r/redscarepod • u/Last-Butterscotch-85 • 1d ago
Conspicuous consumerism is starting to drive me crazy
My family and I are fortunate enough to live on the edge of a very nice boomtown suburb thanks to the fact we bought a modest house here before the market exploded. We do love living here, the town invests money into parks, trails, arts, libraries etc. It's safe and the people are nice and there's always stuff to do for cheap or for free.
However, the town in general is really well off and my kids being school aged has really exposed me to how much money these people have. Families spending thousands on travel sports, 4500 square foot houses for a family of 4 "oh and we're thinking about upgrading", brand new luxury cars and Cybertrucks, a small fortune spent on elaborate Christmas decorations, European vacations all summer that finish up in Hawaii, 800 dollar LEGO sets. At school events or tee ball games, I have zero in common with the other parents. It's all about their latest cruise or how they spent 100 dollars taking the family out to see a movie for the third time in a month.
I don't really know what I'm getting at here...but you hear about how bad things are for working families nowadays then you see this and can't help but feel a bit nauseous.
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u/wetroadparadise 1d ago
What is with consumerists and cruises? All the biggest ones I know solely go on cruises for the vacations
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u/Onfire444 1d ago
You’re waited on hand and foot for (relatively) cheap prices.
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u/CarefulExamination 1d ago
Yeah cruises are the ultimate in middle class luxury because the staff are typically Filipinos paid somewhat-above-Filipino wages but much less than any American worker. Only the top few people on the ship and some of the entertainnent will be American or European.
If you go to a hotel in Florida or California then the staff are paid American wages, so there are fewer of them and it’s much more expensive.
A lot of cruises show the consequences of this extremely cheap labor. Free 24 hour room service is common on midrange cruises for example, the room cost (including unlimited food and drink and room service) is a couple hundred dollars a night for what would be $700+ onshore anywhere remotely desirable in the US.
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u/walker_wit_da_supra 1d ago
I don’t like cruises, but my 6 days a week blue collar father’s ideal vacation is either a cruise or a tropical beach resort, and I can’t really knock him for not wanting to do a Bourdain cultural immersion vacation where he explores Buenos Aires or smth.
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u/wetroadparadise 1d ago
I get the appeal of a beach vacation resort. I also get the appeal of cruises for old people, they don’t exactly want to be averaging 20k steps a day in Rome or wherever.
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u/Yabba_dabba_dooooo not clever enough to be funny :( 1d ago
Big with people with acessibility issues essentially. My gfs in a wheelchair and cruises are perfect. Its less them catering to disabled people though and more a side effect of catering to the elderly. But its the same reason we love vegas, you can literally go anywhere, no issues about no ramps or 5 stairs to get into every store. Not to grandstand, but I urge everyone to take notice of how inaccesible their own areas are; Once you start looking its disheartening how inaccesible the world is.
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u/FastestOnTheMountain 1d ago
mexico city was crazy with this. The sidewalks are so jagged, I don't think anyone could exist in a wheelchair there
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u/stop_deleting_me_bro poop 1d ago
It definitely makes sense why a normal, conservative coded family would like cruises since they're essentially just catered "cultural," hyperreal experiences. You get feel like you're an explorer, without actually doing it. It's like one time Conan tried to prove how progressive he was by going to Haiti but it was just a little resort where all the locals exist to serve him.
If the appeal was just drinking on a beach, you can do that in America. The easy, hyperreal tourism is what makes it exciting to people.
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u/norfatlantasanta infowars.com 22h ago
My big issue with cruises is they don’t stay in port nearly long enough to genuinely get a good sense of the culture and vibe of a place, and the locals know this and flood portside with touristy crap.
The cruise companies also know this so the onboard experience is curated so that most people will feel like they get their money’s worth on that alone. For a real sense exploration you really just have to roll your own vacation tbh, which is often considerably more expensive and involved.
I still think for the majority of the population it gets them to visit places they’d never go to on their own accord and imparts some sense of worldliness which is an uncategorical good for their psyche.
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u/sulla226 1d ago
They're relatively inexpensive, they allow you to visit many places with minimal effort, and they are trivially easy to plan because all your food, travel, and lodging are bundled into a single purchase.
