[erejacob]

It wasn't written "for a general audience". I and my regular readers are regularly judged negatively for not choosing to consume and go into debt like everybody else so the blog is more of a support group for those who are willing to go against the stream and actually save money so they can avoid the typical middle class problems above.

I admit, there's a bit of "I told you so"-attitude, although one quickly learns that nobody really wants to take responsibility for the poor choices they've made or for that matter are going to make. Whereas everybody is willing to attribute their good decisions to their personal genius. The general zeitgeist of the housing boom and subsequent bust illustrates this well.

[potatolicious]

You're still working against a straw man.

> "for not choosing to consume and go into debt like everybody else"

What everybody else? There's a certain contingent of people out there who have spent wildly beyond their means thanks to cheap credit, have poor fiscal responsibility, and suffer justly for it. You seem to grasp onto this and extrapolate it across all the "normals" you see.

I know a great number of people who are fiscally responsible, have no debt, are fiscally prudent, and yet do not take their frugality so far as $7000 in an RV. Many of these people have suffered through this recession, and yet you seem so glad to lump them into the "irresponsible debtors" group and just dismiss this nation's problems as entirely self-inflicted.

How utterly presumptuous. Your moralizing is not helpful, and from the blog post and your posts in this thread, you come off as smug and judgmental as those who would judge you negatively for being frugal and living your lifestyle the way you choose.

There's a gigantic swathe of middle ground between the indentured debt servant and the completely liberated, ultra-frugal. You seem to just completely ignore this and try to push as many people as you can, in your mind, towards the former extreme.

[erejacob]

What I'm trying to say is that people who are ultra-frugal are sometimes told (insofar they don't keep it secret) that their life sucks and they're not having fun or various things about their stuff. (See examples above.) This is followed by comments about building credit and some moralizing(?) that we should be cool and spend like everybody else.

The millionaire next door [there or to be] types---the silent majority?---may get caught in the crossfire.

However, having seen this recession coming from two years away and having tried to warn people about it only to be told by some/many that there's no problem and everything is fine, etc. I can't really sympathize that much, sorry. While it may not be someone's fault for being laid off or not being able to find a job, it certainly is their fault for not having the savings to cover two years of unemployment given the known 20% risk of it. I don't feel smug about it. I feel exasperated having told people who proceeded to do nothing. And now they want my sympathy?

The Cassandra complex comes to mind. Given how I come across to you, it indicates that I'm just a poor salesman when it comes to getting my point across to your demographic.