The Factors Affecting Life in Moderation

This study investigates the elements that drive living a life in moderation or a life within a balance and not in extremes. These drivers include the benefits of living such a life (i.e., saving money, having a better quality of life, environmental preservation), role models (i.e., parents, the adoption of the sufficiency economy of King Bhumibol, and the company and the government), learning about the sufficiency economy in school, Buddhism, and advertising exposure through the media. The data were collected from interviews with 359 moderate adults that were at least 18 years of age and that had come to the randomly-selected shopping centers in Bangkok. The results from the multiple regression analysis indicated that saving money and learning about the sufficiency economy in school and from one’s parents were the positive drivers of living a life in moderation. The sole negative driver of living a life in moderation was the exposure to advertising through the media. Older people were seen to be more moderate than younger people and the never-married were more moderate than those that were married.


Introduction
Moderation can bring a feeling of calm to all areas of our lives, including our finances, while the opposite of moderation is living in extremes.For example, we may save all of our money and never spend any on anything extravagant or unnecessary, but on the other extreme, we might fritter away all our money on expensive clothing and other items and activities and incur a large debt.Both extremes pull us away from a balance in our expenses.We need to be able to find moderation with our finances by saving money but at the same time we also need to spend reasonable amounts of our income on things that we enjoy and that will bring us happiness-thus creating a balance in our lives.This will allow us to never reach the point of having so much money and not having the time to use it wisely or on the other hand to reach the point where we are in huge debt and are forced to spend all our money paying it off.
Thus, as stated above, living a life of moderation allows us to find and enjoy a balance in our lives.Saving is one of the key factor that drives us to be moderate in consumption, but there are several other positive factors that affect moderation and that deserve to be investigated, which is a main focus of this study.In addition, we are also affected by the mass media, on our children for example, and on society in general, and this influence is great.For this reason it is of value to know how this influence comes into being.The media make billions of dollars with the advertising that they sell and to which we are continually bombarded.Often, we make our purchasing decisions after seeing thousands of advertisements from television, newspapers and magazines.The effects of the mass media, especially on teenagers, is that they buy what they see on TV, what their favorite celebrity advertises, and what is deemed to be valuable by society based on the current fashion that the media have exposed them to.That is to say, the media are likely to have a negative effect on moderate consumption.Taken together, in this study, life lived in moderation is hypothesized to be motivated by several positive factors and the negative factor of media exposure.

Benefits of Life in Moderation
2.1.1Saving Benefit "Moderation" is a key term when it comes to the beneficial deployment of wealth, and moderation in spending depends for the most part on a person's ability to tell the difference between his or her needs and wants.According to Phrabhavanaviriyakhun (n.d.), necessary wealth can be broken down into four requirements: clothing, food, shelter, and medicine.Buddhists define a "need" for example as having enough clothing to protect oneself from the heat and cold, enough food to stave off hunger, and sufficient shelter to protect us from the elements, in addition to medical care to treat us when we are sick.If one has a clear idea about what comprises a "need," we can see consumption for what it really is-merely a means to an end.If we confuse "wants" with "needs," however, as encouraged by modern marketing tactics, we will make the mistake of thinking about consumption as an end in itself.
Because people never seem to be able to have enough or to know what to stop amassing goods, "needs" often are replaced by "wants."When people desire something, particularly in an obsessive way, ethical considerations tend to "take a back seat."The Buddha would see moderation as an antidote to excessive consumption and would say that moderation in fact contributes to one's economic well-being.Most people are interested in how much money they are making, but more important is how much money you have left at the end of the month.In the past, people used to say "Don't just eat because you feel like it; eat when you are hungry . .." because we can feel like eating twenty four hours a day!If there were nothing more to moderation than appetite for humans, then this would put us on the mere level of the animals.It is not one's income that counts so much but how much is left after our expenses are met.The secret of having something left is to spend our money only on what we need and not unnecessarily on what we want.In short, the benefit of saving tends is positively related to moderation in life.

