Faced with the unbearable high cost of our days, we Romanians must first of all impose the greatest frugality and the most perfect frugality, wrote the weekly “Revusta Economică” 100 years ago.

Everyone should reduce their life needs to the strictly necessary, giving up any expenses that are not absolutely necessary for existence today.

Today, the issue of high cost worries everyone most acutely, both in our country and abroad.

Food prices have reached a limit that even the widest imagination could not imagine

And not without reason. The prices of food and the most necessary items of life almost everywhere have reached limits that even the widest imagination could not imagine. Wheat, corn and flour, these products, which are meant to provide us with our “daily bread”, today cost twice as much as they once did.

So are milk, eggs and all kinds of vegetables. Meat and lard have doubled and tripled in price, and some food products have risen in price by 2-300%. Clothes and shoes have doubled or tripled in price, and heating is still briefly below these limits.

Under such circumstances, it is not surprising if, as I have said above, everyone, individuals, institutions, corporations and states, is concerned about the question of cost, especially compared to the enormous expenses that life today requires, the incomes of most of them and a large part of society are almost have not increased at all compared to the past.

If one abstracts from the agricultural people, for whom the high price has become a real source of profit, and if one abstracts from the suppliers (suppliers – ed.) of the armies, then there are few left of those happy-go-lucky people whose incomes and earnings in these difficult times could keep up with growth cost of living

For us Romanians, the issue of high cost has so far not been discussed much in advertising, although it is a very heavy burden for a large part of our people and above all for the intellectual classes who live for fixed-remuneration positions or professions with limited earnings. In our country, the intelligentsia suffers more from the high cost we are talking about.

Therefore, the time has come for those who are called to seriously deal with this issue here as well, to strive for its proper solution, of course, in accordance with the powers that we possess.

Against the intolerably high prices of our day, the greatest sparing and the most perfect moderation must be applied

Compared with the intolerable expensiveness of our days, above all we Romanians must impose the greatest frugality and the most perfect moderation.

Everyone should reduce their life needs to the strictly necessary, giving up any expenses that are not absolutely necessary for existence today.

It is especially necessary to refrain from any entertainments and pleasures, even the most innocent former ones, because today their pleasure requires such expenses that it is no longer possible to ignore them. Cafes in our big cities and restaurants in smaller ones, these places where many of our intellectuals are used to spending a large part of the day, advertise sacrifices that are a shame to make today, when we can barely afford to eat. Likewise, other expenses that fall under this or another similar category.

In today’s conditions, we are sure that no one will be able to seriously criticize the fact that our clothes can no longer be the same as they were in the past, and that old clothes are replaced by new ones as much as possible.

But however great the austerity and moderation we impose on ourselves, we must admit that without some increase in income it is almost impossible for our intellectuals to meet the enormous expenses which even the simplest way of life, even the simplest clothing, requires.

We all feel it, and surely many of our institutions that employ Romanian intellectuals will already do something to help them by raising their salaries in one way or another.

We have reliable information that some institutions have already assigned 10-15% allowances for civil servants (“expensive allowances” – ed.) and everywhere for those who serve them. But the fact that it is given to someone is not enough.

It is necessary to start a general movement that would enable all our intelligentsia to bear the price, as we see that it is being done today everywhere in our country and abroad. (…)

First of all, a distinction must be made between married civil servants and those who have a family, and unmarried, without a family, a distinction which in the state, although recognized as good, could not be applied for various reasons. The responsibilities of married people and family members are much greater than those of others.

This is not to say that the life of unmarried people will not become more difficult. All we want to reveal is the fact that an unmarried civil servant, e.g. he can impose much more moderation in his expenses than a member of the family whose expenses are much larger and much higher. That is why we believe that our institutions should come to the aid of families.