Seven Deadly Sins for Cities | Part 6

6.  Parsimony

More than an extreme or excessive economy or frugality, extreme unwillingness to spend money or use resources, the quality of being very unwilling to spend money/being careful with money or resources, or a thrift in the quality or state of being stingy – economy in the use of means to an end – for not only creating things but in thinking about things. In cities, this most often refers to an excess of quantity in the short-term as an unfair exchange for a cheapness of quality in things or ideas over the long-term. For example, a cheap idea efficiently implemented in the short term is often inevitably more expensive than a good idea carefully crafted and implemented over the long term. Synonyms include: miserliness, niggardliness, penny-pinching, or tightfistedness; see also FUBAR (Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition) or clusterfuck. (1400-50; late Middle English parcimony < Latin parsimōnia, parcimōnia frugality, thrift, equivalent to parsi– combining form of parsus, past participle of parcere to economize or parci– combining form of parcus sparing + –mōniamony suffix signifying action, state, or condition).

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