I agree in principle, but the article is worded in possibly the worst way to get this across. It should be more along the lines of “don’t spend beyond your means”.
Comment on Tips
West_of_West@piefed.social 1 day ago
Sure, but plenty of people buy things because they want to feel wealthy. I have people in my life who buy fancy cars, holidays, and furniture on loan with bad interest. Instead of saving for an item, they pay too much for instant gratification.
iamthetot@piefed.ca 1 day ago
pseudo@slrpnk.net 21 hours ago
The problem is many people spending beyond there means consider the way they act, the normal standard of living. They need to reduce there living standard to live within their means.
fosho@lemmy.ca 16 hours ago
The problem is many people spending beyond their means? The problem is people consider the way they act?
Ohhh! The problem is people don’t proof read their posts and don’t realize how confusing it is to poorly punctuate.
merc@sh.itjust.works 19 hours ago
Exactly, and it’s a cycle. They buy things on credit, carry a balance on their credit cards, owe a lot of money, and the stress gets to them. Eventually they buy things as a way to feel better and relieve the stress.
Trying to “not look poor” or “keep up with the Joneses” can lead to real misery. But, if instead you make a budget and save just a little bit every month it can be liberating.
Fundamentally, the problem is unequal wealth distribution. But, we should also try to help people live within their means while we attempt to fix that societal issue.
SlurpingPus@lemmy.world 23 hours ago
One source of entertainment for the past three or so years was seeing on social media how terrified USians are of the prospect of living like people in other countries do.
14specks@lemmy.ml 23 hours ago
I think we are going to have another decade or two or that, with the way things are looking
the_q@lemmy.zip 1 day ago
And why do you suppose that is?
Draegur@lemmy.zip 21 hours ago
I’d say it’s because consumerism is a kind of brain rot all its own. The media landscape we’ve been living in for generations has sold us this ridiculous fantasy that happiness means owning (or at least temporarily renting) luxury goods.
The plurality, if not majority, of the population here has never had to adjust their expectations or really sit down and think hard about what’s actually worth acquiring. We treat desires for convenience and novelty as though they are necessities. But they aren’t.
What’s actually a necessity is having something fulfilling to occupy your time, as a counterbalance to keep you sane, and that activity does not HAVE to be of the sort that costs a lot of money. Take up art using cheap supplies–just sketch with standard number two pencils on white lined notebook paper or perhaps play music on improvised instruments made of household objects. It doesn’t have to be good in order to become meaningful and if you do it enough it’ll BECOME good. Walk outside when the weather happens to be nice. Learn to ride a bicycle again. Visit a library. Pretend to sword fight with a friend using a fallen tree branch. You don’t have to drop several grand on a resort vacation. You don’t have to go into debt for a fancy car. You don’t need to buy the latest edition of “triple a” micro transaction slop from so-called “studios” that don’t give one single solitary wet shart about actual creativity and fire all their devs immediately every time a project wraps.
Money can’t buy whimsy.
All it can do is, at best, remove obstacles from between you and being able to enjoy something. If it’s not being used to simplify your life, then it’s COMPLICATING your life: Giving you only empty distraction that does not provide your experience with any fertile ground for meaning. This is but one of the many ways we are socially “poisoned” and then told that conspicuous consumption is the antidote. It’s not. it’s just even more poison.
You know what the most enjoyable experience I had was in the past several months? Just sitting in the living room at a gathering of friends where everyone brought a little home made food and listening to their happy voices. It cost me next to nothing but turned out to be worth more than anything.
My computer is more than ten whole years old now but it handles old games i could find on sale just dandy and doesn’t need some suped-up rtx gpu to let me pirate some shows XD
I stopped mindlessly gorging myself on junk food, and now basically only eat either efficient daily maintenance nutrition OR choose to visit a small locally owned restaurant no more than once per week. I’m never spending upwards of fifteen fucking dollars on a fast food burger “meal” ever again.
Divest of tacky opulence. Defy Wall Street and its siren song of ruin disguised as prosperity. Embrace the elegance of simplicity and spontaneity. If this sprawling parasitic infestation we’ve mistaken for an *economy" can’t survive without sucking the life out of us all then maybe it deserves to collapse.
tomiant@piefed.social 23 hours ago
“Buy more stuff to be happy, more, more, MOOORE! No not like that 😡”
arrow74@lemmy.zip 1 day ago
Yes this is true, but in a world where people.are struggling more and more to buy basic necessities like groceries and pay their bills it’s a bit tone deaf.
Yes some people overspend frivolously, but many are just broke after inflation and tariffs