By Syed Arif Hussaini

December 12 , 2008

The Siren Song of Sale and Savings

 

These two expressions  - Sale and Saving s-   keep pursuing and enticing you, like the mythical Siren song, as long as you are on the American soil. The pursuit becomes more aggressive and overwhelming during December and January because of the festive season of Christmas and New Year and the well-entrenched tradition of exchange of gifts.

You open the morning newspaper to find page after page advertising sales of a plethora of gift items from a highly expensive wristwatch fit for a feudal potentate of Pakistan to a box of fancy toothpicks within the reach of even a toothless mendicant.

You open your mailbox to discover the much-awaited letter from a friend buried somewhere in the dollop of sleek and shiny ad sheets, generally referred to as junk mail. Since the flow of such mail does not recede, it can be safely surmised that a percentage of the recipients must be falling for its Siren songs.

There is no period of the year free of the sales pitch. You keep hearing about the pre-season sale, the mid-season sale, the post season sale, the clearance sale, the blow-out sale, the liquidation sale, saleberation sale, the Christmas and New Year sale, President’s Day sale, Columbus Day sale, Father’s Day sale, Mother’s Day sale and so on. 

I haven’t seen, though, a Mother-in-Law’s Day sale. The only ad about her that I had seen decades back was:  “Wanted: Sofa-bed. Need not be comfortable. Mother-in-law is expected.”

You tune in to any radio or TV station and within minutes you will be subjected to an array of advertisements pressuring you to leave aside every thing else and make a beeline to the  advertiser’s store to take advantage of the bargains offered; or, just give your credit card number for a delivery to your door. How considerate of the Merchants of Venice!

Everything is on sale and at the lowest price. Even a haircut can be found on sale.    Every set-up claims: ‘no one can beat our low prices’. All you have to do is to turn a few pages of the same Yellow Pages to find someone else advertising similar items at lower prices.

SALE signs keep alluring you from all directions no matter which way you go. Even on electric poles you will notice hand-written signs saying GARAGE SALE, YARD SALE.  If you have just arrived in this country, you would naturally wonder how could a garage or a yard be put on sale. You discover soon that the household junk is placed in the garage or yard for sale.

There is a breed of loonies who spend their weekends grass-hopping from one ‘garage sale’ to another collecting items which attract their fancy to be put on sale later on in their own garage sale after their urge of possessing the items has been satisfied.  This is their hobby and like any other hobby what really counts is the pleasure they seek through it and not profit. The thrill of acquisition compensates for the disappointing bottom line of the deal. Of course, it is much more innocuous than the hobby of hitting the bottle or of swinging from bed to bed.

The other expression one is constantly fed on is “SAVINGS”. There is so much of emphasis on this word -saving- in this country that it is invariably used in the plural form. It is like the solitary Sardarji (Sikh) being referred to as Faujan (armies) in our part of the world.

No matter what you buy here, you are always saving some amount. Whether you are lavish or frugal, you keep saving as you spend. When you turn around to take stock of how much you have saved, you find that your pocket has shrunk further. You might even owe money to the bank that had issued to you the credit card. Bulk of the Americans and many copycat South Asians nurture credit card debts throughout their lives. That is the beauty and essence of the concept of saving, or ‘savings’ if you prefer, in this land of plenty.

A colleague was returning to his country at the end of a 3-year tenure in New York. When asked how much he had saved, he said : “At least $50,000.”

 “How did you manage that?” he was asked.

 “Very simple”, he replied,  “when I bought a car, I saved $5,500; on the purchase of a TV, I saved $500, and throughout my stay here I have been, similarly, saving on each and every purchase. By now my savings must have touched $50,000.”

    “But we don’t have more than 1,500 dollars in our account”, his wife protested.

    “That is the charm of the system. You spend while thinking that you are saving.”

Another colleague was returning to Pakistan after a  4-year term in Ottawa. Helping him in the packing, I noticed that he had collected at least 100 neckties.

 “Why did you purchase so many ties when you have only half a dozen suits?”

