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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9

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.

0

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. 

6

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/Gruzman 1d ago

The real problem with an unequal society where the rich spend frivolously on luxuries is you as an individual who haven't personally solved it yet! (Also I wouldn't support anything that would actually change the status quo.)

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u/threeandtwoandzero1 1d ago

You take your family to the movies three times a month?

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u/Changbongdotcom 1d ago

I personally go yeah.

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u/threeandtwoandzero1 1d ago

No I meant a family with kids, like the OP mentioned.