Benefit of Having a Better Quality of Life
According to Zsolnai (2011), the wisdom of moderation is at the heart of Buddhist economics.In Western economics unlimited desire is controlled by the scarcity of what we want, but in Buddhist economics this desire is controlled by an appreciation of moderation and the desire to achieve well-being in our lives.According to Buddhist thought, for example, whenever we use things we can take the time to reflect on their true purpose rather than using them without thinking.This would allow us to avoid overconsumption and understand what Buddhists call "the middle way." The idea of non-consumption in fact can contribute to a person's well-being.For example, Buddhist monks eat only one meal a day and strive for a kind of well-being that is dependent on little that is external to our psyche in this case.In fact Buddhist economics recognizes that through non-consumption certain demands can be satisfied.In other words, the path to true contentment from this point of view involves reducing so-called artificial desires for sense-pleasure while at the same time encouraging and supporting the desire for a good quality of life.Therefore, it can be hypothesized that the benefit of bettering one's quality of life is positively related to moderation in conducting our lives.

Benefit of Environmental Preservation
According to Essen (2013), the ethics of moderation are of critical importance in terms of combating excessive consumption and materialism, which have increased with the global spread of capitalism.Beyond the level of the individual's well-being, the ability of moderation to stem the harmful effects of over-consumption can be seen to have perhaps even greater significance in terms of environmental sustainability as well as for social justice, although perhaps in a more indirect way.The degree of the degradation of the "life conditions of the planet" is dependent to a great extent on our social lifestyles.The ethics of moderation, through the power of the consumer, as individuals and collectively, have a great potential to positively affect human life.It follows then that the benefit of environmental preservation can be hypothesized as positively related to moderation in life.

Parents
It is commonly understood that parents are the role models of their children.The Buddha gave great importance to the parent-child relationship, where parents are compared to the Brahma God and are said to be the ones that show and introduce the world to our children.Indeed, our first frames of reference are given by our parents.For example, if our parents are fascinated by material things, beautiful clothes, expensive cars and so on, then they promote a certain value system without intentionally doing so.In fact, the values of parents play an important role in conditioning the mindset of the child.Also influential is how parents live their lives, how they spend their time, how they divide their time between work and non-work activities and enjoyment, and how much time they spend with their family.It can be seen that parents have huge effects both in terms of what they consciously teach and in terms of their behavior and how that is perceived by others, especially their children.Thus, it can be hypothesized that parents exert a positive influence on their children in terms of moderation in life.

King Bhumibol's Sufficiency Economy
Thailand's revered King Bhumibol introduced an economic philosophy, known as sufficiency economics, to his subjects in 1997, when Thailand faced a severe economic crisis that led to many people committing suicide.This concept became a guiding principle of Thailand's national development policy in 1999.His Majesty's philosophy of sufficiency economy emphasizes that producers or consumers should attempt to produce or consume within the limitations of their existing income and resources.The sufficiency economy does not mean that one must constantly be frugal; for example, a person can indulge herself in luxury once in a while, so long as it is within her capacity to do so.However the majority of Thailand's population often spend beyond their means.His Majesty the King included the following in his birthday speech on 4 December, 1998: I may add that full sufficiency is impossible.If a family or even a village wants to employ a full sufficiency economy, it would be like returning to the Stone Age…This sufficiency means to have enough to live on.
Sufficiency means to lead a reasonably comfortable life, without excess, or overindulgence in luxury, but enough.Some things may seem to be extravagant, but if it brings happiness, it is permissible as long as it is within the means of the individual… The sufficiency economy can be applied to all levels, branches, and sectors of the economy, and is not necessarily limited to the agricultural or rural sectors, or even the financial, the real estate, or the international trade and investment sectors.The point is to use similar principles that emphasize moderation and reasonableness in our actions, and creating immunity for ourselves and society.Therefore, it can be hypothesized that the adoption of King Bhumibol's sufficiency economy philosophy in life is positively related to Thais living their lives in moderation.