“I like good ties and when a $20 tie is put on sale for $5 only, I couldn’t pass the opportunity.  But, now that you have mentioned it, I really wonder how on earth I am  ever going to wear them. I suppose bulk of them I shall have to give away in gifts to friends and relations back home”. 

If you pause for a while and think about this system of sales and savings, you gain some idea about the operation of market economy in this country. And, you may also begin to understand the occurrence of recession after every so many years. If for some reason the confidence of consumers is shaken in the sources of their income or the market value of their homes –most popular form of savings-  falls owing to supply exceeding demand or some other reason, they become tight-fisted in their expenses despite all the advertisement gimmicks. The consequent sagging of demand sets in motion a ripple effect in all sectors of the economy. Layoffs of employees, cutting down of departments and of production targets ensue. People suddenly realize that they have no nest egg, no actual savings, to sustain them during such a lean period.

When the economy is in recession, as it is these days, marketing mandarins attribute it to the frugality of consumers, forgetting the fact that most of them are left with little disposable income.           

 Another interesting aspect of this game of sales and savings is that you can sell anything in this country provided you know how to. If you are a good salesman, you can sell a refrigerator to an Eskimo or a transistor radio to Sony. On the other extreme could be found an incorrigible optimist celebrating the theft of his credit card as the thief was spending less than his wife. He may be regarded as the most sanguine and savvy saver in this game of sale and savings.

Since saving is an imaginary exercise, some go on a shopping spree in a matching  exercise. They turn visits to the beautiful shopping centers and malls into exciting sightseeing tours. That goes against the teachings of Lord Manard Keynes, the father of the modern economic and financial system. If you have been laid off  -a common occurrence these days-  you would find added logic and compulsion for defying his theory and the lures of all those seductive siren songs.

Incidentally, the cure for the distortion is to be sought internally. The economy cannot be set right through an external adventure.   As the famous Persian sage, Saadi, said centuries back : “Ta tiryaq us Iraq avurda shavad  Mar gazida murda shaved” . Translation: Till the anti-dote is secured from Iraq, the person bitten by a snake would have breathed his last. The reference to Iraq is incidental; do not please start exercising your mind on the repercussions of the control on Iraqi oil. Leave it to Greenspan, the former Fed chief.           

 Arifhussaini@hotmail.com

 

PREVIOUSLY

Desire and the Culture of Instant Gratification
March 23 - Memories & Nostalgia
Deeper Malaise of Pakistan Polity
BJP’s Debacle in the Battle for Ballots
Feudalism’s Aversion to Education
Forgetfulness -a Prank of Old Age or of Hyperfocus
The Taliban and Beyond
Meetings of World Economic Forum and Its Counterweight
BJP Fails Again to Frame Pakistan
Indo-Chinese Relations in Perspective
Taj Mahal and Indo-Pakistan Standoff
Grandma, Grandpa
'The Clash of Civilizations' : A Questionable Thesis
In the Gadgeteer's Dreamland
Emergence of MMA on Pak Political Landscape
Chechnya and Moscow's Hostage Crisis
Turkish Elections in Historical Perspective
Iraq's Oil Wealth
America: A Nation on Wheels
"Jinnah & Pakistan" - A Worthwhile Book
Afghanistan Merits More Attention

