Published by David Boghossian under Sustainability

Only 40 days into the Obama Administration and I’m already terrified. You see, the $3.6 trillion budget and $787 billion stimulus package not only signal broad and welcome shifts in economic priorities, they stir up some deep personal issues for me. Here’s the deal: I am notoriously frugal. No, the word is cheap, nearly to a fault or perhaps even beyond faultdom. The phrase I have heard muttered within earshot is “so tight, he squeaks when he walks”.

Recently, a colleague surprised me by complimenting my sweater. I am not in the habit of being noticed for my style. “Was it a Christmas present? “, she asked.

“Yes, it was” I replied, “…in 1976.”

We laughed. I mention this neither as confession nor as reassurance to my investors, nor in any way to recommend this as a lifestyle. Admittedly, it is occasionally useful to know how to make a fire starter out of dryer lint, candle stubs, and used egg cartons—but generally not.

No, I mention this in the context of the current orgy of spending begun by Mr. Bush and Mr. Paulson and now continued by Mr. Obama and team. I am congenitally unable to feel good about it.

I understand the paradox of thrift. I know my patriotic duty. I just cannot overcome my personal constitutional inhibitions. I guess that’s why I need the government to spend on my behalf.

I come by this affliction honestly, being an unholy combination of genuine skinflint New England Swamp Yankees on one side of my family and up-by-the-bootstrap immigrant Armenians on the other. The Swamp Yankee in me believes that one must exhaust all possible alternatives before buying anything and, having made a rare decision to buy, the Armenian half believes that any terms that may be agreeable to a seller are, by definition, too much to pay.

In the current economic climate these values leave us deeply conflicted. True, we are accustomed to appreciating the simpler things in life, and we tend to have mortgages smaller than the GNP of Chile.

And, as a bonus, we’re now becoming greener. In the old economy, turning off lights and driving at 50 miles an hour earned us contempt, mostly from our children. Today, we are able to “re-brand” our tightwad tendencies as pro-environment—it may be cheap, but it’s also great for the carbon footprint.

At the same time, we are told that we must spend our way out of the current economic mess. This makes no sense to Swamp Yankees. According to our mindset, no one ever improved anything through mindless spending. Not ever.

Swamp Yankees aspire to live more simply, however challenging that is today—within our means, with low fixed costs. Really! Second homes, spare cars, rarely used power boats, and extra wives are just not part of the picture.

We spend a lot on the next generation, mostly on their education mostly. Large quantities of staggeringly expensive education. The best we can afford. Of course, we complain bitterly about it. Every day I ask my children at dinner, “What did you learn today?” and the answer better be worth at least $200.

We hate waste and expect others to feel similarly. It’s just not done to be extravagant or to throw stuff away without at least a thought. Can this junk be saved and re-used? Made into a school project? Given away to someone in need?

We try not to judge each other or ourselves based on our stuff. We look for signs of life behind the collectables, however rare that may be.

Swamp Yankees make soup from scratch. We knit. Extreme forms of the species weave purses from plastic bags, sign birthday cards on sticky notes (to enable re-use), save cotton balls from medicine bottles, collect string. It goes without saying that we put the laundry-saving eco-cards on our hotel pillows.

Get ready, America, this may be your future.

In the long run, the only real way out of our economic crisis is to live within our means, individually and collectively. That said, in the short term, these Swamp Yankee tendencies may only exacerbate an already tough economic situation.

So I am OK with deciding as a society to spend more temporarily to smooth the transition to old-fashioned thrift. To cushion the fall for those in real need. To re-tool those whose careers have been yanked out from under them. To mend our social safety net.

I am OK with investing in real improvements to our infrastructure and other efforts to keep our businesses productively employed and running while we all hunker down.

I am OK, in true Swamp Yankee fashion, with investing in education, science, and even a bit of art, here and there. Life is for living, after all.

I just worry that we can’t do it all at once and do it well—in one huge stroke in the first weeks of a new administration. One reason many of us voted for Obama was because we thought it was important to have these conversations about our priorities and values, about what was “worth it” and what wasn’t. Very little of that seems to have happened. But it still can happen now that stimulus bill is signed.

Perhaps that’s OK. Perhaps in the new world of governing we just make huge commitments and then work through the details of what we keep and what we don’t. Perhaps we have to trust the Obama administration to do the right things with this massive allocation of funds.

But that’s not the Swamp Yankee way. But in true Swamp Yankee fashion, I’ll hold my tongue. When I can.

David Boghossian is founder of PowerSteering Software in Cambridge, MA, and former Harvard University Kennedy School fellow.