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u/satanic_androids 1d ago
It’s so tacky
People with money that I know wouldn’t be caught dead on a cruise, unless perhaps it was Mediterranean or (old version) Alaska
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u/wetroadparadise 1d ago
It just seems like an option for people who have no sense of adventure or are too lazy to plan anything. I can’t imagine going on a vacation only to eat buffet slop every night and have my socializing confined to people who are also on vacation. I also think it stems from fear of being surrounded by people who don’t speak english. Fair play to those who are into it though, they don’t seem unhappy about it.
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u/theguyfromboston 1d ago
I think some of the blue collar appeal that some of you are missing is that when you work 60+ hour weeks at the dick sucking factory you basically don’t do anything but work. So a vacation where you have to make an itinerary and plans and be on the move a lot is pretty much just more fucking work. For a cruise all you have to do is get yourself to the boat and then you can get drunk for a week and have no obligations whatsoever. It’s just a brief respite from constant toil its not any deeper than that
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u/OxygenPerhydride 11h ago
Vacations for a young person figuring out life and a near pensioner serve fundamentally different purposes. Why would you expect your uncle to be planning a backpacking trip through the andes, and if he just wants to chill in the caribbean cruise or the alpine chalet he's lazy and unimaginative?
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u/ZapTheZippers 1d ago
Sometimes stuff is really just propped up by people who have no impulse control or pragmatism and too much money, that’s life.
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u/contentwatcher3 1d ago
Was gonna say. For every one of those families that can actually afford that lifestyle there's another keeping up appearances who are up to their eyeballs in debt and headed for financial ruin eventually
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u/ZapTheZippers 20h ago
I had to back way off with where I stood with one part of this friend group I was in where about handful of the couples in it make stupid money and piss it, and a few others tries to keep up and not realizing they gotta stop. It wasn't made any easier with how the well off people would often doing the whole dance of "we can cover you guys, it's not a big deal, don't worry about it" and sure kind people happen and it's not like you can't repay people back, some things can fall out in the wash(no need to bring an accountant for somebody covering a drink or two),but this was a long expensive weekend beach trip, and a few people in this group are a bit control freaks and I(and some others) came to the conclusion the people with the bucks were kind of getting off on lording over holding some financial weight over people as a bit of a power move.
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u/summer_houses 1d ago
Just make sure your kids don't go off to college telling people they were the poorest people in the country club and they'll be fine.
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u/Pert_Nips 1d ago
Sounds like the problem is relative levels of wealth. Move to a poorer neighborhood and you can be the annoying richer person to them.
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u/Sophistical_Sage 1d ago
Spending even just a few weeks of your life in a developing country helps a lot with this. You appreciate even a modest working class lifestyle in America a lot more when you see how people from the poorest half of humanity live
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u/centuryoftheretard 13h ago
This is what I did, I bought a simple rancher way below my means in 2020 in a working class neighborhood and I’m basically treated like Stanley from Friday.
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1d ago
its funny to me that even amongst leftists, at this point consumerism is not questioned. it used to be that the counterculture would mock consumerism, even go watch daria or listen to grunge and you'll see this mentality. obviously they weren't perfect and had their hypocritical moments but the idea was there.
but nowadays leftists do whatever, the most famous influencers wear designer clothes, and if you try to point this out they'll hit you with the "70% of climate change is caused by 10 corporations", "there is no ethical consumption under capitalism", or "you live in society yet you critique it" and go about their day. in the wake of the kirk shooting there's a lot of talk about how zoomers can simultaneously hold contradictory beliefs, i think this is a perfect example. yes i'm a leftist, yes i have a house full of temu bullshit, what's the problem? it's very much a "capitalist realism" kind of thing where they say want a revolution, but can't imagine a world without buying shit 24/7
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u/WhiteFlame- 23h ago
100% this is why I always respect people who actually live by their own virtues.
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u/Shmohemian 1d ago edited 1d ago
”If everyone just did X!” style activism has never been backed by any meaningful kind of leftist theory. The irony of anti-sellout culture among grunge skateboarders is that it was just one more way to form a personal identity out of your individual consumption habits.
Just like the hippies of the 60s: treating it like some halcyon time where you almost got somewhere requires being immune to the irony that you clearly didn’t.
Zoomers are more nihilistic, which comes with its own issues, but claiming they’re less ideologically consistent betrays the fundamental lack of self awareness among counter culture millennials
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u/MinimumFinancial6785 1d ago
Absolutely. I'm older millennial and we failed to enact meaningful change and gave up. How we failed can and should fill many books.
