Once humans invented agriculture, they learnt the value of saving seeds for planting and surplus food for the winter.

From the FT:

"Puritans( DON'T CALL US ROUNDHEADS ) versus spendthrifts( LIBERALS IN THE US ): recession’s culture war

By John Willman

Published: January 9 2009 19:57 | Last updated: January 9 2009 19:57

Sexual intercourse began in 1963( PRIOR TO THAT, HUMANS WERE FORGED ), according to the English poet( NOT MUCH SCIENCE EH ), Philip Larkin – around the same time as the US historian, David Tucker, pinpoints the death of America’s love affair with thrift( COULD IT HAVE TO DO WITH THE RISING STANDARD OF LIVING? ). In the affluent society created by the postwar boom, instant gratification( I HAD REAL PROBLEMS GETTING A DATE. I WOULDN'T CALL IT INSTANT. )replaced the deferred variety, and consumption eclipsed frugality as the spirit of the age( SOUNDS A HELL OF A LOT FUNNER. ). ( APPARENTLY SEXUAL LIBERTINES ARE ALSO BIG SPENDERS. )

Today saving is back in vogue( AS IS ABSTINENCE. ), as western economies struggle to recover from the after-effects of spending supercharged by excessive( I SAY ILL-ADVISED ) borrowing. However, the task facing the world’s leaders is to persuade( INDUCE ) terrified consumers( THE DREADED SAVINGS SPREE. ) to spend like there is no tomorrow – and that a return to thrift would make matters much worse.( TELL THEM THAT THEY CAN ONLY HAVE SEX IF THEY SPEND. SAVERS MUST ABSTAIN FROM SEX. )

In theory( WHAT THEORY IS THAT? ), it should not be too difficult to persuade people to spend( OTHER PEOPLE'S MONEY MAYBE. ). As Professor Tucker put it in his book on the decline of thrift, humanity in its first 2m years of hunter-gathering was less thrifty than squirrels and ants when it came to hoarding food for the bad times. Once humans invented agriculture, they learnt the value of saving seeds( IN THEIR CHEEKS ) for planting and surplus food for the winter( HIBERNATION WOULD HAVE BEEN A BETTER CHOICE. ). But when they moved into towns and cities( WERE THEY ALREADY BUILT? ), they developed a love for luxury( LIKE INDOOR TOILETS ), waste and extravagance that even religious asceticism struggled to curb( AS OPPOSED TO POVERTY AND WANT. ).

The heirs of the original Puritans in the New World kept faith with frugality, however – none more so than Benjamin Franklin, whose pamphlet, The Way to Wealth, exalted thrift. “If you would be wealthy,” he advised, “think of saving as well as getting ... What maintains one vice would bring up two children.”

Max Weber, the pioneer of sociology, attributed the rise of capitalism to such Protestant sentiments, which abhorred wasteful spending but urged believers to follow their secular vocations zealously. A hardworking and thrifty person would be of value to the community and to God.( WAS THEIR NO PARADOX OF THRIFT THEN? BY THE WAY, SHOULDN'T THERE BE A PARADOX OF ABSTINCE, SINCE, WHAT MIGHT BE GOOD FOR THE MONK, HARDLY HELPS PRODUCING MORE PEOPLE FOR THE GOOD OF SOCIETY? )

Yet consumption of luxuries always breaks through whenever the consequences of such ethical behaviour lift life above survival( THAT NEEDS A COUPLE THOUSAND PORK BARREL PROJECTS TO EXPLAIN, DON'T YOU THINK? ). Only when the economy slips into( A NEGLIGEE ) recessions( IN OTHER WORDS, WHEN THEY HAVE TO. ) do free-spending consumers( SINNERS AND FORNICATORS ) remember the virtues of thrift( POVERTY ) and rebuild their savings safety nets. It took the economic insights of John Maynard Keynes to realise that such retrenchment could be disastrous for the economy as a whole – however rational it might seem to the individuals( THIS ISN'T A PARADOX, HOWEVER. ). Writing during the Great Depression, Keynes described this as the paradox of thrift – the more people saved, the more demand for goods and services fell.( IT'S MORE LIKE THE DAMNED NUISANCE OF THRIFT. )

In a 1931 BBC radio talk, he said the urge to save more than usual at times of recession was “utterly harmful and misguided”( AND TO HAVE MORE SEX. ). When there was a surplus of labour, saving merely added to it( COULDN'T THE BANKS TAKE THE SAVINGS OF DEPOSITORS AND MAKE LOANS WITH THEM? ) – creating a vicious spiral of increasing unemployment.

