Andy Rooney: A Cheap Bastard

[itsrobert]

He was on TV, just now saying how he's saves a nickel and dime here and there by doing things like shining his own shoes instead of paying someone who needs the work $3.00 to do it for him. I can understand people just scraping by trying to save money, but if the rich like Andy Rooney doesn't spend any money, it doesn't trickle down. I'm not a trickle down person, but if you got the money, spread it around.

[valerief]

1. The richer they are, the cheaper they are. It's pretty much the golden rule of the rich. nt

[Lifetimedem]

17. Yep

[Midlodemocrat]

2. It's his money. He gets to decide how to spend it. Not you.

Plus, he's a product of the depression. Not surprising at all.

[Deja Q]

6. Oh, in many ways I admire the guy.

Just that article ~3 weeks ago that was the first time I agreed with the masses.

[Donnachaidh]

3. he's probably the type who will stiff a waiter if his waterglass

isn't full enough for him. Or some other picky thing. He probably expects special treatment just *because* he's a celebrity.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

5. I heard Ben Stiller has sent food back for being to hot.

[Somawas]

14. Do you like to make shit up if you don't know what you're talking about?

n/t

[demosincebirth]

29. I stiffed a waiter a month ago when he charged me 2 bucks to refill my glass of tea

I asked him if he charged me for the refill and he said yes. Well there goes your tip, I told him and paid my bill and walked out.

[Deja Q]

4. 3 weeks ago, he was remembering his childhood job and telling people to go get jobs.

The responses on CBS's website were overwhelmingly against him; some more polite than others, fortunately.

[Warpy]

7. Most of the new wealthy are penny wise and pound foolish

meaning they'll chisel every nickel and dime they can while being gouged for things like housing commensurate with their self perceived status in life.

Rooney is an old guy who remembers the tail end of the Depression. That's part of why he does it. Mostly it's pride in being able to shave pennies off where they can.

I have a little sympathy for Rooney, in other words.

[janx]

20. So do I--

but he had to realize that most people now won't know what he's talking about...?

[Samantha]

27. That is so true

I have worked for many people who consider themselves very successful business people. Would you like to know how many dollars (in time of resources) they spend counting the nickles and dimes? Time is money in the big arena, and so much wasted time (read that dollars) is spent in counting the pennies.

Sam

[DainBramaged]

8. He still didn't get the memo

YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU

[GrpCaptMandrake]

9. He's a child of the Great Depression

A lot of that generation were that way, for very good reason. Sadly, most of them aren't around to teach us how to live through the one that's on the way. I don't think he was being very cheap when he was laying his life on the line flying in daylight raids over Nazi Germany. That's the greatest extravagance of all: risking one's own life for the benefit of others.

Or, he may just ]i]be "a cheap bastard." If I had to wager, though, I'd bet it's a function of Depression-era frugality.

For my part, I'm a child of Depression-era parents and I do my own shoe care. There's a zen-like pleasure in caring for nice things and making them last in a throw-away culture. Just last week, I sat down with my son and we did our shoes together. I hope he'll remember it someday and teach it to his son like my father taught me and his father before taught him. As a boy, my Dad shined the shoes of the well-to-do and carried their golf bags. It made him a very egalitarian man who bowed his head to no one.

[Midlodemocrat]

10. My father was a child of the Great Depression

and did incredibly well against all odds in the 70s. Well into seven figures selling fine paper products. An absolutely unheard of income at the time.

All five of us graduated from school with no debt. He was determined that we would go to school and do well.

I will absolutely never forget meeting him and my mom in NYC to attend Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral and the entire Mass he spent going through his pockets, his wallet, his pockets again.

He had 'lost' $20 and it was driving him crazy. I offered to give him the $20, but he said it was the principle of the thing.

He was quite a character. Extremely frugal, but always gave tons away during the holidays to the shelters.

[GrpCaptMandrake]

11. Bet he preferred cash to credit, too,

didn't he? And yes, that $20 probably did perturb him.

There's a great line in W.C. Fields' "The Bank Dick," where Fields walks into the Black Pussy Cafe and asks Shemp Howard, the bartender, "Did I spend a twenty dollar bill in here last night?" and the bartender says "You sure did!" and Fields responds "Thank heaven! I thought I'd lost it!"

