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Your statement is pretty subjective! Not going to defend gambling but "junk food" and "overpriced status-symbol vehicles"? Digital goods as an entire concept?

by rtpg 1y ago

Your statement is pretty subjective! Not going to defend gambling but "junk food" and "overpriced status-symbol vehicles"? Digital goods as an entire concept? You can think it's all for the stupids, but I'm not seeing how it's some objective truth. Even if you're some stoic who thinks spending money on leisure is just incorrect at a fundamental level, but I think you're going to find yourself in the minority there.

socalgal2 1y ago
No, rather I think I can scrape by for the few days it takes to get ahead of the curve for something as cheap as a burrito and then next month I can afford 5 burritos for every 4+interest I could only afford before. Paying for a PS5 or TV on credit I can see because it might take me months to save. But saving for a burrito is arguably something I shouldn't even have to save for in the first place.
- rtpg 1y ago
  To be clear I think the BNPL thing laid out here is Bad(TM), I just got there through my belief system about how society should be organized. I do not believe that life is measured in how many burritos I can or cannot get access to, so the idea that not using BNPL means I'll get more burritos next month falls a bit flat on me.
  - c22 1y ago
    Huh, I am trying to maximize my burrito access, but there is a time-cost to burritos. If I am hungry today then a burrito now is worth more than 1.2 burritos a month from now. Really, it seems more reasonable to use BNPL to purchase a burrito than a PS5.
- UncleEntity 1y ago
  > But saving for a burrito is arguably something I shouldn't even have to save for in the first place. I'm guessing you never has so little money that the calories you spent to get cheap food on Taco Tuesday was probably more than what it took to pedal your bike up to Del Taco? Yeah, that was a soul-crushing day. Honestly, this would have been a bad plan for me because it often came down to the choice between 'go get a cab' and 'starve to death' as I could get some cash calls immediately after picking up a cab in order to not starve to death. This scheme is clearly targeting the financially irresponsible, like myself, to pawn off the debt on others with their Burrito Backed Securities. Maybe we can take a moment to reflect on how the Mortgage Backed Securities debacle worked out?
simplify 1y ago
To take it even further, why does being in the minority matter at all? Curious what your motivation is for mentioning that aspect.
- rtpg 1y ago
  If you think that objectively spending money on leisure is bad, my claim is that you are in a minority with that thought process. My implication here is not that being in a minority changes whether something is objectively true or not (it doesn't!). But I will outright say that I do not believe this, and I think that most people do not believe this. Claiming to believe that leisure is bad objectively is, in my opinion, also a claim that you are "smarter" than the vast majority of people. After all, you have unlocked some reasoning to reach this, that other people seem to have missed. Do you believe to have unlocked some deeper truths through thought? Perhaps! I tend to assume I am far from the smartest person in the room. Objectivity is the load bearing thing here, of course. If you merely think spending money on leisure is bad, then that's what you think. That can be one of your axioms in your belief system. Stating it as some objective fact is a much stronger claim, that I don't think really holds up to much scrutiny. This is even before getting into the idea of "objective badness", which is a can of worms. A lot of work to try and claim objectivity on your side, when the much easier "my belief system is like this, and from that I conclude this other thing" is a perfectly respectable argument when discussing policy preferences. Added bonus of being honest about what part of your argument is just a belief system is you can then more quickly identify why you disagree with someone else.
  - simplify 1y ago
    Sorry to press, but I'm not sure if you answered my question. Why mention that you think most people do not believe it? In your latest comment, you didn't justify, but you did "outright say" it again. What value does bringing it up have? Not trying to be combative, just thought it's an interesting point in this discussion of objectivity vs subjectivity.
    - rtpg 1y ago