I’ve bought my way out of 100x more discomfort and misery with $ than I’ve endured. It isn’t cheap, but it isn’t as expensive as you tend to imagine when you’re young and poor. And most of what I can’t buy my way out of at middle-class income level, Bill Gates can’t either
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If you inventory desires, I bet you’ll find that most material things you want are pretty cheap. Ice cream is cheap. Movies are cheap. Even a cliche trip to Paris is cheap if you live in the west and are canny about deal-hunting. But an illness or commute-busting car repair,
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Wealth causes stoicism as well as the belief that stoicism causes wealth
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If you doubt this thread just think about a couple of people one rung better off than you, but otherwise similar in lifestyle/family situation as you. Examine what they spend their extra discretionary income on: to remove some marginal misery, or add some marginal pleasure?
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Apparently I wrote up a version of this argument back in 2012 and forgot. I’m so in reruns/reboot mode
https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2012/09/20/money-as-pain-relief/ …Show this thread
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Examples of how you’ve used $ to avoid misery? I feel such misery avoidance gradually becomes invisible and new meta-miseries bubble up.
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That’s the point! To make them invisible. Spend a few nights out on the streets without access to a shower or clean toilet to put your new meta-miseries in perspective
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We just get good at pretending to be sane enough to stabilize the $ flows needed to keep misery at bay and protect a small clear space for better things. Sanity is overrated.