I had 2 pieces of broccoli as a treat.
I mean, I do get it. Some people take on debt as a way to live beyond their means when they could still live a “comfortable” life without the glamour or “keeping up with the Jones”. The $80k+ gas guzzling truck bought on credit - that’s only used for driving to work and grocery trips - is a good example of this.
But a better way of saying this is “live within your means”, but it’s becoming increasingly impossible to do this and have a standard of living that’s just “decent shelter and healthy food” (or even, “enough food”) which should be a bare minimum
It’s a double edged sword in that for some people this is meaningless bullshit, in that they are struggling to pay for groceries, there is nowhere to lower their standards to.
On the other hand I have watched quite a bit of financial audit videos by caleb hammer, and have seen plenty of statistics that shows that simply put lots of people especially Americans are caught up in consumerism and live beyond their means for either status, or because that’s where they get their gratification from.
The solution is to accept that no matter what you buy you will be only happy for a fleeting moment, better to embrace minimalism and fuck consumerism, it’s also better for the planet, not just your wallet.
for some people this is meaningless bullshit, in that they are struggling to pay for groceries
Good point, and I think this runs to the heart of a lot of ragebait meme stuff like this. It wasn’t written for that audience, it was written for people driving an Audi TT on a VW Polo salary.
I have basically rejected this world. I focus only on maintenance. I maintain friendships I have, don’t make new ones. I’m not buying new devices anymore, I will maybe buy accessories or upgrades to keep them going, buy repairs, but the goal is to purchase as little as possible from this unworthy species.
Phase 2 is to create a self-reliance kit, focused on maximizing independence (amount of time you can go without purchasing anything, just relying on yourself, and maybe a small community). Once I perfect that, my goal is to spread it.
Once we eliminate exploitation, once most of the power disbalance is gone, THEN humans will be worthy of living on this planet again. THEN, we can have a real society.
Leaving yourself under another’s power should be a mortal sin.
Fierce independence is how we got into this mess, and allows exploitation by organized power-hungry groups.
People need to cooperate in egalitarian collectives to achieve goals and resist exploitation.
You mean you will socialize healthcare a bit, then still force people to do the same work for 8 hours a day? Look at China, they have automated vehicle fleets that are building roads! All jobs should be voluntary. A handful of fanatics that want just a bit more money are enough to do the jobs that automation can’t. We can build automation without MML’s, just good ol robot arms.
My dude, how does any of that follow from what I said?
I’m saying we have to work together to enact the changes we want, and that requires being dependent on other people’s specializations. Banding together is literally the biggest strength of our species.
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That’s very much in the spirit of “Stop being poor”.
It might be badly worded. I do think that consumerism is at least part of what brought as here. I’ve met people having several unopened louis vuitton bags because they noticed they didn’t need them afterwards after they bought them or a bunch of drop shipped spy gadgets that pretend to make your house smart or renting a nice car instead of buying it with their last money. they were not that well off themselves. we should just buy less (and by extension work less)
If they do mean living standard as in “living standard” and with that social activities, food and housing they can go fuck themselves.
When I was growing up I was told capitalism was great because we all get a high standard of living and had lots of inexpensive stuff to buy. Look at how poor Russians were during the Soviet era!
Now I’m being told that to sustain capitalism I need to live like a Soviet era Russian.
A soviet era russian also had access to free healthcare, free childcare, free higher education, cheap (sometimes free) housing, excellent (for the time) public transit, and a safety net for unemployment or old age. Oh and there was ample opportunities to build community ties so that if something did go horribly wrong and you needed that help. Capitalism in decline will give you none of that.
It didn’t last. Surely there’s something in the middle that can both lift up the potential floor for standard of living through social safety net and also be sustained long term.
It didn’t last because the will of bureaucracy was placed before the will of the people, it was a long decline of democratic rights of the working class started under Stalin and continued by all following leaders. It was not due to socialism per se, more due to the specifics of CPSU politics. China seems to have figured out a better way to do democratic dictatorship of proletariat and is successfully combining aspects of capitalism and socialism, to both make the country appealing to capitalist investors and also build up a socialist economy to bring the living standards up. It’s not perfect (and is definitely not “the end of history” by any means), but it is doing fine as an interim solution.
China’s ten-year presidential terms worked well for their people for a long time. That Xi has gone the dictator for life route is IMO a significant threat to their future direction.
Many countries also seem to be on a fine interim path to building up a combination capitalist/socialist economy and bringing up their median and minimum living standards. China is big and influential, but doesn’t have a lock on that.
Tbf you need to live like a Soviet era Russian to break free of the shackles of capitalism (as much as you can as a salaried person, anyway - we’ll never be completely free). If you want to sustain capitalism, buy as much as you can, and the capitalists are being sustained lol
Why not just say
“Stop buying shit you don’t need”
The advertisers might get upset if it’s stated that plainly.
It’s like they wanted to phrase a basic economics reality as divisively as possible
Perhaps non-native speaker written
Or AI
Capitalism!..yay?
🎶Lowered Expectations🎶
Tips for billionaires to avoid the guillotine:
Would’ve sounded better if they said “live below your means” instead.
Or even just within them.
This worked for me. I used to have no money but since I stopped eating and turned off the electricity and heating I now have millions… MILLIONS!
Also this is pretty stupid to say because it basically just means spend less money. Yeah, no shit.
I mean it’s a little more nuanced than that. There’s a lot of ways to reduce costs. For me, not eating out is the biggest saver of money.
Every time I try this, half the food goes bad and I save nothing. Yes I am using a fridge.
Somewhat same, but for me I’m just trying to cook more at home. Not necessarily save money. (Though it’s still nice.) Have you compared the costs? It could be that even if you throw out half it’s still cheaper, ya know? Or maybe closer to breaking even than you realize.
Choosing to stop eating out is a way to reduce your standard of living.
I wouldn’t call it that. I would say it’s living within your means. For example not going to Starbucks everyday. Coffee and creamer is $15 and lasts a month. That’s only 1 coffee for some people at Starbucks.
The point is that both are the same as “save money” when they should be giving more specific advice. Two pieces of good actionable advice have been given by you. “Just save money” is not a useful tip for “how to save money”. What you’re saying is useful.
I’ve been losing weight, which has been good for me. But someday … I’m going to run out of stored calories. For the very first time in my life, it has crossed my mind to wonder if I might starve someday ._.
“Finally he steeled himself to read the final rule again. He had been trained since earliest childhood, since his earliest learning of language, never to lie. It was an integral part of the learning of precise speech. Once, when he had been a Four, he had said, just prior to the midday meal at school, “I’m starving.” Immediately he had been taken aside for a brief private lesson in language precision. He was not starving, it was pointed out. He was hungry. No one in the community was starving, had ever been starving, would ever be starving. To say “starving” was to speak a lie. An unintentioned lie, of course. But the reason for precision of language was to ensure that unintentional lies were never uttered. Did he understand that? they asked him. And he had.”
“Once he had yearned for choice. Then, when he had had a choice, he had made the wrong one: the choice to leave. And now he was starving. But if he had stayed… His thoughts continued. If he had stayed, he would have starved in other ways. He would have lived a life hungry for feelings, for color, for love. And Gabriel? For Gabriel there would have been no life at all. So there had not really been a choice.”
— Lois Lowry, The Giver
Like, if youre going to just sit there and frame everything as the worst possible interpretation, sure, everyone’s an asshole. Its just not as funny as you think.