Company
As strange as it may sound, the company Bathroom Design can be taken as a good example of adopting King Bhumibol's sufficiency economy in terms of being moderate in doing business.The firm provides custom-made imported shower enclosures and Jacuzzis for new and old homes.The company soon understood that rather than buying each item separately they wanted the entire set, and this encouraged the company to create bathtubs.The company had experience as an importer of bathtubs, and they began to focus on innovation and introduced high-quality bathtubs and sanitary good in many styles and using many technologies.This included the use of different colors and types, for example, spa shower enclosures and environmentally-friendly toilets.Their creativity had garnered them several design award both locally and from abroad.One interesting point however is that Bathroom Design has adhered to the strategy of moderate growth while engaged in this creative activity and have never attempted to adhere to overly-ambitions growth.Neither have then attempted to overleverage money borrowed in order to increase unsustainable growth.Further, they have never neglected their long-term partnerships for short-term profits.In fact, they have remained only within their area of expertise, that is, bathroom fixtures, and have not expanded their business to include items used in other part of homes.
According to their perspective, moderation and grow and not mutually exclusive, nor is moderation at odds with good business opportunities.In fact, moderation means being committed to growing one's business with the careful use of resources so that the business can flourish.In order to evaluate sustainability or moderation, it is necessary to look at the careful use of the resources that are available and to also look at profitability and the relationship of debt to equity and time-interest expenses.This does not mean that growth has to be slow.Indeed, the growth of Bathroom Design has been quite extraordinary and they have ended up producing at least seven lines of bathtubs for almost 30 countries in the world-all within a decade of operations.However, this growth can be considered "moderate" because it was not achieved through ill thought out acquisitions or without the consideration of its core competency-the management of Bathroom Design has made a deliberate attempt to remain within its area of expertise.It can be seen then that moderation, although it may seem on the surface to be a focus on self, can also be of benefit to the community and environment.Bathroom Design for example has been able to save a considerable amount of money in the cost of production through the use of "green" technologies, for example recycling the water during the quality control stage.Additionally, the acrylic materials for example from the creation of sanitary goods are put to good use by the company in a variety of ways, for example as cabinets and shoe racks and even buttons that the staff members can wear at trade shows.This focus on "self" in the end results in being of benefit to more than the company.Thus, it can be hypothesized that a company's behavior in being moderate is positively correlated with people living their lives in moderation.

Government
According to the Government Public Relations Department (2015), Prime Minister Prayut Chanocha has stated that his administration has applied the sufficiency economy philosophy of His Majesty the King as a guideline for national administration.In a televised national address on 27 March 2015 for the program "Return Happiness to the People," Prime Minister Prayut explained that, according to the sufficiency economy, people should use their money wisely and reasonably: "If you have less, spend less, and if you have more, you may spend more."For him this philosophy is a guide for life; that is, people should be empowered first before they decide to invest more money in something they want.This means that they should have enough money to eat with first and then they can purchase items that they do not consider to be essentials.The Prime Minister stated that the government gives great importance to empowering communities so that they will be able to deal effectively with their own problems.Community leaders for example, should be responsible and exhibit ethical behavior, and they should encourage self-reliance on the part of the local people.He further stated that all provinces in Thailand should help one another and in addition to their own communities.He pointed out that the heart of such community empowerment is the adoption of the sufficiency economy, which will allow communities to strengthen their abilities so that they can obtain the most from their potentials.The basic principle of this philosophy is that each village or sub-district should exist according to a reasonable amount of "sufficiency."Like the philosophy for the individual stated above, if villagers grow or produce a surplus, then they can sell it, and rather than having to sell it at a great distance from their homes, they can sell it at sites nearby without having to pay high transport costs.Along this line, the Thai government is pushing for the implementation of pilot projects that can assist in the development of villages nationwide and based on the sufficiency economy philosophy.In this regard, it can be stated that there are three interlocking components of the sufficiency economy: reasonableness, moderation, and self-immunity, and therefore it can be hypothesized that the government's application of the sufficiency economy in the administration of Thailand is positively related to the Thai people's moderation in life.

