE & POWER

In hard times, it's suddenly not so hard to think of ourselves shampooing the dogs, or washing and waxing our own car(s), or steam cleaning our own carpets, or doing some home wiring/plumbing, or even packing lunch to work and eschewing the Big Mac, or whatever. Perhaps instead of tossing out that pant, a little unobtrusive patchwork might not be amiss? In hard times, DIY becomes the order of the day. Outsourcing is just out, even when that means that we are going to lose some comforts and lose some of our now not so precious time.

All of this, and more, could be thought of as cost cutting. Budgeting, and budgeting, and stretching that cash to make ends somehow meet, and staying off those deadly little credit cards...

The other side of the coin is that all of a sudden, the few rupees or dollars in one's pocket take on a new power. Our economies survive, as they are, only because we earn and then we spend. When the spending drops, businesses have to figure out ways to again separate us from that cash.

Influencing what you will choose to do becomes the most important question that other businesses must find an answer to in order to crack the AUSTERITY CODE. If you still have a job, or a viable business, you have in your hands power, real power. What you are still willing to spend money on will do well, and whatever you avoid has to die.

Of course, this has in fact always been true. The thing is that in easier times we just don't notice. Keeping up with the Krishnans is so much easier when we are not feeling the pinch.

Subliminally, but effectively, advertisers are able to convince us that we just can't live without X or Y or Z, the cost really doesn't matter, but to make us feel a real sense of achievement, the bargain of the century is always there to be had, just don't miss THIS chance, AND with an unbelievably low EMI to boot!

The real power of the consumer - that's you - is that the economy cannot do without you. But, that doesn't mean that you are obligated to spend in any way except how you decide is best.

You may get to vote once in a couple of years but you do get to exercise a much more powerful economic (and hence even political) power with every single note that you pull out of your pocket.

Think about it. Think about it a lot, and start exercising your power, Now, and Forever.