I will never understand how someone can be that wasteful and selfish with money. Never. Yes, I’m being judgemental, but don’t these people realize how little others have? That there are animals being euthanized every day because shelters can’t afford to keep them? Innocent creatures are dying because there isn’t enough money to feed and care for all of them. You couldn’t care less about animals? What about people, then? What about the millions who can’t afford food or shelter every night? Oh, no wait, I forgot, homeless people deserve what they get because they’re all on drugs.
So no, you’re not the only one who is absolutely sickened by this kind of thing. I have no respect for the people who act as if money doesn’t mean anything. Because it does. To a whole hell of a lot of people.
And so I’ll repeat… someone, somewhere, would be horrified by the idea of “wasting” $30 on a pair of jeans. Do you own any $30 jeans?
Unless you maintain a subsistence lifestyle and donate all your money to charity, you’re “wasting” money that could be used to help others. So put up or shut up.
Those $30 jeans are “justifiable” by the fact that when you add up material cost, labor, storage,transport, store wages and profit margin at each step that $30 is not out of line. A pair of $600 jeans has very close to the same base costs yet cost an extra $570.
So there isn’t any continuum? Spending $30 on jeans is the same as say, spending $20K on a diamond-encrusted iPod? Sure, I waste some money, and maybe that makes me a hypocrite, but there is no call for the kind of extreme wastefulness that some folks practice. They may as well go and burn their money in front of a homeless shelter for all the good it does.
Does not giving all my “extra” money to charity make me selfish? Sure it does. I don’t want to have to go without that DVD or this shirt for the sake of others. But if someone’s got enough money to drop $150,000 on a bracelet, and they actually go ahead and spend it without giving a thought to anyone else’s plight, then yes, they are infinitely more selfish, and yes, I will be disgusted with them.
I feel your righteous indignation, but scroll up, read post 38, then respond, please. I’d like to know your feelings on that matter.
Then again, maybe you’re wearing some cloth that you weaved yourself 30 years ago and been wearing non stop since, while you donate the bulk of your income to poor people all around the world.
It is exactly the same. If you want to compare your income to a super rich person, it’s the same as comparing your income to a super poor person living on two dollars a day (guess what? You’re super rich to them).
I should also note that if Bill and Melinda Gates want to spend $17k on a purse, but then give out 35 BILLION dollars, well, I’m going to say we don’t have room to complain.
There’s nothing to say that these “super wealthy” aren’t also giving money to charity, in addition to buying themselves silly things that make them happy.
Translation: what you spend your money on is thrifty with minor selfish indulgences. What people who are much, much wealthier than you spend their money on is all selfish indulgences.
Do you have more than one pair of jeans? More than one shirt? There are people who can’t afford a single pair of shoes. Most people I know (even broke people in minimum wage jobs) have at least a couple of pairs of jeans, a bunch of tshirts and at least 2 pairs of shoes.
Why are your luxuries different than the mega rich person? To the person living on less than one goddamned dollar a day, both of you are living so high on the goddamned hog that it’s appalling. Get off your high horse.
The issue being disussed isn’t relative worth, it’s the right to spend one’s money as one chooses.
You can buy a pair of jeans at the Salvation Army store for $2. And by some people’s standards, you’re a blight on the face of humanity if you choose to spend more. After all, that’s $28 you could have donated to the poor!
did anybody ever see that Dubai oil billionaire with his silver Audi A8? yes, the body panels are silver! What a stupid status symbol-the car must be polished daily 9silver tarnishes0, and the smallest fender-bender accident is a $5000 repair job. waith-this is exactly what Thorstein vebelen said-a show off piece is valuable PRECISELY because it is so wastefully expensive to maintian (while offering no added utility)!
How about Warren buffet? Richest man in the world-and he waers cheap suits, drives an old car, and lives in a modest house-what doesn’t he live a little?
This reminds me of an episode of Wife Swap I watched recently:
Family #1: Anti-consumerist, live in a communal-type arrangement with other families, do odd jobs for the little money they need
Family #2: Mainstream, suburban-type family
The wife of Family #1 was appalled that the dad of Family #2 was saving up some crazy amount…5 or 6 grand, I think, for a TV set. She asked him if he knew how many mosquito nets he could buy for people in Africa for that amount of money. Which I won’t argue is a valid question, and something to think about very seriously.
On the other hand. Her family was choosing to live a lifestyle that didn’t require a lot of hard work and didn’t require a lot of money. Subsequently, she didn’t have any money to send to Africa for mosquito nets. So how does this make her morally superior to him? Either way, that’s X number of mosquito nets that could have been purchased, but weren’t. And it wasn’t that the family wasn’t capable of working more and making more, they just chose not to. How is that any less of an indulgence than working hard and using the money to buy yourself something?
I understand that we are a very rich nation and have more than most people will ever see. I can’t argue with those who tell me I am selfish for wasting money as I do, because they’re right. I could go without movies and luxuries and make my own clothes for the rest of my life, and give my money to the poor. But I don’t want to. Because I am selfish. That’s a hell of an uncomfortable thought, and I haven’t seen it that way before today, but I am. I can afford to waste money, while other people can’t. Strictly speaking, I should be giving my extra money to those who need it, but I don’t.
Up till now I’ve always thought less of those who wasted their money at places like Abercrombie & Fitch and spent $150,000 on a car. Because I was better than that. I wasn’t like them. I cared about the homeless and downtrodden. They were the selfish and stupid ones. Count me in the club, then, because I am like them. It’s only a matter of degree.
Sorry, I didn’t make my point very well. What I was trying to say is that most people can see a point where the extra cost can no longer be justified by a increase in the quality of the item.
To buy a pair of jeans at Goodwill requires that someone buys them for full price first.
I wouldn’t be too concerned for the guy: he has a few private jets, among other things. Comparatively frugal he may be, but he’s hardly free from the ire of many in this thread.
Are you saying that if you won the lottery to the tune of $17,000, you would buy that handbag? Instead of, oh I dunno, investing it, or putting down a downpayment on a house, or paying off debt.
Yes, bu that point is *entirely *relative. People have differing definitions of “expensive” and of “quality”. We can argue for a year about whether a $600 pair of jeans is “worth it”, but it will *always *be worth it to someone. And since it’s their $600, who am I to tell them otherwise?