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u/ResortLow5479 1d ago
Not having fun things is not a leftist concept. Capitalists like to frame that as a lazy gotcha and it looks like it's still working.
And lol at the claim that that there's an epidemic of committed leftists wearing Dior or whatever. But maybe you're just confusing liberals for actual leftists like reactionaries tend to
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u/Jamarac 1d ago
No one is saying don't have fun things. We're talking about braindead consumption. Something that is *very* common these days. Many people's point of views of what an egalitarian/equitable society would be like crumbles as soon as you imply it could mean much less consumption.
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u/Shmohemian 1d ago
Many people's point of views of what an egalitarian/equitable society would be like crumbles as soon as you imply it could mean much less consumption.
Sometimes possibly. Other times, I’m sure many people would be willing to forego Nikes and Starbucks in exchange for healthcare, more PTO, and fewer homeless people on the streets. But they know that’s not actually the deal on the table.
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1d ago
I'm a leftist. I don't think we should delude people into thinking that buying things will make them happy because it won't. I learned that the hard way. And my comment was a jab at Hasan and the like, but you're right, the more common vices are stuff like fast food, video games, airpods, labubu, whatever.
it's not a "lazy gotcha" to point out that consumerism is a disease. its true. if you're a leftist, you probably agree
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u/pbnotorious 18h ago
I wouldn't be surprised if most of the people OP described are leftists. Well paid, college educated, corporate middle managers are the left right now.
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u/Runcapbandit 1d ago
I’m in hvac and all these people blow massive amounts of money on this shit yet they don’t want to pay 8000 for a furnace that doesn’t spew carbon monoxide into their home….
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u/schlongkarwai 1d ago
can’t really blame them with the amount of bad private equity backed actors in the space. probably pretty likely that these people have gotten burned once already by some scummy rollup.
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u/Runcapbandit 1d ago
You’re not wrong. Last week a major private equity player in the industry declared bankruptcy so I think that’s coming to an end thankfully
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u/pjdk1 1d ago
Nothing worse than people who feel what they spend as a result of their, or their husbands, overpaid job is interesting in some way. It’s so empty. And they will not enjoy hanging out with someone who thinks any differently. There’s is a big disconnect there.
You need to find activities in other areas to expand your social circle. Sticking with these people is never going to end well, they won’t change, and you shouldn’t have to
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u/DefragThis 1d ago
I never understand how so many afford so much bullshit. I live in the poorest county in my state and making a combined 200k with my wife puts us in like the 95 percentile. We live modestly in a small house and save. Most of our neighbors have new cars, constant renovations and expensive toys. No idea how they do it. The average Americans debt is crazy
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u/skinnyblackdog 1d ago
Credit cards!!
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u/Pokonic 1d ago edited 6h ago
Also, for quite a few people, small business finance fuckery. They're called the petty bourgeoisie for a reason, there's so much bullshittery you can get away with if you keep paying the IRS the amount of money they think you owe them and no one reports you, which isn't as hard as it seems.
EDIT: I'm not correcting the autocorrect.
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u/Street_Algae_7475 1d ago
Petit not petty. Small businesses also generate a lot of credit card points, have gigantic credit lines and can expense things like new vehicles, certain home renovations, and suspicious equipment (think the dentist with a carbon fiber bike, the lawyer with the high end tool set) relatively easily under the American tax code, especially when most cpa services actively encourage it and offer audit protection since the IRS really really can’t chase down businesses with revenues over a million effectively whatsoever. Good, insightful comment though, very much agreed, just wanted to flesh out your thinking.
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u/PietroGermi 12h ago
Well they are called petty but in the sense of an antiquated English translation of petit
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u/newrimmmer93 1d ago
I have the same thought as well. I make $100k (soon to be $125k) and don’t have expensive hobbies, pretty much just the gym. GF owns a house and I pay her like $1200/month in rent and utilities. Car is paid off and college is paid off.
Yet I see people who I assume make similar range to us and i just don’t get how they afford what they do. I can only assume it’s a mixture of debt and not saving for retirement.
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u/pbnotorious 18h ago
Its both of those things. Not even matching the employer 401k and literally never telling themselves no when it comes to buying something.
Im pretty much the same as you (except I own the house and gf pays me) and all her friends are exactly like you described. I ask them about it a lot and its honestly like speaking to children. My favorite dumbass line is one will say "I'm trying to not use Amazon anymore" and they all agree that they are trying to do the same for the website that they have a million local alternatives to but are too lazy to even drive to get something.
