There ain't no end/Got to get a bigger place so I can move in/More Stuff

[veleda_k]

Normally when I post articles, they're political in nature. World or national news, or commentary on whatever sexual sub-culture has caught a reporter's eye. Today is slightly different. Today is an article on money and finances. It's not very useful. Why am I posting it, then? Because never before has one article summed up what's so very, very

Comments

[halfeatenmoon]

I am really pretty tight-fisted. I don't spend money ever, at all, unless some real consideration about it. Witness me paralysed by indecision with a bookshop voucher, trying to decide whether I will read this book more than once because if I won't I'm better off getting it from a library

[veleda_k]

Reading the post, I ignore emotional needs, which I shouldn't. I sometimes go shopping to help lift myself out of depression, because getting myself something that I like makes me happy. And I understand the feeling of the woman quoted who buys $22 dollar lipstick because it makes her feel good about herself. It's important to feel good about ourselves and it's important to have psychological rests.

What really gets me is the author's selfishness and her inability to set limits. She can't put money in her child's college fund because she needs to get her hair done at a fancy salon and buy expensive makeup. I find that morally wrong.

And while there's nothing wrong with treating or refreshing yourself, you need to be able to understand limits. The author claims to needs fancy hair, and expensive makeup, and three dollar coffee, and grapefruit scented hand wipes. That might be all well and good, except she then says that this creates money problems. That's where I get annoyed. I find it difficult to believe that she's honestly

It's a self repeating cycle and then it gets worse. And the recycling habit is locational.

[capybyra]

Starting with your last comment. Recycling is in my life experience locational above all else. Some areas just do it. Others sort of range from an exasperated fumbling to active contempt. Even to some cases of folks I have heard of openly paying the fines for noncompliance as their "spiting the tree huggers" is worth the fines! Perhaps having that sort of idiot recycled into fertilizer -"for crimes against our children's future" someday will be considered? We can dream eh

[p_zeitgeist]

Yeah, I've always been mystified by this stuff. (Which has worked out in my favor, since not understanding why the hell you'd buy a three-dollar latte and $200 highlights is how I managed to save enough money from my lawyer days to minimally afford the starving-artist thing now.)

I look at these articles, and I'm as bewildered as ever. What on earth makes a person think that she needs to spend $2000 a year on hair care? Wants to, is willing to make whatever sacrifices are necessary to do it: sure, I get that. Our passions do what they do to us. But bare necessity of life? How can she possibly be serious?

[veleda_k]

What on earth makes a person think that she needs to spend $2000 a year on hair care? Wants to, is willing to make whatever sacrifices are necessary to do it: sure, I get that. Our passions do what they do to us. But bare necessity of life? How can she possibly be serious?

Yes, yes, exactly. There's this confusion between necessity and desire that, frankly, frightens me. How can anyone be expected to manage money responsibly if no one ever teaches them that you don't have to have everything you want--in fact, teaches the exact opposite? This is no way to avoid an economic crisis!

[ravenbell]

I've definitely run into the concept before - my favorite example was the cleaning lady whose favorite luxury was eating one spoonful of vanilla ice cream every night using a silver spoon - everybody has those little indulgences that help keep them going. I think the article, in a round-about-and-not-very-coherent way is tryng to acknowledge that while bemoaning the trend toward those little indulgences turning into big, fat, ridiculous ones.