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Thread: Does spending ever cause you guilt?

  1. #41
    Senior Member gimmethesimplelife's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tybee View Post
    Rob, for what it's worth, I feel guilty when I spend money but I think for me it is early conditioning by a very frugal mother.
    I saw a documentary about Holocaust survivors and one of the women talked about buying whatever she wants--jewelry, etc.--that if she wants something, she buys it, she was determined not to suffer anymore in life and if she wanted something, she would buy it. Here's a trailer to the movie, well worth you watching it:

    https://vimeo.com/57316737
    Thank You, finally got around to watching this. Rob

  2. #42
    Senior Member gimmethesimplelife's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by LDAHL View Post
    My wife one said to me “Rolex only has a market because men can’t wear tiaras”.
    You know, I think there's something to that......even as a gay man, this particular gay man (me) would take the Rolex over the tiara any day...…..Rob

  3. #43
    Senior Member gimmethesimplelife's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by bae View Post
    This is a handmade FP Journe watch, with a very special and significant movement. It cost me ~$90,000. It represents months of labor for the man who made it. I do not feel guilty owning it at all.




    It is but one small part of my effort to support a dying art:



    Al Gore spends more in jet fuel each year than my whole collection, probably.
    Bae, I think it's great that you have all these watches, and I understand that you have earned them, great and no snark here. My only question is this: How many other Americans can realistically afford such a collection of high end watches? Not many I dare say...….Rob


    PS Furthermore, to drive my point home, in the 85006 few and far between would be anyone who could even afford one such watch.....you'd have to go to the Coronado neighborhood to find a recent home buyer from a higher end zip code who recently bought in due to the proximity to downtown to find someone who could afford a high end watch. I'm not sure if in the Coronado neighborhood anyone could afford a 90K watch...and this is the "best" the 85006 has to offer. My point? You are speaking of a separate reality - your reality is real, yes, I don't take that from you - but your reality has no place in the 85006. It's like speaking Greek here, or maybe Swahili or something else difficult for English speakers to grasp. Rob

  4. #44
    Senior Member Teacher Terry's Avatar
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    I can’t relate to this at all. All I can think about is how many poor people could have better lives versus having watches.

  5. #45
    Senior Member catherine's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Teacher Terry View Post
    I can’t relate to this at all. All I can think about is how many poor people could have better lives versus having watches.
    I often think that way when I see ads for high-end pocketbooks. In this case, bae has a point: it's almost a museum collection of a type of craftsmanship of days gone by. While I agree that it's mind-boggling to think what the money behind that collection could do for poor people, bae clearly has the money to freely choose to keep this collection at no detriment to his own financial stability--plus, this may or may not be relevant but he has already said that he has made a considerable amount of money in his working life--most of which has been given away, presumably to charities. I'm all for social justice and I'm definitely a democratic socialist, but not to the extent that that I feel we should psychologically raid bae's coffers and imagine it traded in for food or shelter for those in need. That's a little scary.

    As for me, I have often asked myself the question "If I had millions of dollars, would I ever buy myself a $10,000 purse?" While I can never say never, the answer is, I can't now nor am I likely to in the future, ever justify buying a purse for 10k, or a white T-shirt for 3k, or a watch for 50k.
    "Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it--every, every minute?" Emily Webb, Our Town
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  6. #46
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    Quote Originally Posted by catherine View Post
    I'm all for social justice and I'm definitely a democratic socialist, but not to the extent that that I feel we should psychologically raid bae's coffers and imagine it traded in for food or shelter for those in need. That's a little scary.

    As for me, I have often asked myself the question "If I had millions of dollars, would I ever buy myself a $10,000 purse?" While I can never say never, the answer is, I can't now nor am I likely to in the future, ever justify buying a purse for 10k, or a white T-shirt for 3k, or a watch for 50k.
    Yes, I agree about the first part being quite scary, when anyone does it. The folks across the street from me rent a trailer and look at us with our house and two cars and storage shed and we have so much more than they do, judging by how they live. Do they have the moral right to say, hey, those folks wealth should be liquidated and given to us? I don't think these examples are really any different. The Bolsheviks did this, and that did not end very well.

    But I can't help thinking that it's exactly the same thing, really, when one says, the poor are virtuous, the rich are evil, therefore take from the rich and give to the poor. And we get to define who is rich, who is poor, exactly how much someone can have before they are an enemy of the people.

  7. #47
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    I don't feel guilty for reasons of there being too many poor people (though there are) at all, that's a social problem not my problem. It's mostly just about well wasting my money but also environmental impact (though I am just one person and matter little, so that's also a social problem of course, but I see my contribution much more directly there). But on that front, I have my weaknesses and flaws too, plenty, so ... there is that.

    I'm in no position to save the poor. I never will be that rich, that that makes any sense at all. Pay taxes sure, when they go to social welfare I don't object (other things they go to well ..). And take them when needed. In fact advocate it when it makes sense (like I'm thinking about a retired person - 60s on Social Security - who is running out of money. And the very first thing I'd advocate (well after cutting spending that is easy to give up and knowing that we all need a little slack in the budget) is to see what senior services are available they can qualify for like senior housing. Only if that isn't enough do I think they should consider if there are ways to work again - they haven't worked in years and years so again why that option doesn't make much sense).
    Trees don't grow on money

  8. #48
    Yppej
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    To help seniors I would get rid of the out of pocket medical costs and have only one part of Medicare that covers everything. Right now there are plans A, B, C, D, F and G. It is a confusing mess.

  9. #49
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    We live in a country where a millionaire can preach socialism between retreats to his dacha on Lake Champlain. Isn't there room enough in our thinking for more sophisticated concepts than zero sum redistribution ?

    Surely Bae's baubles could be confiscated and sold in some hard-currency country for the benefit of the proletarian zip codes, but wouldn't the supply of Baes and high end watches soon dry up?

    Given the bloody, brutal, stupid history of the various flavors of socialism in the century just past, shouldn't we be a little more skeptical of the "democratic" version currently on offer?

  10. #50
    Senior Member catherine's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by LDAHL View Post

    Given the bloody, brutal, stupid history of the various flavors of socialism in the century just past, shouldn't we be a little more skeptical of the "democratic" version currently on offer?
    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.
    "Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it--every, every minute?" Emily Webb, Our Town
    www.silententry.wordpress.com

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