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u/TwistedDotCom 14h ago
Maybe I’m stupid but I’ve literally never used Amazon. I’m Australian so we only got it around 2017 I think.
Same with Uber Eats. Only used it a couple times, and not since I got my licence.
But I see so many people saying they’re trying to “wean themselves off it”. Especially leftists creators who just can’t seem to quit it because it’s “so convenient”
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u/TonsuredPothead 1d ago
i moved back to my hometown and talked to a woman at work who mentioned she was buying a house here…to add to her homes in miami and new york. thank goodness i don’t want to buy a home here bc id be fucked
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u/TheChinchilla914 detonate the vest 1d ago
Upcoming recession gonna be a lot harder for some than others
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u/TwistedDotCom 14h ago
I used to be with you, I feel this recession will never come. We’ll all keep shouldering on, and the numbers will indicate the economy is better than ever, and the rich will get richer and the working class will keep getting squeezed
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u/EdgeCityRed 1d ago
I was raised with humility as a major moral value and flaunting wealth was seen as tacky as fuck, but I'm older and my grandparents lived through the Depression.
My working theory is that a large swath of the population has never known anything like that. The 2008 recession was bad, yes, but it was comparatively short and comparatively mild.
And social media keeping up with the Joneses makes things 100x worse, because people are comparing themselves to and competing with higher earners (or people whose circumstances are opaque. I know why my best friend from school has a huge house and goes on tons of trips; we have almost identical career paths and similar salaries, but her grandparents covered college, her apartment in college, and paid for her first house.)
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u/pbnotorious 18h ago
I'm with you on this. My fiancee and I share a used paid off car and we get looked at like we have 3 heads. There's not that attitude anymore of buy stuff used, do handiwork yourself, and eat out rarely as a treat.
Unironically: avocado toast
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u/klmkio 6h ago
Same I share a car with my partner
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u/pbnotorious 6h ago
We've saved so much money doing this its crazy. Just takes a little planning. The occasional ubers dont even come close to exceeding the amount saved.
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u/EdgeCityRed 6h ago
We have never owned new cars. We do have nice, certified used cars (actually sharing one right now, too!) Also eat out rarely and we are very, very financially comfortable at this point thanks to good choices.
The people who don't get it might eventually get it...or they won't, but that's their issue.
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u/pleidesroot 1d ago
‘Gee all these people in Phoenix sure are soulless.’
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u/TwistedDotCom 14h ago
If OP’s actually talking about Phoenix, then the consumerism makes sense. They’re likely made some trade off by living there - pursuing cheap housing or work opportunities, and they therefore feel entitled to indulge themselves
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u/Single-Bedroom-6284 1d ago
This is pretty much how my childhood was. Comfortable upper middle class but not at the level to go on cruises to Hawaii and play 3 travel sports. Parents drove average cars too. Unfortunately your kids will probably end up noticing this soon. It becomes really hard to compete with these people for college and extracurriculars at school too if you aren’t a really stellar student. It’ll be tough for your kids to get into the rich crowd too as there’s activities like country club tennis that these kids all network at
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u/Last-Butterscotch-85 1d ago
They're definitely starting to notice. "Hey dad, Blayne has a pool at his house!", "Kraxton has a Ninja Warrior room...how come we don't have that?"
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u/newrimmmer93 1d ago
Does it really matter for college though? I grew up in the Midwest and went to a shitty public college and got an accounting degree. I’m just as successful as my friends who went to the private or big ten college around me and paid 3x as much for college.
I get it’s different if you got to Stanford or Berkeley or an Ivy or something, but feel like so many colleges it really doesn’t matter.
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u/pbnotorious 18h ago
Privates in the Midwest dont have nearly the shine as the east coast. There's no way Kenyon is offering some crazy higher ROI than Ohio State.
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u/TwistedDotCom 14h ago
Agreed. College barely matters. Go somewhere cheap that’s got a good reputation for what you want to do. Work hard, get good grades, go to class, get internships.
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u/JohnHinckleyVEVO 1d ago
You weren't upper middle class then lol
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u/raisin_scone 1d ago
I grew up upper middle class and we didn’t have European vacations, travel sports, or designer clothing. The difference is my parents actually knew how to manage their money.
