Recession-Era Sacrifices

Illustration by Mark Stamaty

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What is deprivation? Is it best measured objectively? That's the idea behind the "poverty line"—although that yardstick, which dates from 1939 and is based on the cost of a minimal diet, is in desperate need of updating, as a new bill in the House would do. Or does deprivation in our still well-off country have as much or more to do with relative measures as with absolute ones?

The idea that deprivation is relative seems especially relevant for people hurt by the recession. They have less than what they had before. And sometimes they also have less than the friends and neighbors around them. What do people give up when they have to cut back, and how deprived do those sacrifices make them feel?

I've been thinking about this in light of the responses I received to my question about what readers have foregone because of the recession. I heard from about 100 people. Some listed more than one thing they've given up. Their responses break down like this:

Sacrifices

Eating out 21
Travel 15
Salon/beauty products 13
My own place/future home 12
Shopping for fun 9
Cable 8
Going out to the movies 7
Health or car insurance 6
Coffee out 5
Peace of mind/sense of security or freedom 5
Having a child 3
Hobbies (pets) 3
Spontaneity 3
Hopes for retirement 2
Private school for my child 2
Time with my family 2

A lot of people, in other words, are doing without what could be labeled as luxuries: restaurant outings, trips, manicures, getting their hair highlighted, cable TV. That's what you'd expect in a downturn, and if it's not good for the economy collectively, because it means less consumer spending, it makes sense individually. More bleakly, there's also a set of big life-altering sacrifices: deciding not to have a child or buy a house.

You can't really compare the luxuries to the larger things surrendered. Babies, of course, trump cologne. Moving in with your in-laws or not being able to travel to see your child isn't in the same category as giving up a trip to Cancun, however longed for. But the emotional affect of each category, small sacrifice and large, merits its own exploration. Sometimes, small luxuries are the vehicles for larger expressions of identity.

First, the heartbreakers. "I gave up my pregnancy," writes one woman who asked me not to use her name. Her fiance's company was in meltdown and hers was midtakeover. They are both still in school. "When we found out we were going to add another life to this chaos, we couldn't do it," she writes. "An unplanned pregnancy coupled with an uncertain job market, then the fact that we would have to accelerate our marriage plans … and find a home suitable for a family (instead of tiny one-bedroom) was just too much." Women have for decades cited economic concerns as one of the top reasons for having an abortion. But that doesn't make the often difficult decision to have an abortion easy. This reader said she also suffered a second loss: her best friend, who could not understand the choice she was making.