Inefficient, but Smart
The idea here of how you furnish a place in the US doesn&#x27;t match my personal experience. He does mention Craigslist in passing, but simultaneously dismisses it, but I think that&#x27;s a bit trite. We bought a ton of fixtures, furniture, and even construction materials from Craigslist, St. Vinnies, and our local Habitat for Humanities and saved a pile of cash. We didn&#x27;t deal with the whole big-box experience. Furniture is similarly dealt with.<p>Even before Craigslist, there were old fashioned classified adverts and garage sales which weren&#x27;t as convenient as a single giant market, but gave us options.<p>From the sounds of it, our luck with Craigslist&#x2F; second hand sources was just about as good as his was in Ecuador with one out of our many purchases being a bit of a disappointment.<p>Also, this paragraph bothered me:<p>&gt; Here, the process always involves a drive to a big-box store (few of these are convenient via transit, especially if you need to make multiple stops), a credit check, some paperwork to commit to a multi-month payment plan, a scheduled delivery a week or two out, and often some hassle with the delivery company requiring a phone call in which I sit on hold.<p>I don&#x27;t pay for anything other than my car&#x2F; house on monthly payments and nobody should. This article is more a criticism of the US <i>culture</i> of debt rather than looking at what options we genuinely have. We&#x27;ve always had the option to pay in cash and not deal with the financing, it&#x27;s just a bit less convenient. Likewise, if you are willing to deal with second hand goods, we have the option to get second hand goods, you just have to search a bit harder to find them.<p>Really, the big difference between experiences is the expectation in the US that you will have your own transportation, and that is the real story here in my eyes. In Ecuador public Transportation and casual truck rental works. In the US, it&#x27;s quite a bit tougher to exist without a reliable car or truck.<p>I also don&#x27;t understand why he dismisses CL, yard sales, and recycling stores out of hand because they are right up his &quot;Inefficient, but Smart&quot; alley.