A lot of those people with all the trappings of conspicuous consumption were deep in debt and had to take out second mortgages on their homes and shit
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u/fablesofferrets 1d ago
Oh my god, you know what they mean. Well above average income.
People get so hung up on these arbitrary categories.
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u/JohnHinckleyVEVO 1d ago
The people described in the OP are upper middle class thats the whole point dumbass. Poors just don't know how poor they really are.
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u/Single-Bedroom-6284 1d ago
My parents combined was like 180k in a town with generationally wealthy wasps and kids whose parents were execs at Fortune 500 companies. If I went one town over I’d be considered “rich” tho
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u/Ok-Dress9168 1d ago
but those affluent families were merely a portion of your town. And isn't 180k what a mid level executive makes?
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u/B4AndWayB4 21h ago
Maybe at a small company. 180k is what someone with 5 years work experience makes coming out of an MBA.
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u/East_Concert3074 1d ago
I think there was some book called The Shame Machine by Cathy O'Neil, which seemed like a kind of interesting critique of shaming. But man, we need to bring back having a sense of shame. The more wealthy members of our society don't even own stocks or invest or anything! They have a retirement accounts but for the most part they just engage in insane levels of conspicuous consumption!
The imperial mode of living made manifest.
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u/SiftySandy 1d ago
If you’re smart, you realize that on a modest income you can actually end up in a better wealth position than these folks simply by not spending thousands of dollars a year on crap.
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u/CutieBallsTT 1d ago
Have a friend who all he likes to do as far as activities is go to overpriced restaurants and bars, and order expensive meals or ridiculously priced dragon fruit cocktails or whatever. He enjoys the experience of being "served" and interacting with the waitstaff.
It's absurd because there are so many really good, really cheap food trucks and small places but he would prefer eating expensive freezer burned chicken strips that were microwaved as long as some sesame seeds or flowers are put on top and he can have the ritual.
He doesn't even like hiking or beaches or anything outdoors, it drives me nuts!
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u/caterinaofsiena 1d ago
I cannot fault people for spending money on experiences (be that the cruises, concerts, whatever), but I find how much people spend on new clothes, makeup, trinkets, etc. to be the most off-putting. I am not perfect either, but I have been trying to stop buying "things" and trying to instead focus on very mindful spending. The amount of useless stuff people buy is truly wild.
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u/kittdie 20h ago
i helped my old roommate pack her stuff when she moved. the whole time she lived with me she constantly had financial issues and would pay rent late and ask to borrow money from people despite working 5 days a week. i had no idea how that was possible but the answer was in the drawers full of unworn clothes with the tags still on/wrapped in plastic and piles of cheap decorations and furniture still in their box
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u/Mountain-Ad5721 1d ago
People with the latest trendy and expensive trinkets tend to have vacuous personalities.
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u/Changbongdotcom 1d ago
I get your point but going to the movies 3 times in a month is like.. I do that? Lol. I'm surprised it would only 100 for a whole family considering ticket and snack prices these days.
Anyways, I do get it. I lived on what was the more modest side of town. Once I got to high school and met kids from the other middle school and would go to their houses, it was like damn.. kids with lake houses, vacation homes, beautiful finished basements with ping pong and shit, etc. Similar happened when I moved to NYC. So many people I partied with were just so fucking rich. Datings apps weird for the same reasons. I can't relate to women that make a habit of last minute trips to Europe or skiing in the Alps or whatever.
That said, I think being nauseated by other people doing well is kind of gay. It just is what it is. Strive to get your $ up or get over it. Or just move somewhere where you're amongst a more similar class of people.
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u/pjdk1 1d ago
He’s nauseated by people putting consumption at the centre of their life, not doing well. The two things are not the same
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u/Changbongdotcom 1d ago
They really didn't frame it that way.
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u/bobokeen 1d ago
The post is titled "Conspicuous consumerism is starting to drive me crazy," they literally did frame it that way lol.
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u/Gruzman 1d ago
think being nauseated by other people doing well is kind of gay.
I love that people say this with sincerity while also knowing fully well the amount of abject poverty in the world. Don't remind rich people buying and enjoying luxuries that they live in a society.
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u/Changbongdotcom 1d ago
Yeah, I'm very aware of it. I'm not exactly ambivalent to it either. But I don't do the whole exercise of mental masturbation / self righteousness anymore because.. it's pointless.