Sufficiency Economy Philosophy Taught in Schools in Thailand
In 2015, the Office of Basic Education Commission (OBEC) launched a development center whose purpose is to drive the sufficiency economic philosophy, with the plan that all educational institutes will teach sufficiency philosophy lessons in three years.The National News Bureau of Thailand (NNT) reported that Minister of Education Admiral Narong Pipatanasai revealed in a news conference that the introduction of the sufficiency economy to educational institutions will continue to drive His Majesty the King's philosophy, and this will allow the students to assimilate the ideas embedded therein.In fact, the OBEC has reported that the sufficiency economy philosophy has already been introduced to educational institutions through integrated management, curriculum development, and class activities since 2006.According to an OBEC report, some educational institutions have received certification from the Ministry of Education as model institutes in terms of teaching the sufficiency economy.The institutions that receive this certificate will be called "sufficiency institutes."The Minister of Education stated that the establishment of a sufficiency economy philosophy development center will be an important strategy for creating concrete outcomes in the teaching of sufficiency economy development, according to the NNT.OBEC Secretary General Kamol Rodklai further stated that the sufficiency economic philosophy has been incorporated in the 2008 Basic Education Core Curriculum, where all schools have been requested to hold classes and activities that will teach students a sufficiency economic model.He stated that there are 14,602 schools nationwide in Thailand certified as institutions for teaching this model, while there are 39 sufficiency economy philosophy learning centers nationwide.The OBEC has established a plan to qualify all schools in Thailand to be certified as sufficiency institutes, and to establish the sufficiency philosophy learning centers in primary and secondary educational levels in all provinces of Thailand by 2017, according to the NNT.Thus, it can be hypothesized that learning the sufficiency economy philosophy in schools is positively related to moderation in life.

Belief in the Middle Path in Buddhism
Buddhism is called the Middle Way because the Buddha realized that extremes do not lead to the awakening of the individual.However, living life between extremes, with balance and moderation, does lead to less stress and awakening.Siddhartha Gautama, the man that would be known worldwide as the Buddha, at one time practiced severe neglect of self as a way of life.That is, he wore little or no clothing, and ate only enough food to maintain a small amount of his life energy.He also engaged in extreme behavior in other ways, for example, sitting in uncomfortable positions, sleeping in the open elements and during the day remaining under the heat of the sun or the cold rain.In fact it can be asserted that he likely would have died if he had not changed his attitude toward moderation.It is said that his hair fell out in clumps, his skin grew taut with sores and cuts, and his ribs showed.In other words, he looked like a corpse.According to one famous story, that a young lady named Sujata saw him, thinking how much he must be suffering, she offered him a meal of rice pudding and Siddhartha accepted the meal.At once his vows concerning the ascetic life were broken.It should be remembered that Gautama was from a wealthy family, and he realized that wealth, or more importantly, the overindulgence that wealth may bring, does not guarantee happiness, and thus this was added to his attitude toward the merits of moderation.Siddhartha realized that freedom and happiness stem from a mental stance between extremes.From this, we can see that Buddhism is not a religion nor philosophy of extremes-it is a path of moderation, and it works.The Middle Way attitude toward life has been applied to all aspects of Buddhism and life, and it can be hypothesized then that belief in the Middle Path of Buddhism is positively related to living a life in moderation.

