Interesting issues, Z, interesting issues. I often have similar thoughts, and particularly when I’m outside the country. I don’t think many New Zealanders realise how consumerist they’ve become. And you’re right – it’s something that’s happened within the space of a generation.
Comparing the way we spend our money to the way our parents and grandparents did, I think we should be ashamed of ourselves. Comparing it to the way Hungarians spend theirs, I reach a similar conclusion.
The average Hungarian monthly salary is about $NZ570 a month. (Yep, you read that right.) And ok, life in general is way cheaper here than it is in New Zealand, but not proportionally: Hungarians struggle to buy food, clothing, cars and houses; and I mean struggle in terms of something like sugar being a luxury, rather than out-of-season capsicums.
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A recent snapshot from our family album
Here, because it’s just what you do, we reuse, reduce and recycle the products we consume. We grow fruit and vegetables, and when we have an excess we share. We pass kids’ clothes, toys, books and furniture along the line from the biggest cousin to the smallest, and when there’s something we need we tend to buy it second-hand. We don’t often go to restaurants or cafes: we cook and bake and freeze and preserve. We make stuff: stuff that’s considered quaint or boutique-y to attempt back home: jam, cordial, sausage, bacon, wine, pálinka.
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I used to love this book! It deserves a reprint ...
As far as I have seen (I should note that we do live in a little village, not a city), this is how many, many Hungarians live.
But we don’t feel poor. Yes, I’m going to have the gall to say it (feel free to throw up a little): We feel blessed. I see all these aspects of our smell-of-an-oily-rag life as great contributors towards my happiness (‘something to do, someone to love, something to hope for': thank you Charlotte). It’s when we slide back to increasingly consumerist New Zealand society that we feel truly poor, and it’s a slimy, degrading, heavy feeling. Bleurgh.
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Daisy
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