The Siren Song of Sale and Savings

In Memory of Dr. Hamidullah

Tackling Murphy at the Airport

Musings of a Superannuated Man

US Economy: Will Bush's Plan Work

Tempo of Life in AmericaThe Genius behind the MouseThe Media Mogul Who Manipulated Men and EventsHearst and Disney: A Comparative StudyNothing but the TruthWar on Iraq Imminent and InevitableMahathir's Interesting ViewsPortents of a New World OrderMarch 23 - Memories & NostalgiaRachel Corrie & the Spotted OwlLost in CyberspaceThe American Nice GuyismConnecticut - A Nursery of MenOn a Visit to Canada after Half of CenturySome Legal Aspects of the Iraq WarBureaucratic AnticsRhode Island: An Oxymoron, a ParadoxThe Mystique of CaliforniaComic Operas in Islamabad & in TexasKhyber Knights: A Fascinating BookG-8 Summit Skirts Touchy IssuesIn Memory of a Versatile GeniusHillary Clinton's Cleverly Crafted BookChitranwala Katora and ChutkiyanThe Yak Shows : The Trash TalksThe Giants of Sequoia National ParkReflections on Pakistan's Independence DayAziz Kay 'Sifarati Maarkay And Mujtaba Kay 'Safarnamay'California's Political CircusLali Chaudhri's Provocative Short StoriesSeptember: A Witness to WarsAmerica in the Quagmire of IraqCollapse of Another WTO SummitA B C D: American-Born-Clear-Headed DesisThe Pangs of WaitingChechnya: A Ray of Hope for PeaceAmerican Job Exodus to ChinaIslamabad : Its Beauty & OdditiesWelcome Proposals to Break Indo-Pak LogjamBenazir's Case and the Corruption ScenarioPredicament of Pakistan's PolityWhen Memory Starts FalteringTerror in Turkey Unrelated to Nation's Cultural ConflictThe Siren Song of Sale and Savings Wrinkles in US-China RelationsWrinkles in US-China RelationsSaddam Crawls out of a Hole to IgnominySaddam Crawls out of a Hole to IgnominyWhen Memory Starts FalteringA Day in the Company of Mujtaba HussainHyderabad Presents a Panorama of Progress and ChangeConflict over New World Economic OrderPakistan's Nuclear ScandalUrdu in Hyderabad DeccanA Good Book on a Great ManGay Marriages in Vivacious San FranciscoThe Passion of the Christ - A Well-Sculpted but Fuss-Causing FilmA Treat of Mujtaba's Wit and HumorPredicament of Pakistan's PolityThe Murder of Sheikh Yassin: Israel's Hidden AgendaArmy Action in Pakistan's Tribal BeltWould the NSC Buttress or Besiege Democracy?Desire and the Culture of Instant GratificationSwiss Court and the Benazir-Zardari Plunder SagaPakistan and the International Economic ForumsWhy Do US Follies Keep Piling up in Iraq?The Tamasha at Lahore AirportIndian Elections and Subsequent DevelopmentsBush Flaunts His Faulty Policies on IraqPost Civil War America and Post-Independence PakistanBureaucratic AnticsTackling Murphy at the AirportAsma's Fascinating Book on IslamAPPNA Qissa - 25 Years of Activities of Pak-American DoctorsBureacratic AnticsNightmare in SudanIn Pursuit of TerroristsWhy Turkey's Entry into European Union Is Blocked?Forgetfulness - A Prank of Old Age or of HyperfocusKremlin's Inept Tackling of Chechen ExtremistsWho Should Get My Vote In November Election?Bush vs. Annan on Legal Status of Iraq WarRethinking the National Security of PakistanThe Brief Message

Desire and the Culture of Instant Gratification Is Iran the Next Target?

Dollar vs. Euro -A Question of Hegemony

Zardari’s Release Indicative of Reconciliation?The Siren Song of Sale and SavingsChristmastime – A Festive OccasionPak-China Ties Keep Growing FirmlyAmerican Shopping MallsTsunami - an Asian Disaster Dr. Cohen’s Thought-Provoking Work on PakistanAlice in the FreelandBalochistan: Crisis & Conflict Iran the Next Target, but The Common Man