Advertising Exposure through the Media
Throughout history, advertising has been criticized for causing many social ills, including the reinforcement of sexual stereotypes and creating discontent so that more goods can be sold.
There are at least two reasons why advertising has been blamed for promoting overconsumption.
The first may seem to be an obvious fact, but it has been asserted that advertising creates desires in the minds of people.Although obvious it is important because people in the marketing industry sometimes present the argument that the desires come first and then advertising steps in, responding to those desires.
However, as explained in The Advertising Age Encyclopedia of Advertising, businesses over a hundred years ago began to see that advertising can create desires in the minds of people and that this could lead to a new type of economy: "People bought articles they did not know they wanted until advertising told them why they could not live without it."In 1958, John Kenneth Galbraith wrote his now-famous book The Affluent Society in which he argued that the central function of advertising is "to create desires-to bring into being wants that previously did not exist."For example, in 2008, the global vice-president for Axe deodorant informed The Times newspaper that in the UK people did not use deodorant before World War II, and in fact according to him aggressive advertising was necessary to make people understand that body odor was socially unacceptable.He asserted that "[t]he sense of paranoia created the market."The company's current global vice-president also recently corroborated the earlier statement, saying that advertising created the market for deodorant.Additionally, a Unilever executive recently explained that one expansion strategy was to make Asians feel self-conscious about their body odor.According to him however the "Asia is a market we have never really cracked.They don't think they smell …" The point to be drawn here is not that people don't smell; it is that advertising seeks to create a market where one did not exist before.
It can be seen that advertising also creates new desires by promoting a sense of unhappiness with our current situation.Example of this can be found in the late 1950s.During World War II in the United States, for example, industry expanded in an effort to supply the army, and when the war was over the factories were left with a tremendously-increased capacity for manufacturing.At first the consumers bought new appliances and thus absorbed the extra production.However in the late 1950s, in became a worry on the part of industry that consumer demand would decrease and it was felt that this could lead to another economic depression.This situation was characterized as the "crisis of distribution."One solution was to make people think that extreme consumption was an acceptable way of life, and in 1955, Victor Lebow, a retail analyst, wrote the following in the Journal of Retailing: 'Cars, such as the GM Cadillac, developed stylistic quirks like tail fins, tempting consumers to replace their vehicles just to keep up with changing fashions.''Our enormously productive economy demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfactions, our ego satisfactions, in consumption … We need things consumed, burned up, worn out, replaced, and discarded at an ever increasing pace.'This is good description of the consumer economy, which has existed since the 1950s.One of the strategies for increasing consumption has been termed "psychological obsolescence."This involves making things appear to be old after only a few years.For example with reference to the automobile industry, some American cars developed stylistic idiosyncrasies such as tail fins, and it is believed that these "out of the box" creations were for the purpose of encouraging people to keep up with the changing fashion and to make new purchases.The role of advertising in this sense then was to make people think that new products were superior to old ones.This is not the only strategy that has been discussed in terms of getting people to buy new things-another was drive the demands of consumers through social pressure.This has been referred to "keeping up with the Joneses" theory, which everyone today is familiar with.However, this concept is implies a good deal more than merely trying to purchase newer and better things than one's neighbor.It can be applied to the entire society because it can be seen that everyone today is purchasing more than in the past.People are following others, not merely to get or stay ahead but to establish one's position in society-the passion of what is considered to be a quality item renders the possessor a higher status in society.For example, if the people in one's office begin driving new cars then the one you have will not look so good.This is a mundane example that can be applied to any material possession.Again, pressure is placed on the individual to retain his or her status though his or her purchases and material possessions.
Another way that modern advertising creates the social pressure to consume is by showing images of affluent people enjoying luxury goods, so-called "aspirational" images.The average person sees a photo of someone he or she feels is rich and this encourages the individual to "aspire" to the same level of consumption and possession.It is interesting however that many of these images are not even related to the product being sold.For example, an image of a beautiful woman in a car can be used to promote the sales of cars.It is often a fact that such aspirational advertising displays a level of wealth beyond what the average person can afford, creating a feel of disquietude on the part of the individual and the reason for their appeal-consumers feel unhappy with what they currently have and this results in never-ending striving for more expensive goods.Therefore, it can be hypothesized that advertising exposure through the media is negatively related to moderation in one's life

Sampling
The questionnaire used in this study was first tested with 18 MBA students for a preliminary understanding of the content.This was followed by a pretest, where 18 eligible adult respondents were interviewed that were moderate and at least 18 years of age.The questionnaire was revised based on the feedback from the interviewees for its suitability and clarity.Then, the main study was conducted by interviewing 359 eligible shoppers at 36 randomly-selected shopping centers in Bangkok.The rate of moderation turned out to be 86 percent and the response rate was 92 percent.

