What Happened to Thrift in America?

Cheap suit. Cheap date. Cheap shot. It's a dirty word, laden with negative meanings. It is also the story of author Lauren Weber's life. As a child, she resented her father for keeping the heat at 50 degrees through the frigid New England winters, and for rarely using his car's turn signals-to keep them from burning out. But as an adult, when she found herself walking 30 blocks to save $2 on subway fare, she realized that she had turned into him.

What does it mean to be cheap? When is it mature to stow money away and when is it miserly, or even Scrooge-like? And how might Americans navigate economic downturns in an era when everything seems disposable and when credit has felt dangerously unlimited?

In answering these questions, In Cheap We Trust combines a consideration of cheapness as it relates to personality, lifestyle, and philosophy with a colorful ride through the history of thrift in America, from Ben Franklin and his famous maxims to Hetty Green, the 19th-century millionaire named by Guinness as "the world's most miserly person," to the branding of Jews, Chinese, and other ethnic groups as cheap in order to neutralize the economic competition they represented. Weber also explores contemporary expressions and dilemmas of thrift, from Dumpster-diving to Keynes's "Paradox of Thrift" to today's recession-driven enthusiasm for frugal living.

Originally recorded in October 2009 as part of the Authors at Google series.

Visit YouTube.com/TalksatGoogle to watch the video.