Luxury, Vanity, Excess, Greed

[I drive a $90,000 Range Rover to get a $5 Starbucks coffee every day.
When I'm going out on the town, I can tell time with my $8,000 Rolex.
All other days I'll use my Apple watch because I need yet another screen in front my my face.
I've got the latest flagship top-end $1200 iPhone with the earpods that make me look hip.

The latest $3,000 Macbook Pro laptop to browse Facebook.
I carry my things in my $2,000 Louis Vuitton hand bag.
I have a 6 bedroom house, 1 vacation cottage, 3 cars, and 1 boat.... because why not?

I've made it. I've achieved success.
I worked hard. I deserve all of this.
I deserve to be happy. I'm happy....

Do I need all this? No.
But, I wanted it. And I can afford it.
You only live once.
I'm in control. I have the power.
I determine my own fate, my own happiness.]

Why do these luxury items exist?
Because people have the surplus money to afford them.
Because these luxury items seem superior to similar products. People prefer superior items.
People like to feel special. They like to treat themselves.
To some, these products give the feeling of accomplishment and status.

Often the luxury product is not superior. Often it's just a vanity item. Like a Rolex.
A Rolex is just a watch. But it is made out of a 'precious' metal like gold.
Gold is 'special' because it's relatively rare on earth and people seem like the look of it.
Being made out of gold doesn't add any benefit to the item's purpose.

Let's talk about cars. Who really needs a Range Rover? For the price, you think it either has the ability to fly or has the ability to convert to a boat. Who really needs a Lexus or a BMW, for that matter? They may have a slightly more comfortable interior (leather?), but the overall purpose of the vehicle is not extended. It gets you from point A to point B. It doesn't even necessarily last longer. In fact, I believe cheaper vehicles tend to have a higher reliability. It may even go faster, but what's the point when there are speed limits?

Why do you need a fancy and expensive hand bag? Why not get one less than half the price? It serves the same purpose. Sure, maybe you can afford it. Good for you. But, have you ever stopped to consider that extra $ could be used for something better?

Do you really need a Macbook Pro to only browse Facebook and write emails? Do you even need an Apple product? Perhaps a Chromebook would do. (I agree there are some who can actually take advantage of this product like actual developers)

Imagine all you could do with the extra money you save by not buying unnecessary luxury items.

Why are all these items so desired? Perhaps it's brainwashing. Gold is just a yellow-ish metal. Diamond is just a super hard and sparkly rock. A Range Rover is just a motor vehicle. Starbucks is just a coffee. You can make your own for a fraction of the price.

Do you really need to feel superior to others? Is it that important? Do you really need these things in order to feel accomplished?

What about your neighbor Joe who is struggling? He goes to work every day. He works 2 jobs in fact. He's not lazy. He's just not as fortunate as you. He seems happy, though when you talk to him. But you can tell he's worn out. He deserves a break, but he won't get one. He doesn't make enough money at one job to pay his rent.

But, you can afford a $500 hand bag. And a $90,000 vehicle. And a $5 coffee every day which comes to 365 * $5 = $1,825 for the year for coffee.

This is how it is. Some are more fortunate than others. You're okay with it apparently. You continue your habits knowing there are many others just like your neighbor Joe. Your poor neighbor Joe.

Your poor neighbor Joe..

The Choices We Make

This can be seen as a continuation from my last post about wealth inequality.

Lately I've been thinking about how rich people came to be and what the average Joe or Jane can do to prevent the rich from becoming richer - and even to rebalance the wealth across all work classes. Note that rebalance does not mean everyone has the same percentage of the pie. This would be pure socialism. I am however a fan of aspects of socialism such as the type of socialism that senator Bernie Sander's believes in:  democratic socialism. Pure capitalism and pure socialism aren't the answer. You need to find a balance. So what can we (the average person) do to shift the balance?

The first and likely most important thing we can do is VOTE. Vote in every election you are able to vote in. Vote for people who you share the same values with. You can't just vote in the presidential election and expect big changes. Big changes come from the ground up.

What else can we do? Well, you need to think about how these people got rich in the first place. Consider some folks from the 1%. Jeff Bezos (Amazon). Bill Gates (Microsoft). Warren Buffett (Berkshire Hathaway). The Walton family (Owners of Walmart). Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook).

Consider Mark Zuckerberg. He got rich by creating a web-based application called Facebook. The main source of income here is through ads and the millions of people who use the app. What would happen if everyone stopped using the app? Facebook is not a necessary thing. I personally quit the app a while ago because I did not agree with Mark's actions on running political ads.

