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It strikes me that "keeping up with the Jones family" comes in many different flavors. Right now, we Americans seem to be trying to impress with how little we spend, rather than how much. But, the story is the same: we're still eager to impress.
Humans in general are competitive by nature. Look back in history, especially at the things and structures ancient civilizations built.
Speaking of TVs....I still have the old CRTs. I think I will upgrade both if I see any good deals this holiday season. Did not realize how cheap blue-ray players got either, selling them at Costco for $150.
In terms of the article, I found this line funny:
"Oh, yes, I spend several thousand dollars a year on vitamins and food supplements for my wife and me because, hey, we're worth it, and, yep, we are never sick."
I guess part of being frugal is spending thousands annually on health gimmicks. I'm not even sure how one would manage to spend several thousand dollars a year on this crap unless it was the overpriced Hollywood wonder cure type.
I saw them at Costco too. They drop the price of the blu ray players themselves, but each movie is like 30 bucks, waaay more than I would want to spend on one single movie just to look a bit better than progressive scan HD movie. The big tv is always a great buy though, especially when you have it wall mounted and hook up a great surround sound system, really changes the whole look and movie experience of one's living room!
There are all sorts of people that pile on this stuff, yet there is little scientific evidence that it is effective.
Sorta odd that someone that is supposedly a "scientist" would ever bother running tests on himself to try to demonstrate something. But Kurzweil is a bit loony in the first place.
I saw them at Costco too. They drop the price of the blu ray players themselves, but each movie is like 30 bucks, waaay more than I would want to spend on one single movie just to look a bit better than progressive scan HD movie. The big tv is always a great buy though, especially when you have it wall mounted and hook up a great surround sound system, really changes the whole look and movie experience of one's living room!
Yeah, at least new releases are around $10 more in the blu-ray format vs DVD. But, outside of gifts I never purchase these things. Its only an extra $2/month to upgrade your Netflix account to a blu-ray account.
It strikes me that "keeping up with the Jones family" comes in many different flavors. Right now, we Americans seem to be trying to impress with how little we spend, rather than how much. But, the story is the same: we're still eager to impress.
But we bragged back when it wasn't fashionable - people were horrified, as though we were dumpster diving! It's not as much fun to brag about saving money as it used to be.
It strikes me that "keeping up with the Jones family" comes in many different flavors. Right now, we Americans seem to be trying to impress with how little we spend, rather than how much. But, the story is the same: we're still eager to impress.
True - I have a friend who purchases a lot of stuff and then complains she has to much stuff. Then likes to brag about the deals she got on it.
Yesterday they told me they have no savings and her husband may lose his job. Uggh! But they have lots of stuff that they got good deals on. Crazy.
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