“Therefore, O patriotic housewives,” he urged, “sally out tomorrow early into the streets and go to the wonderful sales which are everywhere advertised ... Lay in a stock of household linen, of sheets and blankets to satisfy all your( SEXUAL ) needs.

“And have the added joy( THAT SEX BRINGS ) that you are increasing employment, adding to the wealth of the country because you are setting on foot useful activities( LIKE SEX ), bringing a chance and a hope to Lancashire, Yorkshire and Belfast( BUT NOT TAUNTON )( FOR SEX ).”

Today’s finance ministers could not put the case for spending more eloquently( OR LURIDLY ) and there will be some who will respond( COUNT ME IN SIR ). They include Generation Y, people born since the early 1980s who have been more susceptible( LEGALLY ALLOWED ) to instant gratification than their parents and grandparents( AND DON'T THINK THAT THEY DON'T RESENT IT. ).

Debt for them is a way of life( LIKE BEING A SHEPHERD. ) that starts at university and continues when they climb on to the housing ladder( I DON'T CLIMB LADDERS ). These Net Geners – who include my own children( EXCELLENT JOB OF PARENTING ) – have no memory( THEY WEREN'T ALIVE MATE ) of past recessions that would prompt them to curb their spending( I'VE NO MEMORY OF HIROSHIMA, BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN THAT I DON'T UNDERSTAND THE RISK OF A NUCLEAR WEAPON. ). They are also disinclined( AREN'T ALL CHILDREN? ) to be held back by the attitudes of their baby-boomer parents who built their lives on work and self-denial( SO THAT THEIR CHILDREN WOULDN'T HAVE TO. AT LEAST, THAT THE STORY THAT I ALWAYS HEARD. ).

Those at the bottom of the social pyramid are also less inclined to worry about deferring gratification( F... IT ), since shortage of cash( MEANS THAT THEY CAN'T SAVE. ) makes tomorrow’s needs seem like a foreign country( BRITAIN, ACTUALLY. ). Poverty campaigners( THEY CAMPAIGN FOR POVERTY? ) often argue that the best way to give the economy a quick boost is to cut taxes or raise benefits for this group, who will spend the money immediately( BECAUSE THEY'RE POOR. ).

The middle classes, in contrast, will use any additional finance at times such as this to reduce debt and build up savings against the increased likelihood of a rainy day( GLOBAL WARMING ) – justifying Keynes’s fears( WHY THEN ISN'T IT CALLED KEYNES'S FEAR OF THRIFT? ). They are also likely to reason, justifiably, that when asset prices are falling, money held back now will buy more later.( SOME WILL )

Older people will also be unwilling to spend liberally, with memories of previous recessions and fears( THAT'S MORE LIKE IT ) about their pensions when stock markets have fallen sharply. Those who rely on savings to top up their pensions will in any case be feeling cash-strapped as interest rates plummet towards zero( ACTUALLY, IF PRICES FALL, THEIR BUYING POWER WILL INCREASE. ).

Since it is the older generation and the middle classes who are best off, exhortations to consume more for the greater good are unlikely to be enough( SPARE THE ROD, SPOIL THE SPENDER. ). Keynes recognised that as well, which was why he concluded that government spending was the solution to the paradox of thrift.

Some countries have understandable cultural problems( THE SAVER COUNTRIES ) with printing money to finance economic activity. But US president-elect Barack Obama and the UK’s Gordon Brown are both drawing up the sort of ambitious public infrastructure programmes that are needed to put the economy right. In the present circumstances, it is governments, not consumers, that will provide the instant gratification needed to boost the economy( WILL THEY PROVIDE THE SEX AS WELL? ).

The writer is the FT’s UK business editor"