Word: skimps
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...Part of the problem is money. Until recently local governments were expected to carry up to half of the expenses for local education, says Joseph Cheng, a political science professor at City University of Hong Kong. That created an incentive to skimp. "In the interior provinces, governmental supervision is very lax," he says. Education "is not a priority area. You can cut corners." Even now, provincial economic plans list yearly targets for the reduction of unsafe schools, illustrating the extent to which low school budgets have compromised safety. "It's a widely recognized problem," Cheng says...
...table, the sales of specialty foods are up 17% over the past two years (compared with 4% for overall food sales). "The financial situation hasn't hurt us," says Andy Arons, CEO of New York City's Gourmet Garage stores. "I don't think that people necessarily skimp on eating well in hard times. Maybe 10 years ago, splurging on food seemed foreign, but when you are in a world where people pay $4 a day for a Starbucks coffee, an expensive butter doesn't seem that extravagant." If this was the way food vendors and consumers were thinking...
Still, who can afford $45,000 speakers? Rock stars, pro athletes, doctors, lawyers and audiophiles so obsessed with music they will skimp on other areas. "No one buys McIntosh when they're paying college tuition," says Pacor. L.A. Reid, chairman of Island Def Jam Music Group, got hooked 20 years ago. His first piece was a Mac preamp, and today he has Mac gear in his home and every professional music setting. "I am superstitious and had so many hit records with the preamp that I kept it and still have it today," says Reid. Those hits include Kanye West...
...best advice, however, may be to weigh the intangibles. Don't skimp on the pleasure you might get from waking with the sun and going to sleep to the sound of crickets just because you can't calculate a market value for them. In cities, says John Ikerd, an agricultural economist and professor emeritus at the University of Missouri, "people buy things like views, good schools, health clubs and privacy." In the country, he says, be prepared to assign a value of perhaps $100,000 to the simple asset of quality of life. Do that, and peaceful living starts...
...when we began planning our East Asian summer vacation, it was no surprise that culinary aspects took center stage. We quickly established one guiding principle: our hotels could be low budget, but under no circumstances would we skimp on the food. No less than the best dishes China and Japan had to offer would suffice...