When Karl Lagerfeld designed a line for H&M four years ago, he famously quipped that people are ‘cheap,’ and clothes are ‘inexpensive.’ He hated the word cheap and defended his partnership with the discount retailing giant by drawing a distinction between how people make decisions and what they actually buy. Cheap is when you withhold generosity or kindness. Inexpensive is when you use a promotional code for your online shopping cart. There is a difference.
I like to think that I’m not cheap, but strategic. I scour the Travel sections of the Post and the Times so I may find out about deals to far-away places. I subscribe to RueLaLa so I can look like a fortune without spending one. At the same time, I pledged to my church and I give regularly to my undergraduate university. I tip extravagantly, sometimes thirty percent of the bill, and I ponder elaborate Christmas gifts before a look at my financials brings me back down to Earth. Put simply, I try to have more brains and heart than money.
Which is why I had to chuckle at myself the other day when I caught myself being cheap. As a bit of background, one of the downsides of federal employment is having to purchase my own business cards. A further downside is that the cards come in denominations of 500. Since I started at Treasury eight months ago, I think I’ve given away about twenty business cards, as I’m terrible at remembering them. I’m also not in any particular hurry to distribute them. At least, not until I realized the other day that I am getting married in six months and that I might want to change my surname. If I were to do so, however, that would be 480 cards down the drain, a phenomenal waste in my opinion.
And so, that is how I decided to keep my maiden name, at least professionally, after I get married. Not for any substantive reason of equality or politics, but because I’m just too cheap to buy a whole other set of business cards. When I get down to the last several cards, or if I’m offered another job, I’ll consider again whether I want to use my married name, but only then.
I actually find it comforting to know that as hefty and significant a decision as my identity can be decided by something so quotidian as money.
I kept meaning to come back and comment because this was so apropos at the time. Clearly I forgot.
We all have our cheap moments.
One thing I’ve always wondered, and this goes for scientists too, is the legal ramifications of using a name other than your “legal” SSN name for your job. Can I just change my name when I get married and use my maiden name for publications? Then what name would my institution put on my paycheck, taxes, and website?
I also consider materials cheap if they fall apart. If you buy a shirt and wear it a couple times and it fades or a seam comes apart, I would totally call it cheap.
Hm, good question. My guess is that all your official stuff, like W-2s and 401Ks, is under your legal name. Your publications and faculty profiles, however, would be under your professional name.
Maybe the hassle of keeping all that straight is worse than shelling out the bucks for a new set of business cards. Or, maybe I’ll change nothing. Inertia’s a law, after all.