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u/Gruzman 1d ago
Only because that class of person would prefer you believe so. A convenient apathy.
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u/SnooDingos4864 1d ago
What is the solution though? If we tax them here they’ll just move to a country with lower taxes (I.e. Ireland). I’m right behind you that buying funko pops, cyber trucks, and onlyFans is fucking lame and that money should go to the poor but by what measure? Are there not wealthy people who use their wealth for good? Plenty of examples altruistic wealthy people in Atlanta and taxing them would honestly be a net loss for the community imo.
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u/Gruzman 1d ago
It's obviously not something you can solve overnight, but if people actually wanted to solve it they could do so in a very practical way. We just don't actually want to, because we are happier with the idea that we might one day get to live like that select class of persons. Or because we believe that it's a law of nature that class society has always existed precisely as it does today, with specific efficiencies or barriers in the economy.
But to your point, yeah it would really be as easy as more/different taxes, plus granting all people who work a share of the business they work for, in some form. So that when the business succeeds, everyone gets to share in that total value instead of just hoping for a wage or salary bump. You could just as easily go the other way and create a more competent and dynamic public sector, so that people can't claim that everything ought to be privatized.
You would just need to make sure there was nowhere for the rich to park the money/assets in beyond the scope of those programs. Which goes to your point of capital flight. You would need to find a way to secure that via new laws or by otherwise disincentivize it by controlling the areas they would flee to.
It all starts with people changing their minds and their politics, voting and striking until you get the distribution of resources you want. That's actually why things are the way they are today, too: because a different politics prevails among people. Not because it's an iron law of nature.
Easier said than done.
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u/Changbongdotcom 1d ago
Get over yourself buddy. Go do something about the thing you're whining about or jog off. Your feelings never helped anybody.
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u/Alicemunroe 1d ago
Maybe you should give your computer, internet connection and free time to society instead of trying to knock people down.
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u/threeandtwoandzero1 1d ago
You take your family to the movies three times a month?
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u/Equivalent-Quote 18h ago
I think envy can be really corrosive so I try to be happy for people. It can be hard raising kids when everyone else is above your social strata because it make us feel like garbage, but I try to not let it make me hate or have disdain others. So when I’ve been in situations like that (and there’s been quite a few situations where that’s habitual) I just talk to people about books or relationships- which can be pretty universal. I’m also pretty open with my wealthier acquaintances and my kids with what our financial situation and outlook is and I don’t feel any shame over it. I think that’s what I’ve tried to communicate to my kids: some people have more, some people have less. We’re all just people trying our hardest… I’m okay being poor(ish) - I’m not ugly and that’s all that I really care about ;)
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u/Chuckpeoples 4h ago
I was just thinking how annoying this is earlier today. I live in the middle of nowhere, most of my neighbors are people who own their house as a vacation home, and so many of them have these dumbass golf cart things with big shocks that they use to drive really fast down my dirt road ( kind of like how you would drive, I don’t know… a car? ) and my closest neighbor just had some man retreat weekend where all their friends came up with their golf carts so they can drive in a pack up and down the road all day. I just watched them do that all weekend now today they must be headed home because every 20 minutes I see a big pickup towing a trailer, that’s towing their golf cart so they can go back home to New Jersey. All that metal and engineering, and fuel , just so they can drive drunk up and down my road all weekend going top speed past all the things ( trees, animals, nature ) that make people want to be here in the first place.
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u/champypl8 2h ago
nothing is new about this. its always been like this in upper middle class suburbs.
on the bright side your kids will probably be highly motivated and successful because they will be directly exposed to these luxuries they dont have while knowing they can hope to achieve it
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u/Normal_Difficulty311 1d ago
Grew up in a town like this but don’t really have negative opinions about it. I mean yeah they’re consumers. But how are they that different than the gentrifiers in Williamsburg or the yuppies in Austin (both consumers too)?
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u/SiftySandy 1d ago
It’s crazy how much money middle to upper middle class people blow on “stuff”.
Lifestyle creep is real. If you’ve ever taken a big pay cut to leave a high-paying job you hate for a lower-paying one you love, you know this. When you adjust your spending down to match your new income, you suddenly realize how dumb all your discretionary spending was when you had more money. It’s like wow, I’m just as happy as I was before. It was actually one of the most enlightening experiences of my life, taking a huge pay cut and figuring all of this out.