Men’s Underwear as an Economic Indicator

[snopes]

So, how’s the economy doing?

You can seek your answers from Wall Street, government statistics or the latest predictions from hoary old economists. But why not examine your underwear, stand in line at the movies, or peer into your neighbor’s vegetable garden?

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/27/we...w/27healy.html

[Jay Tea]

I, like many blokes, have been making hay during this recession because all the 'really' good underwear manafacturers are having to practically give their keks away - my cash and prizes have never been so luxuriously clad thank you very much, and given the speed these budgie smuggler bargains fly off the shelves (both real and virtual) i'd say it's more a phenomenon that dudes buy better than not at all.

[stagemanager0610]

While it's a very interesting read, I'm not sure that I would agree with the underwear portion. In the times of WWII, that made sense, since during the recession around then no one wanted to spend money on extra clothes, you wore them until they were irreparable.

Here's my theater geek moment:

My reasoning behind this (since I didn't live back then) is that my college is putting on Brighton Beach Memoirs right now, and the costume designer did the research to back that up. For example - the mother is darning Eugine's socks, which you would very rarely see someone doing today.

In addition to the many others out there, I am still going to go out and replace my underwear and socks about once a year, and the recession hasn't had an impact on that.

[Auntie Witch]

Originally Posted by stagemanager0610

For example - the mother is darning Eugine's socks, which you would very rarely see someone doing today.

People darn hand-knit socks; they're wickedly expensive and time consuming to make.