Cheap

What makes a person cheap? Is it when they cut every corner they can to save a dime? Is it when they choose subway over sushi? Is it when they order water instead of tea? Carpool instead of driving alone? Choose the state school over the private? Have roommates rather than individual refuge? Download music from Limewire instead of Itunes? Park a block away for free instead of valeting for five? Wear hammy downs before designer brand new? Shop at Ralphs or Krogers instead of Whole Foods or Wild Oats?

What makes a person cheap? What intention drives us to make such a comment? Do we seek to simply label, to simply deride the status of that person, or is there something uncomfortable about the human who does not spend money where it is not absolutely necessary?

To go further, what drives the person that does cut corners? Is it possible they've known life with less? Is it possible they see the value of a dollar they often have been without? I've known many elderly men and women that have lived through the Great Depression, and an interesting rule has governed many of them at the dinner table. Take all you want, but eat all you take. These people have lived when food was scarce. They know about waste. They believe in having your fill, yet never wasting what could be used for someone or something else. So the five dollars a person saves at subway, the two dollars for water, the five dollars for gas, the thousands at the state school, the hundreds saved with roommates, the thousands not spent on itunes, the five for parking, the hundreds of dollars on clothes...what is all that? Its personal preference. Its a matter of opinion. A matter of value. A matter of history. A matter of living with and without. A matter of privelage and a matter of respect. A matter of frugality rather than flagrant spending. In the end, the only man or woman I can call cheap is the man or woman who does not open their wallet to someone in honest need. How a person spends their hard earned money is their own decision, and requires no label. We might be better off learning to love rather than to label.