A Message to Those Who Live In Luxury:
And by that, I mean the people of the great nation of America, where even the lower classes live better than 99% of the world today, and where everyone is better off than 99.9% of everyone else in human history.
Stop complaining about gas prices!
I was shopping the other day, and noticed a polo shirt I liked - A shirt I liked until I noticed the $59.00 price tag. And I realized, that shirt represented about 20 gallons of gasoline. In fact, the difference in price between that shirt, and an $8.00 shirt at WalMart would be about 17 gallons of gas. The point is, Americans today are awash in luxury, and spend billions of dollars on consumer goods we don't actually need. Most Americans spend $100-$200 dollars per month on personal phone, internet, and cable services. Sure it's convenient, but is it all really needed?
This is not to bash consumer goods, or the American propensity to spend. Quite the contrary, these characteristics have helped make America the wealthiest nation in the world. However, our standard of living today is not a right to which we are entitled, and the outrage of individual Americans at the price of gasoline is self-righteous and selfish.
A news report I'm listening to as I blog just mentioned the rising cost of healthcare - Once again, everything has costs. If better medical care costs more money, than you may have to sacrifice financially in other aspects of your life. The same is true of gas prices. If the market fairly dictates higher prices, then you have to adjust accordingly, whether through driving less, or cutting spending in other avenues. Manage your life financially, and adjust to changing prices. So long as I see us living in luxury, I won't complain.
Stop complaining about gas prices!
I was shopping the other day, and noticed a polo shirt I liked - A shirt I liked until I noticed the $59.00 price tag. And I realized, that shirt represented about 20 gallons of gasoline. In fact, the difference in price between that shirt, and an $8.00 shirt at WalMart would be about 17 gallons of gas. The point is, Americans today are awash in luxury, and spend billions of dollars on consumer goods we don't actually need. Most Americans spend $100-$200 dollars per month on personal phone, internet, and cable services. Sure it's convenient, but is it all really needed?
This is not to bash consumer goods, or the American propensity to spend. Quite the contrary, these characteristics have helped make America the wealthiest nation in the world. However, our standard of living today is not a right to which we are entitled, and the outrage of individual Americans at the price of gasoline is self-righteous and selfish.
A news report I'm listening to as I blog just mentioned the rising cost of healthcare - Once again, everything has costs. If better medical care costs more money, than you may have to sacrifice financially in other aspects of your life. The same is true of gas prices. If the market fairly dictates higher prices, then you have to adjust accordingly, whether through driving less, or cutting spending in other avenues. Manage your life financially, and adjust to changing prices. So long as I see us living in luxury, I won't complain.
posted by lonely libertarian at 10:04 AM
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