The souring Canadian job market and rising costs of being a teenager with all the indulgences expected with life for a teenager in Canada – a slice of pizza, drive to the mall, the trendiest new sneakers, the hottest new clothes – are teaching Canadian teenagers to do something few Canadians, let alone teenagers do, be thrifty.

Today’s teenager is learning new realties then the teenagers of many previous years, who splurged on whatever their fancy took them, having to rethink their real needs, as compared with their desire for a $100 handbags, $60 tee shirt, $80 skinny jeans from Abercrombie and Fitch, or the $400 electronic device over the less expensive, economic model their parents had pointed out.

North American retailers are reporting sluggish sales numbers, defying many experts belief that teenage spending sprees are recession-proof, instead stating that their spending will last longer, but will eventually fold due to lack of funds.

Jobs for teenagers are harder to find in these tough economic times, making living in our money-dependent society almost impossible if your trying to keep up to the Jones, what is a young teenager suppose to do to make ends meet? Teenagers aren’t the only affected spenders as parents are feeling the pinch and teenager monthly allowances are one of the first financial cuts made during these tough times for teenagers.

Recent developments in the teen battle against the economic tide sweeping across the continent include the recently launched, Ellegirl.com, the teen offshoot of Elle magazine, a new video fixture called Self-Made Girl, which teaches teenagers how to be thrifty by making clothes and accessories, instead of paying money they just don’t have. Humans, especially teenagers, are resilient and will continue to find ways to decrease their costs and still get the necessities they feel they need, so expect more ideas like Ellegirl.com to start making appearances around North America.

We are a consuming society, a throw away society, where convenience, not common sense, rules the emotions and therefore determines human actions. The birth of every new soul inherently makes things in our society more valuable to others, as the demand for the necessities of life increase with each soul born, so the monetary value of everything also increases in kind with each new human born on the planet.

The planet is changing, and humans need to change with the planet if we are to survive and yes even thrive. Part of this change could be our need to go away from a consumer based society, to a healthy planet management society in the years to come, if we are to survive the changes our own animal desires have wrought upon the planet and society. Part of the changes we need to make have to do with changes in the ways we think about our habits, traditions and customs. I will leave you with one final statement before I leave, “Habit, even insanity, steeped in millennium of time, becomes custom, even tradition that we as humans have trouble going away from, even when the damage is obvious and severe, we are all creatures of habit”