Are Personal Finance Bloggers Killing The Economy?

I started blogging in February 2011 which means I’ve been around for approximately 16 months. In blog years, that makes me pretty old. It seems like every day I log onto the Yakezie forums, a new blogger is joining the Yakezie Challenge. With both the profitability of blogging and the popularity of the Yakezie community increasing, I see the number 0f personal finance bloggers increasing as well.

Personal finance bloggers may be the most diverse group of beings I have come across that still share a common interest. There are accountants, doctors and chemical engineers standing alongside teachers, students and drop-outs. Regardless of background, we all share a common goal – to improve ourselves and to help others. It’s this mix of accountability and passion that continues to inspire my writing.

I can’t speak for all PF bloggers but I imagine the inspiration is similar among most. I assume this similarity because many PF blogs are alike – preaching mirrored messages.

• Save more.
• Spend less.
• Find financial freedom.
• Live frugally.

These are all common themes you’ll likely find when searching through a site. Obviously, I would prefer people peek at personal finance over pornography, but are these messages meant for everybody? Personal finance blogs are all about improving one’s self, not necessarily improving an economy.

Can Everybody Be Wealthy?

The goal of most PF blogs is to inform their readers so they can make improved decisions. Ideally, this would lead to each reader reaching a certain status of wealth. With this newfound wealth and improved decision-making, who is going to keep the economy moving? How is the economy going to flourish? Who is going to spend?

Is it possible for everybody to be wealthy?

I found some insight by dusting off one of my favorite books, The Worldly Philosphers. This (somewhat boring) book will sum up the ideas of the early economic thinkers such as Adam Smith, John Maynard Keynes and Thomas Malthus.

One of the shrewdest thinkers, Bernard Mandeville, said:

“To make society happy…it is requisite that great numbers should be ignorant as well as poor.”

Some said the poor were meant by God to be poor and even if they weren’t, their poverty was essential to the wealth of the nation; others saw pauperism a social evil and could not see how poverty could create wealth.

What are you thoughts?

If a market is in fact a zero-sum game, then a gain of one man is the loss of another. If one man is focused on improving, must it be at the demise of another?

If the world is filled with thrifty spenders, can our economy survive?