HOW SHOULD WE CELEBRATE the 300th birthday of Benjamin Franklin, who was born in Boston on January 17, 1706? Today, we as a society may be unsure of the answer. But as recently as the 1920s, millions of Americans were quite sure. They honored Franklin by publicly extolling the virtue of thrift, a character trait that Franklin tirelessly championed. Yes, thrift.
Thrift is a complex idea. It includes, but has never been merely, the habit of saving money. Thrift is much more than sound approaches to managing one’s finances, and the main goal of thrift has never been the accumulation of wealth as an end in itself.
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