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Thread: Does spending ever cause you guilt?

  1. #51
    Senior Member Teacher Terry's Avatar
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    I don’t think anyone should take Bae’s stuff and sell it to help the poor. I was just relating what my mind thought and not what I thought should happen.

  2. #52
    Senior Member Teacher Terry's Avatar
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    People buy all sorts of ridiculous expensive stuff and I don’t think it should be taken away. I just personally can’t relate on any level.

  3. #53
    Senior Member SteveinMN's Avatar
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    bae also mentioned that the crown -- umm -- jewel of his collection (the one for which he provided the picture) provided many months of income for the craftsman that made it. So it's not like this expensive device just materialized from the ether. Many people beyond the jeweler had work as a result of this watch being assembled.

    I routinely spend the equivalent of $16-18/pound for coffee beans. Seems like a ton of money to someone else who would be happy with Yuban. But I can tell the difference. And I'll skimp on other things before I'll skimp on my daily coffee. I do it partly because I am lucky enough to have the money to do it and partly because I know the roasters and know they're providing a better-than-living wage on their farms in Costa Rica. I and my fellow customers are keeping 2-3 coffee farmers and a family here in the States working and earning by buying this coffee. At what $$ point does a purchase become a "stupid luxury"?
    Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome. - Booker T. Washington

  4. #54
    Senior Member catherine's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by SteveinMN View Post

    I routinely spend the equivalent of $16-18/pound for coffee beans. Seems like a ton of money to someone else who would be happy with Yuban. But I can tell the difference. And I'll skimp on other things before I'll skimp on my daily coffee. I do it partly because I am lucky enough to have the money to do it and partly because I know the roasters and know they're providing a better-than-living wage on their farms in Costa Rica. I and my fellow customers are keeping 2-3 coffee farmers and a family here in the States working and earning by buying this coffee. At what $$ point does a purchase become a "stupid luxury"?
    I'm with you on that. I do my best to find fair trade, shade-grown, Rainforest Alliance, bird-friendly coffee. And each of those attributes tacks a couple of bucks a pound to the cost. But I can't stand the idea of the Amazon clear-cut and workers exploited to enable me to get my daily coffee fix.
    "Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it--every, every minute?" Emily Webb, Our Town
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  5. #55
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    If you do it for pro-social benefit, to improve the conditions of others and/or the planet and it indeed does in some small way, it's obviously not any traditional definition of luxury. Of course one could have mixed motives buy organic for their health and because they find it tastes better and also because it's better for people and planet - but the former does not negate the latter, a true win-win.

    I remarked just today though that is kind of a good thing I drink tea, because even the organic fair trade stuff seems cheaper than such coffee
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  6. #56
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    Quote Originally Posted by catherine View Post
    The bloody versions were Communist in nature and completely different than Democratic socialism. I haven't seen any bolshevik takeovers in Scandinavia or other countries where healthcare is provided equitably to all citizens. I'm not skeptical of their successes at all. I'm envious.
    Give them time they’re working on it. Every virus mutates to adapt to its circumstances. We will get to see whether a soft-power bureaucratic superstate can endure.

  7. #57
    Senior Member JaneV2.0's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by LDAHL View Post
    Give them time they’re working on it. Every virus mutates to adapt to its circumstances. We will get to see whether a soft-power bureaucratic superstate can endure.
    That may be true; look how the virus of naked greed has mutated in this country--we're within striking distance of an oligarchic coup.

  8. #58
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    Quote Originally Posted by Teacher Terry View Post
    I don’t think anyone should take Bae’s stuff and sell it to help the poor. I was just relating what my mind thought and not what I thought should happen.

    Maybe the people who sold the stuff to Bae gave the money to the poor!

  9. #59
    Senior Member bae's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tammy View Post
    Maybe the people who sold the stuff to Bae gave the money to the poor!
    The fellow from whom I have purchased most of my collection has used his profits from his business to help raise his two children and put them through college, while maintaining a relatively modest lifestyle in a very-high-cost-of-living area of California.

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