The other day a friend told me that American consumerism is out of control. This is evidenced to him by all of the holiday sales the evil and greedy corporations are running to trick the poor unsuspecting consumer into buying something they don't need. I couldn't disagree more.
The way I see it, capitalism has set up a system were everyone gets a nice lot in life if they choose to put in the effort. I have friends who have more money than time. This is because they perform difficult and specific tasks for our society. Tasks that they trained for long and hard. They have the option of paying a little extra to get what they want, when they want it.
I, on the other hand, did not train so long, and don't work so hard. I have more time than money. Yes, cuts are made, but it's a trade off I chose. And I can still get most of the things I want by shopping around to find a good deal. I can take advantage of those sales. Sometimes I can find what I'm looking for used.
A friend recently mentioned that her child wanted a toy for Christmas that has a MSRP of $60. She did not expect me to purchase this because that is too much to spend on a friend's kid. I found it locally on sale for $40, and then I saved $5 on top of that with a discounted gift card. A great trick is to buy a gift cards at cardpool at a discount. That way you can stack that with any other offer you find there.
As for people that don't have the money, and can't be bothered to find the deals? People who really do buy things that they neither need nor want? They'll get no sympathy from me.
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