If everyone in the world decided to quit Facebook, the company would likely go out of business and Mark's wallet would stop growing. People have that power. Some people have decided the quit Facebook, but the majority have not. I find this to be unfortunate and disappointing. The truth is Facebook has a hold on people. Facebook has become one of the main methods for families to keep in touch. This is the main reason people won't leave it behind. Facebook, despite Mark's claims, has a monopoly on social media.

This is an easy solution to eliminating 1 billionaire. But, it won't happen because of the following potential reasons:

• People don't realize their power of choice
• People don't mind or don't care that they've created a billionaire 
• People are too attached to the app

I understand that people want to keep in touch with family, so I try my best not to judge those who use Facebook. But, is it really worth it? There are other ways to keep in touch with family. You've created and are maintaining a billionaire class that is hoarding the nation's wealth. Is that worth it to you? For me, it absolutely is not. But, that's for others to decide for themselves. 

Getting rid of Facebook and the billionaire Mark Zuckerberg would be very easy. But it won't happen. Now, getting rid of other billionaires such as Bill Gates is extremely hard in comparison. I'm personally required to use Microsoft products every day because my employer chose Microsoft over Apple computers. There's no choice here for people. The only way for Bill's wealth to be distributed downward is a wealth tax. Or, he could give it away, which he currently does. Bill is one of the few Billionaires I respect. I don't agree that he should have had the ability to become a billionaire, but I agree with what he chooses to do with his money. 

Okay, what about Amazon and Walmart? Here, we have a choice again. People can choose to not shop at Amazon or Walmart. And if everyone did, they would go out of business pretty fast. But, the reason this won't happen is the same reason people won't leave Facebook. They're hooked. Both Amazon and Walmart offer very cheap items with convenience. But at what cost?

How does Walmart offer such low prices? Partly because they pay their workers poorly. By shopping at Walmart, you are supporting their practice of poor wages for their hardworking employees. Can you live with that on your conscience? I can't. But, perhaps you can. I'll gladly pay a little more for a product somewhere else knowing that the employees of the company are likely getting paid fair wages. Unfortunately, I think many people do realize  this, but are so poor, they have no choice but to save 30 cents per purchase by shopping at Walmart. This is why the government needs to step in.

You have the power of choice. The choice to make purchases from companies whose values we agree with. The choice to vote for someone who will help get our capitalist society under control. We have the power to affect the wealth distribution. Maybe people don't realize this. In that case, they need the education. On the other hand, perhaps people just don't care and are okay with this inequality. I highly doubt the latter is correct. 

Wealth Inequality

Growing up, I always wanted to be wealthy. To be able to afford anything I wanted. Not having to worry about bills. Not rich, but wealthy. For perspective: rich > wealthy > well-off. Nowadays I'm happy being well-off. I define well-off as being able to afford all the necessities, save for retirement, and the occasional vacation. However, even being well-off seems unfair.

I'm finding it harder and harder to understand people's need to be rich or even wealthy. People's need for extravagance. People's selfishness. Besides your retirement account, why does anyone need millions of dollars? Why does anyone need tens of thousands of dollars? It's one thing if they are giving it away. But, why hoard it? Wealth inequality is a serious thing. If you are hoarding that much money, in my eyes, you don't care about the rest of humanity. You consider yourself, your family, more important than everyone else. Everyone else can suffer and struggle while you sit on your large piles of money.

Okay, sure I admit I'm the most important person in my life. However, objectively I don't consider myself more important than anyone else. Now that I'm making a decent amount of money. I'm able to save for retirement. I've begun investing. I should be able to retire at a decent age and live comfortably for the rest of my life. This is a totally normal thing, right? Yet, I feel strange. I used to enjoy watching my bank account grow. I imagine this feeling for folks like Warren Buffet never stopped. Now, I feel odd. Why is it that I get to be well-off when so many others are struggling financially? I know for a fact it's not only a matter of effort. Much of it has to do with luck. Sure, I worked hard to get where I am today. But, I've also been lucky.

Luck has more do with it than most people think. A lot has to do with where you  were born and who you were born to. Children do not start off life on equal footing. Sadly today your footing depends on other factors as well including your race and sex. I am a white male. This gave me an unfair boost. It certainly shouldn't have, but it did. It's commonly referred to as, 'white privilege'. I can see it in my workplace. I understand it. It exists and I wish it didn't.