There it all is, in a nutshell

[Midlodemocrat]

12. Oh, most certainly.

[GrpCaptMandrake]

13. Figured as much

What passes for "cheap" to people today was "survival strategy" a couple of generations ago.

We may actually come to see the wisdom of their ways, the hard way.

[Desperadoe]

30. Child of the Depression, my ass!

I remember him addressing this in one of his columns.

It seems that he comes from a very wealthy family, whose biggest hardship during the Depression was having to terminate some of the domestic servants. He as much as said that his family hardly noticed the effects of the Depression.

Of course, even after this admission, he still managed to spew his "pull yourselves up by your bootstraps" bile. I despise this arrogant old bastard.

[GrpCaptMandrake]

31. He still comes from a world with a vastly different mindset

about how one goes about the business of living. Rich or poor, the disposable culture hadn't taken hold when Rooney was a young man. Full-on consumerism didn't start until the end of the Second World War.

Griping about this nearly ninety year old man shining his own shoes is utter rubbish. I just hope that if I see 90 I can FIND my shoes, let alone shine them.

Me, I'm not going to spit on a man for shining his own shoes. What do people want? For him to pass his shoes off to Porterhouse at the club like Judge Smails in "CaddyShack?"

Oh Porterhouse, look at the wax build up on these shoes I want that wax stripped off there, then I want them creamed and buffed with a fine chamois, and I want them now. Chop chop

Sheesh!

[mondo joe]

15. The well off getting shoe shines isn't making or breaking the economy.

And trickle downn theory is foolishness anyway.

[seabeyond]

16. i think this is a ridiculous argument. and if he said he pays people to do it, you all

would be all over his ass to do it himself.

i save my money. i do throw money away. i never thought it would be labeled a bad thing. though i have a brother that spends like there is no tomorrow, borrows from us all, never pays back and is one to say i am the problem. damn good thing i save so i can pay his way

[RB TexLa]

18. Are you insane?

Really? There are thousands of things I can afford to do or pay people to do but I don't. Neither I with my small amount of money or you or Andy Rooney or anyone is either required or expected to have to spend any amount of money.

[vanderBeth]

19. In my house we call that being frugal.

Nothing wrong with that.

[JVS]

21. I bet he wipes his own ass too. Big deal.

[book_worm]

22. Maybe I'm nuts but I don't see anything wrong with shining his own shoes

I do it myself. Granted I'm not rich, but I also don't see many shoe shine guys in Madison, WI. Maybe they are more common in NYC?

[SoCalDem]

23. Not many people even WEAR "shine-able" shoes these days

and some men like doing it themselves..My husband shines his own too:)

[Lil Missy]

24. I'd rather see the "shoe shiner" get a decent fucking wage, and benefits, for something else.

That trickle down crap is nothing more than the poor getting what passes through the business end of the GOP elephant.

[Bucky]

25. It's probably worth noting that he grew up in the Depression & lived thru WW2 rationing

Successful people develop successful habits.

Of course He is something of a bastard, but it's not in regard to his frugality

[lumberjack_jeff]

26. Bullshit. There is nothing wrong with frugality. n/t

[JDPriestly]

28. Face it. Andy Rooney could lose his job any day.

It is not secure.

He is probably wise to be saving his money. He is one of a number of TV personalities who may be fired during this economic downturn.

[CreekDog]

32. i wouldn't trim his eyebrows for all the money in the world

:rofl:

[KharmaTrain]

33. A Rare Remaining Depression Child...

He very much reminds me of my parents...growing up in the worst of the depression, living on hand-me-downs and growing up with the ethic of "if you don't have the money, you can't have it" and "you never know...save for a rainy day".

When I had to clean my parents house I found jars loaded with nothing but buttons, another with electrical chords, another with assorted screws and nuts...any time my mother found one, she'd throw it in the jar cause "you never knew". The same thing with money...they were very generous to charities and friends, but given the chance to save a buck, they always went for the cheap.

There's something to be said for being frugal...better than the massive greed and selfishness it brings along.