Sure, but plenty of people buy things because they want to feel wealthy. I have people in my life who buy fancy cars, holidays, and furniture on loan with bad interest. Instead of saving for an item, they pay too much for instant gratification.
One source of entertainment for the past three or so years was seeing on social media how terrified USians are of the prospect of living like people in other countries do.
I think we are going to have another decade or two or that, with the way things are looking
Exactly, and it’s a cycle. They buy things on credit, carry a balance on their credit cards, owe a lot of money, and the stress gets to them. Eventually they buy things as a way to feel better and relieve the stress.
Trying to “not look poor” or “keep up with the Joneses” can lead to real misery. But, if instead you make a budget and save just a little bit every month it can be liberating.
Fundamentally, the problem is unequal wealth distribution. But, we should also try to help people live within their means while we attempt to fix that societal issue.
“Buy more stuff to be happy, more, more, MOOORE! No not like that 😡”
I mean, I do get it. Some people take on debt as a way to live beyond their means when they could still live a “comfortable” life without the glamour or “keeping up with the Jones”. The $80k+ gas guzzling truck bought on credit - that’s only used for driving to work and grocery trips - is a good example of this.
But a better way of saying this is “live within your means”, but it’s becoming increasingly impossible to do this and have a standard of living that’s just “decent shelter and healthy food” (or even, “enough food”) which should be a bare minimum
It’s a double edged sword in that for some people this is meaningless bullshit, in that they are struggling to pay for groceries, there is nowhere to lower their standards to.
On the other hand I have watched quite a bit of financial audit videos by caleb hammer, and have seen plenty of statistics that shows that simply put lots of people especially Americans are caught up in consumerism and live beyond their means for either status, or because that’s where they get their gratification from.
The solution is to accept that no matter what you buy you will be only happy for a fleeting moment, better to embrace minimalism and fuck consumerism, it’s also better for the planet, not just your wallet.
for some people this is meaningless bullshit, in that they are struggling to pay for groceries
Good point, and I think this runs to the heart of a lot of ragebait meme stuff like this. It wasn’t written for that audience, it was written for people driving an Audi TT on a VW Polo salary.
You spend too much money on electricity. Have you thought about just freezing to death?
“Acceptance. Gratitude. Mindfulness. These are the things you can do instead of rising up and tearing down the tyranny of capitalism.”
These are things you can do WHILE rising up
Americans have already done the math
Baby is born
Doctor: How did you like your free 9 month trial of life?
Baby: What do you mean free trial?
Doctor: It costs money to live.
Baby: Frantically tries to climb back into the womb.
That’s pretty much my littlest one. He got forced out into the world and he’s been pissed about it ever since.
I get what they’re trying to say though. So many people think they need to keep up with other by having a constant supply of new clothes and a modern luxury car, etc. People will take credit to breaking point just to keep up with other people who are doing the same thing. I’ve done it myself and it took years to dig myself out. Now I take comfort in knowing that I’m not scared to open the mail because I have enough saved to handle any surprise bills. Some things keep me awake at night but it’s not bills, and I don’t care that phone’s 5 years old and my car’s 15 years old.
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When I was growing up I was told capitalism was great because we all get a high standard of living and had lots of inexpensive stuff to buy. Look at how poor Russians were during the Soviet era!
Now I’m being told that to sustain capitalism I need to live like a Soviet era Russian.
A soviet era russian also had access to free healthcare, free childcare, free higher education, cheap (sometimes free) housing, excellent (for the time) public transit, and a safety net for unemployment or old age. Oh and there was ample opportunities to build community ties so that if something did go horribly wrong and you needed that help. Capitalism in decline will give you none of that.
It didn’t last. Surely there’s something in the middle that can both lift up the potential floor for standard of living through social safety net and also be sustained long term.
It didn’t last because the will of bureaucracy was placed before the will of the people, it was a long decline of democratic rights of the working class started under Stalin and continued by all following leaders. It was not due to socialism per se, more due to the specifics of CPSU politics. China seems to have figured out a better way to do democratic dictatorship of proletariat and is successfully combining aspects of capitalism and socialism, to both make the country appealing to capitalist investors and also build up a socialist economy to bring the living standards up. It’s not perfect (and is definitely not “the end of history” by any means), but it is doing fine as an interim solution.
China’s ten-year presidential terms worked well for their people for a long time. That Xi has gone the dictator for life route is IMO a significant threat to their future direction.
Many countries also seem to be on a fine interim path to building up a combination capitalist/socialist economy and bringing up their median and minimum living standards. China is big and influential, but doesn’t have a lock on that.
This is called “lifestyle creep” where you get a raise or promotion and instead of saving the extra money you get, you buy nicer stuff and your raise basically disappears.
If the trend continues this article will be about those big wigs with a bed, running water and porcelain commodes.
I had 2 pieces of broccoli as a treat.
It might be badly worded. I do think that consumerism is at least part of what brought as here. I’ve met people having several unopened louis vuitton bags because they noticed they didn’t need them afterwards after they bought them or a bunch of drop shipped spy gadgets that pretend to make your house smart or renting a nice car instead of buying it with their last money. they were not that well off themselves. we should just buy less (and by extension work less)
If they do mean living standard as in “living standard” and with that social activities, food and housing they can go fuck themselves.
Why not just say
“Stop buying shit you don’t need”
The advertisers might get upset if it’s stated that plainly.
Also this is pretty stupid to say because it basically just means spend less money. Yeah, no shit.
I mean it’s a little more nuanced than that. There’s a lot of ways to reduce costs. For me, not eating out is the biggest saver of money.
Choosing to stop eating out is a way to reduce your standard of living.
I wouldn’t call it that. I would say it’s living within your means. For example not going to Starbucks everyday. Coffee and creamer is $15 and lasts a month. That’s only 1 coffee for some people at Starbucks.
The point is that both are the same as “save money” when they should be giving more specific advice. Two pieces of good actionable advice have been given by you. “Just save money” is not a useful tip for “how to save money”. What you’re saying is useful.
Every time I try this, half the food goes bad and I save nothing. Yes I am using a fridge.
Somewhat same, but for me I’m just trying to cook more at home. Not necessarily save money. (Though it’s still nice.) Have you compared the costs? It could be that even if you throw out half it’s still cheaper, ya know? Or maybe closer to breaking even than you realize.
This worked for me. I used to have no money but since I stopped eating and turned off the electricity and heating I now have millions… MILLIONS!
🎶Lowered Expectations🎶