I'm somewhere in the middle of the graph below. I barely even register (very thin section of green). I work as at an engineering company and make a decent salary.  Despite this, I'm doing just fine overall. But, look closer toward the left end of the graph. Those people are just getting by and some are even in the negative (see the red area of graph). Those people are making starvation wages. Those people are in serious debt. Look at the area of the red part of the graph. It seems relatively small, right? Well, it is, relative to the whole area of the graph. But, that small chunk represents millions of people in serious debt of thousands upon thousands of dollars. Many have no hope of ever getting out of that debt.

Now take that red area of the graph and compare it with the tip of the right side of the graph. It's a tiny fraction of the green peak. You could remove that tiny section of the green tip and equalize the red section without affecting the quality of life of the rich folks it was removed from.  They'd still be outrageously rich, yet all the people who were struggling are now magically out of debt and would likely have a much better chance at a happy life (if they weren't already happy). How skewed this graph is makes me sick. I find it incredibly disturbing how greedy people are.

Graph borrowed from Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wealth_inequality_in_the_United_States

The concept of needing money to make money is not hard to grasp if you understand the ideas of investing, but the implications are very unfair. We have this thing called the stock market. The more money you have to invest in this market, the more you potentially make. Large causes of such wealth inequality as seen in the graph is unchecked capitalism and this odd concept of making money off the money you already have. The sad conclusion: the rich just keep getting richer.

List of the world's richest people:
https://www.forbes.com/billionaires/

Here's a quote from Wikipedia:
"Just prior to President Obama's 2014 State of the Union Address, media[8] reported that the top wealthiest 1% possess 40% of the nation's wealth; the bottom 80% own 7%"

Useful / Related Links:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DANUXO-GQwU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPKKQnijnsM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wealth_inequality_in_the_United_States

Common Dreams Article:
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2020/04/27/no-were-not-all-together-how-super-rich-are-cheating-america?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR1p1zTQwK1apo8RMcHqnnypdu8JhfPFKu8LOo14WVtqGNnf5G0gIfztqDY

Warren Buffett on wealth and billionaires:
https://www.businessinsider.com/warren-buffett-wealth-gap-inequality-solutions-2020-4

Jacobin opinion article:
https://jacobinmag.com/2020/04/billionaires-coronvirus-pandemic-profiteers-taxes

Sample calculations:
$ needed in retirement: $50,000 per year for 85-60 = 25 years = 1,250,000. 1.25 Million Dollars.

Life - A Poem

I found these notes in an old notebook. I have no idea when I wrote it. It looks like a poem. Here it is:

Life
There's a light. It's so far away..
I wonder if I can get closer...
Wait... it is getting closer...
Bigger and bigger, it is so bright....

I emerge from a cannon
I am flying up into the air
Toward a reflective ceiling, I fly...
I can see my reflection getting larger and larger...
My image shatters and my body...
Breaks through the other side.

The world is getting smaller now..
I can see my whole city, my whole state, my whole world.
The earth is so small. So insignificant. So beautiful.
I become motionless for a moment. Time passess....
I want to stay here. Up here by myself, where...
I am safe. It is safe. Peaceful. Serene...
I am falling.

Lights Out

You fall asleep. Then you wake up. What happens in between? You lose consciousness. You dream. Your mind technically stays active. But you typically aren't aware. 'You', as in your consciousness.

You lose consciousness when you fall asleep. You also lose it when you die. The difference is when you die, you don't regain consciousness, right? How do we know we will wake up? We have no guarantee. We expect to wake up because we have been waking up since we were born. But one day we won't. Unless there's some way to preserve our consciousness beyond our physical body.

It seems strange, at least to me, that one would be okay with dying. I understand that if you are in lots of pain, either physical or emotional, you'd rather die. But what if you aren't in any pain. What if you enjoy every day. Would you then still be okay with dying? I suppose it depends on the person. For example, if the person happens to believe in the afterlife, then dying is no big deal. But if you're like me, this life is all you have.

If you ask people how they prefer to die, most would likely say in their sleep. That way you're unconscious when it happens. Being aware of your impending death is frightening. We spend the majority of our lives trying to stay alive. If you die without being aware, then it's the same as falling asleep.

In the future, the definition of dying might be different than what it is today. We may be able to capture one's 'soul' or consciousness on a computer chip. One day it may be possible to fall asleep in one body and wake up in another. This could be considered a manufactured reincarnation. We could potentially live forever. But, until that happens, we need to deal with death. And some, if not most people are perfectly okay with dying. Many people prefer not to live forever.

Life might become boring after a while, right? As the saying goes, life is a struggle. Why struggle forever if you don't have to? Then again, perhaps everything will be automated in the future and all ailments will have a cure. What then? Would people still choose death?