My favorite Mr. Money Mustache article that I read was called The Real Benefit of Being Rich. The entire piece is tied to the idea of spending money not resulting in happiness. MMM talks about how despite having a great amount of money he lives a relatively modest life deriving his pleasure from being able to go without worrying about not having enough to pay bills. I had always thought about being rich as being as being able to buy whatever you want whenever you want. I had never really considered the idea that if you simply have enough money to live worry free there are an immense number of free things to do that can make you happy. I think that after the lockdown we will see people tend to go towards that idea of having enough to pay your bills while living a cheaper lifestyle. With a sudden recession and people not being able to work we heard a lot about people struggling to pay rent. Perhaps in the aftermath there will be a turn towards spending more conservative purchasing and more preparation for worst case scenarios.
Parks have been a cheap form of entertainment during lockdown
Part Two:
Something that was seemingly small but in my eyes was an little old lady that regularly come into the gas station that I work at donating a dozen bottles of hand sanitizer to us to put out for customers to use. While it wasn't a significant amount of money to buy the gesture helps to keep our community a little bit safer in return. She didn't do it for any other reason than to help keep others safe and that really warms my heart.
Dylan, writers in a way are outsiders, by necessity. Flannery O'Connor wrote a lot about that. We notice things others do not, and it's almost like an obsession (Hugo) to notice and watch others. Great eye for the little detail of the gesture that this woman did with her donation. Inspiring, actually.
ReplyDeleteAs for a change of habits that may be coming. . .it is going to be hard to break the consumer addiction. People in this country are literally addicted to consumption and the endorpin rush of little clicks and little purchases and little superficial chats. I think many are addicted to the idea that if they have money in their pocket they are successful and have power. That's fake power, IMHO. True power comes from the heart and spirit, and we'll have to see what we've got in us as a country and as people, very soon. Thank you for your post.
fromLindsay,
ReplyDeleteHi Dylan! I really like your connection to people's consumption habits in this lockdown to the MMM article you read. I have heard it through that infamous quote that "money cannot buy happiness", so I think it is a misconception many of us have about being rich. I do also agree with you in that, I think people we may start to prepare for an event like this in the future by being conservative with their spending just to have some safety room if something like this happened again. That older woman donating to the gas station you work at is definitely something to be applauded during this time that she did it purely out of the kindness in her heart. Everyone could use a little more of that lately.