Data Analysis
The benefits of living a life in moderation (i.e., saving, a better quality of life, environmental preservation), the role models in relation to being moderate (i.e., parents, King Bhumibol, company, government), as well as other variables such as learning about the sufficiency economy from school and Buddhism, were assumed to be positively related to moderation in life.Additionally, advertising exposure to the media was hypothesized to be negatively related to moderation in life.In order to investigate whether this hypothesis would hold true or not, a regression analysis was conducted.Specifically, the earlier-mentioned independent variables, as well as the demographic characteristics, including gender, age, marital status, education, and household income, which were also used as the independent variables because they were used as the controllable variables, were regressed on moderation in life, which was used as the dependent variable.It should be noted that education was divided into low education, consisting of people with lower than a bachelor degree, and high education, consisting of those with at least a bachelor degree.Household income was also divided into two groups.The low household income group was comprised of persons that earned less than 60,000 Baht/month, whereas the high household income group was those that earned at least 60,000 Baht/month.The results of the multiple regression analysis are shown in Table 1.

Results and Discussion
According to the standardized beta coefficients, as shown in Table 1, the positive determinants of the moderation in life of the whole sample were saving, parents, and learning from school.The sole negative influence on moderation in life was advertising exposure through the media.Apart from that, people of an older age tended to be more moderate than younger people.Similarly, the never-married were more moderate than the married individuals.The strongest influencer of moderation in life was saving, followed by learning from school and parents.Parents and advertising exposure through the media seemed to be equally important influencers of moderation, but they were working in the opposite direction.It is noteworthy that the benefit of saving came up as the strongest driver of moderation in life but other benefits of moderation-a better quality of life and environmental preservation-did not seem to attract people's attention at all.These two benefits tended to deserve the attention for promotion of moderation by the policy maker.Additionally, formal education in learning about the sufficiency economy from school tended to work better in promoting moderation in life than informal education by taking parents as role models.This tends to lend itself to the idea that educators should place emphasis not only on the education in the classes but should also extend the learning of students in extra-curriculum activities as well.The teachers should find every possible way in their attempts to instill the spirit of moderation in the students' lives.
Thai people tend to expose themselves to advertising through media to a great extent, and this is the downside of being moderate.The negative influence of advertising on moderation can be avoided through an attempt to ignore the huge amount of advertising that bombards us daily.We may have to be very selective in viewing the advertising and limit ourselves to that which is informative and not merely persuasive.In addition to that, we should not jump into buying the products as advertised right away; it might be better if we can wait for a while so that we purchase only what we actually need and not what we want in the moment.It should be noted that companies cannot perform as good role models for being moderate since they are often perceived as mainly profit organizations and not as organizations that create a balance among profit, people, and the planet.The triple bottom line of profit, people, and planet, which is certainly a noble objective for any company, seems to be a long way off in today's world.

Conclusion
This study has made an attempt to demonstrate the positive aspects of moderation in contemporary society.In order to promote a much wider adoption of moderation in life, the benefit of saving from being moderate, as well as the overlooked benefits for a better quality of life and the benefit of environmental preservation, should be emphasized.Parents can be a good role model for youngsters in terms of being moderate.However, formal education in learning about the sufficiency economy from school, beginning from the early years in life, tended to work even better in promoting moderation in life than using parents as role models.

Table 1 .
Results for the multiple regression analysis of moderation and benefits, role models, and several other factors affecting moderation in the whole population * = Significant at α ≤ .05* = Significant at α ≤ .1