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Really though, you can get Grey Goose for thirty bucks a bottle, compared to twenty bucks for something like Absolut or maybe a few dollars less for Smirnoff. I

by hugh3 16y ago

Really though, you can get Grey Goose for thirty bucks a bottle, compared to twenty bucks for something like Absolut or maybe a few dollars less for Smirnoff. If the extra ten dollars a bottle you pay to drink the better vodka is a significant part of your budget, you'd have to be drinking way too much vodka. Now, if you're paying $300 for the same bottle of Grey Goose in order to get "VIP" table service at some nightclub, then that falls into the dumbass-desire-to-signal-wealth category.

megablast 16y ago
It is not just about $10 once, it is a mindset. You can use the same excuse to markup everything you buy, and you end up spending a lot more in a week/month/year than you would have. Hey, if that is worth it to you, then no problem, but I know that it is not worth it to me. When you have drunk that $30 bottle of vodka, I would be happier with the $10 extra I have, and being just as sated.
- hugh3 16y ago
  Of course you can also use the same reasoning to buy the cheapest-available option regardless of quality in everything you do. Live in a tiny studio apartment. Wear ten-dollar Walmart jeans and whatever t-shirts you can obtain for free. But if you're earning a decent income the only result of this is that you wind up dead with millions of dollars in cash in the bank. What's the point? Unless you're at the poverty line, it's rational to pay a bit more to get stuff that's more enjoyable. (And if you are at the poverty line, you shouldn't be buying vodka at all). Whether it's worth paying 50% more for Grey Goose rather than Smirnoff is an entirely personal decision and depends whether you actually like it better... personally I don't like vodka much anyway. My point: there's a lot of stupid overconsumption going on out there, but Grey Goose Vodka, being a probably-better product at a modestly higher price, isn't really a good symbol of it.

by hugh3 16y ago

megablast 16y ago

It is not just about $10 once, it is a mindset. You can use the same excuse to markup everything you buy, and you end up spending a lot more in a week/month/year than you would have. Hey, if that is worth it to you, then no problem, but I know that it is not worth it to me. When you have drunk that $30 bottle of vodka, I would be happier with the $10 extra I have, and being just as sated.

hugh3 16y ago
Of course you can also use the same reasoning to buy the cheapest-available option regardless of quality in everything you do. Live in a tiny studio apartment. Wear ten-dollar Walmart jeans and whatever t-shirts you can obtain for free. But if you're earning a decent income the only result of this is that you wind up dead with millions of dollars in cash in the bank. What's the point? Unless you're at the poverty line, it's rational to pay a bit more to get stuff that's more enjoyable. (And if you are at the poverty line, you shouldn't be buying vodka at all). Whether it's worth paying 50% more for Grey Goose rather than Smirnoff is an entirely personal decision and depends whether you actually like it better... personally I don't like vodka much anyway. My point: there's a lot of stupid overconsumption going on out there, but Grey Goose Vodka, being a probably-better product at a modestly higher price, isn't really a good symbol of it.