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> you can just give up the material world and be.... You are correct. The vast majority of people cannot pursue their dream life because they cannot give up th

> you can just give up the material world and be.... You are correct. The vast majority of people cannot pursue their dream life because they cannot give up their iPhone and other material things; we are a consumeristic society.

aerovistae 6y ago
Frankly this is an ignorant comment, no offense. This isn't about giving up your iPhone. It's about giving up your insulin, giving up your car that you need to get to your job, giving up birth control, giving up the daycare that takes care of your children so that you can go to your job, giving up dentistry, giving up repairing the hole in your roof that causes a leak into your bathroom, giving up your college classes, or giving up your children's college classes. Think twice. Just because you have it easy doesn't mean everyone does.
- SMAAART 6y ago
  There's iPhone and there's insulin. I talked about iPhone not insulin. I am not the one making ignorant comment or logical fallacies. https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/academic_writing/logic_in_argumentative_writing/fallacies.html https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/academic_writing/...
ben_w 6y ago
Speaking as one of the few people who has no difficulty saving (to the extent I bought my first home without needing a mortgage), I have observed that there is a lot more going on than the occasional expensive item like an iPhone. Normal people buy a lot more of everything — eating out, holidays, films, clothes, subscriptions, everything — and do so continuously, not just on special occasions. I don’t know why I’m different in this regard, only that I am. Still, if everyone engaged with the economy the way I do, the economy as we know it would collapse. I feel that my luck is simply in being different rather than anything else.
- SMAAART 6y ago
  Like you, I am not "normal". Today's economy not only is based on people buying thing they don't need, with money they don't have, to impress people they don't like; but also it is rooted to the core of the ID and Ego, it's a quasi-spiritual experience, and, like all belief-system, when challenged, it would bring out its ugly side. Did you read the book: The Millionaire Next Door? You'd enjoy that. I bet your local library has it.

aerovistae 6y ago

Frankly this is an ignorant comment, no offense. This isn't about giving up your iPhone. It's about giving up your insulin, giving up your car that you need to get to your job, giving up birth control, giving up the daycare that takes care of your children so that you can go to your job, giving up dentistry, giving up repairing the hole in your roof that causes a leak into your bathroom, giving up your college classes, or giving up your children's college classes. Think twice. Just because you have it easy doesn't mean everyone does.

SMAAART 6y ago
There's iPhone and there's insulin. I talked about iPhone not insulin. I am not the one making ignorant comment or logical fallacies. https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/academic_writing/logic_in_argumentative_writing/fallacies.html https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/academic_writing/...

ben_w 6y ago

Speaking as one of the few people who has no difficulty saving (to the extent I bought my first home without needing a mortgage), I have observed that there is a lot more going on than the occasional expensive item like an iPhone. Normal people buy a lot more of everything — eating out, holidays, films, clothes, subscriptions, everything — and do so continuously, not just on special occasions. I don’t know why I’m different in this regard, only that I am. Still, if everyone engaged with the economy the way I do, the economy as we know it would collapse. I feel that my luck is simply in being different rather than anything else.

SMAAART 6y ago
Like you, I am not "normal". Today's economy not only is based on people buying thing they don't need, with money they don't have, to impress people they don't like; but also it is rooted to the core of the ID and Ego, it's a quasi-spiritual experience, and, like all belief-system, when challenged, it would bring out its ugly side. Did you read the book: The Millionaire Next Door? You'd enjoy that. I bet your local library has it.