Chechnya: Chaos to Continue in the CaucasusGlobal Warming and Emulators of the OstrichA Treat of Mujtaba’s Wit and Humor Reflections on the Idea of Pakistan‘Engaging India’ - A Valuable Book by Strobe Talbott
Memories & Nostalgia
American Nice GuyismBalochistan at the Verge of Revolutionary Changes?India as Seen by Early Muslim Chroniclers India, China Leading a Resurgent AsiaThe Pain at the Petrol Pump Mujtaba Husain - a Humorist Par Excellence Musings of a Superannuated Man in AmericaThe Pangs of WaitingChaos and Killings in Uzbekistan Prospects of the Pain at the Petrol Pump
French Voters Reject Proposed EU Constitution
Why Turkey’s Entry into European Union Is Being BlockedWhat Ails Thee, My Native Land?The Deeper Malaise of Pakistan’s PolityResistance to Change in the System Feudalism’s Aversion to EducationRhode Island: An Oxymoron, a ParadoxThe Spotted Owl Wins against Bush AdministrationSufi Sage of Philadelphia and His Devotee from TorontoTo Ease the Pain at the Petrol PumpPat Robertson - a Loose Canon?Monkey Menace in New DelhiSeptember - A Witness to WarsThe Trouble with Islam Today Two Revealing Books on AfghanistanTo Lighten the Tedium of Air Travel
Islamabad as I Remember It
China’s White Paper Upholds Its “Democratic Dictatorship”The Brief MessageHalloween: The Fun-Filled FantasyPractical Joking: The Sport of Creeps?Senate Rebuffs Bush on War in IraqBush’s Unproductive Visit to ChinaGlobal Warming or Terrorism: Which Is a Bigger Threat?A High Achiever Shows the WaySyriana - An Expose of Intrigues of Oil CompaniesHow Washington Sold Its Soul for Saudi CrudeAlice in the FreelandAmerican EnglishThe Battle of the BulgeLost in CyberspaceHamas Vote Victory Invites Wrath of the WestNo Relief in Sight from Pain at the Petrol PumpPolitics of the Cartoons’ ControversyFollies & Fantasies of the FreaksMujtaba’s New Book and Urdu Magazine ‘Al Aqreba’Bush’s South Asian VisitFeudalism’s Aversion to Education

Mergers and Cartels Produce Unprecedented Oil Profits?

V for Vendetta – A Controversial Political Thriller A Treat of Mujtaba’s Wit and Humor Media Buzz on Invasion of IranChina’s Charm OffensiveTo Pump or Not to Pump, That Is Not the QuestionUndocumented Immigrants, No Social PariahsBush’s Subtle Approach to Immigration Issue The Da Vinci Code – A Mega Money Minter Randolph Hearst: The Media Mogul Hearst and Disney: A Comparative Study Pakistan’s Political Scenario Portends Violence but No Basic ChangeChatty Columns of a Remarkable Young WomanMountbatten Messed up Partition of IndiaChechnya after Blast Kills Its Rebel LeaderBombay Blasts and Some Reflections on TerrorismA Good Addition to Urdu Literature Lieberman’s Defeat in Democratic Primary Asifa Nishat - a Deep Thinking Urdu PoetWar In Iraq: The Crucial Issue in Midterm ElectionsBalochistan: Shape of Things to Come Khalid Khaja - an Eminent Urdu Poet, Writer & SpeakerSeptember - a Witness to Wars Military Coup in Thailand Triggers ReminiscencesMusharraf Pulls No Punches in His MemoirHasan Chishti - a Man of Letters, a Purveyor of HappinessHalloween: The Fun-Filled Fantasy Practical Joking: The Sport of Creeps? To Lighten the Tedium of Air Travel Bajaur: Action against Religious Seminary Raises QuestionsRumsfeld’s Exit Marks the Beginning of Shift of Course in IraqBorat: A Comedy of Discomfort and of Even OutrageRuler Derby in PakistanNO God But GOD - A Rational Account of Islam & A Call For ReformationTo Ease the Pain at the Petrol Pump Christmastime - a Festive OccasionJimmy Carter Exposes Oppression & Apartheid by Israel

India & China Lead Resurgent AsiaProspects of Pain at the Petrol PumpA Highly Informative and Thought-Provoking BookSomalia: Ethiopia Rides the TigerPakistan: The Shifting Political ScenarioMujtaba Hussain - A Purveyor of HappinessSurge in Suicide Blasts in PakistanSpecter of War Haunting IranFrenzied Fanatic Fells Female MinisterMusharraf Overtly Pressured and Covertly Remonstrated Suspension of Pak Chief Justice Triggers ControversyMarch 23: Memories & NostalgiaThe Ruler Derby in PakistanProspects of the Pain at Petrol PumpAmerican Islam: An Investigative StudyTurmoil in the Tribal Belt of Pakistan?A Scholar’s Gripping Account of Hyderabadi DiasporaOn Being a Senior CitizenTurkey: In the Cleft of a Cultural ConflictLost in CyberspaceAkbar Ahmad’s Book on Current Challenges to Muslim SocietiesAsma’s Fascinating Book on IslamIrshad Manji Points out the Trouble with Islam Today A Scholar’s Plea for the Resumption of IjtehadThe Mystique of CaliforniaKnighthood for Salman RushdieUpheaval in Palestine: National Objective in Ruins“Jinnah & Pakistan” – A Worthwhile BookLal Masjid and Beyond

