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>Lavish spending is still seen as pointlessly insecure by anyone on any budget. I seen and lived this until I got my wake up call. I was regular upper middle
by resource_waste 1y ago
>Lavish spending is still seen as pointlessly insecure by anyone on any budget.
I seen and lived this until I got my wake up call.
I was regular upper middle class, I would laugh at people who thought I was poor for having an Android because I could easily afford a $1000 iphone, I just didnt want it.
Then I got into philosophy and inevitably Stoicism, where I found happiness within.
Then I read too much philosophy and realized the promises of such ethical philosophy were harmful to my own well-being. I went full Nietzsche and realized that spending money was a demonstration of power. As Thomas Hobbes says: 'Fame makes more fame, power makes more power.'
Thus, pointless lavish spending does have a point, its to demonstrate power, which grows power.
I genuinely feel like 30+ years of my life I was tricked into a religion of modesty against my own interests. Meanwhile, the people I mocked, rappers/rich people/etc... had the right idea. Or at least right in my current set of Values.
(And if you disagree with my values, prove I'm wrong, best of luck, there is nothing backing pure reason, and if you want to be an empiricist, we have peacocking)
- sublinear 1y agoI do agree that demonstrating power, at least to yourself, is important for your self esteem. Pretty damn sure money is just tangential to that. Consider that there are very powerful people out there who might not even carry a phone with them at all and see that as beneath them. It's a matter of values, not money. > I could easily afford a $1000 iphone, I just didnt want it. Rich people are also capable of thinking this? They're just people, man. They're also totally free to not care about anything they don't want to.
- is_true 1y agoWhere are you from? I find that some countries in Europe try to make their citizens behave like that.
- moneywoes 1y agocan you elaborate more please
- resource_waste 1y agoPower according to Hobbes is the ability to get what you want. One of the forms of power is success power, another is riches (more here: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/3207/3207-h/3207-h.htm#link2HCH0010 https://www.gutenberg.org/files/3207/3207-h/3207-h.htm#link2...) By showing you can afford lavish things, you are demonstrating success power and riches. This makes people do whatever you want, or at least tilt the scale closer into your favor. I think Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morals, then reading Will To Power would very much get you up to speed. Other authors, Hobbes, Machiavelli, maybe Stirner, maybe skip to Callicles in Plato's Gorgias. Even ChatGPT can probably get you started on Nietzsche.
- Tuperoir 1y ago[dead]