Musings of a Superannuated Man
Significance of General Elections in Turkey Musharraf-Benazir Tango to the Tune Called by the USReflections on Independence DayNostalgia for the HomelandPakistan: The Corruption Scenario Changing Political Dynamic in PakistanPakistan: Current Political Crisis and the Common ManThe Battle of the BulgeOn Being a Senior CitizenWhen Memory Starts Faltering (1)The Musharraf-Benazir Deal: Its Nature & FutureHalloween: A Fun-Filled Fantasy Is Pakistan the Most Dangerous Nation?Lost in CyberspaceSurge of Violence in PakistanWhat Ails Thee, My Native Land?

Washington’s Fear Mongers Focus on Pakistan’s Nukes

Akbar Ahmad’s Book on Current Challenges to Muslim Societies
The Startling US Intelligence Report on Iran’s Nuclear Plan
Christmastime: A Festive Occasion
Desire and the Culture of Instant Gratification
Bhutto’s Murder Plunges Pakistan Deep into Turmoil
Would Musharraf Be Able to Weather the Storm?
Feudalism’s Aversion to Education
‘Charlie Wilson’s War’ – A Film Based on a Best-Seller Book
The Kite Runner: An Absorbing Book, a Wonderful Film
Hillary Clinton - First Woman to Bid for the White House
Whither Pakistan?
Who Should Get My Vote?
Pakistan: The Emerging Political Scenario
More Pain at the Petrol Pump
On Being a Senior Citizen
Sufi Sage of Philadelphia and His Devotee from Toronto
‘The Pakistani Bride’ – A Gripping Novel by Bapsi Sidhwa
New Pak Premier Faces Daunting Tasks
The Mystique of California
Mark Twain: America’s Greatest Humorist
Jimmy Carter Exposes Oppression & Apartheid
‘The Trial of Dara Shikoh’ - A Thought-Provoking Play
No Reprieve from the Pain at the Gas Station
‘The Culture of Tolerance’ - A Bold, Provocative and Discordant Book
Pakistan’s Politicians Pursue Personal Ends
Randolph Hearst: The Media Mogul
Hearst and Disney: A Comparative Study
Fishing: Facts & Fantasies, Fibs & Frolics
Mujtaba Hussain: A Purveyor of Happiness
Pakistan’s Fledgling Government Fumbles, Falters and Flounders
Mujtaba Hussain  - a Humorist Par Excellence
A Mockery of Democracy
The Kite Runner - An Absorbing Book, A Wonderful Film
Another Attempt Foiled to Set up Temple in Taj Mahal
Pakistan’s Premier Spy Agency at the Center of Controversies
Independence Day: Memories & Nostalgia
US-Russia Conflict in Georgia - More Than a Turf War
Caspian Sea Oil and Gas
Zardari Presidency – A Period of Civilian Dictatorship?
Wrinkle in US-Pakistan Relations
The Taliban and Beyond
America’s Money-mad Financial Aristocracy behind the Crash
Halloween  - the Fun-filled Fantasy
The Culture of Instant Gratification
Does the World Financial Crisis Portend Systemic Shift?
Post-Civil War America (1865-1900) and Post-Independence Pakistan
World Summits to Devise Ways to Overcome Global Economic Crisis
Pakistan’s Fiscal Management Gone awry
Chitranwala Katora and Chutkiyan
Pakistan’s FOREX Scandal
Deepak Chopra on Bombay Massacre 

Editor: Akhtar M. Faruqui
© 2004 pakistanlink.com . All Rights Reserved.