Wild spending
Chris Yeh’s blog is just a joy to read, every damn time Chris writes something. This post was one of my recent favourites.
As someone who is a small-scale shopaholic (I don’t plump for £6,000 handbags, but I’ve never met a charity shop or clearance sale I didn’t like, and I love to buy gifts for people), I didn’t really see much amiss with those girls spending $500/month on clothes and make-up. Compared to what a lot of my friends spend, that’s nothing. Hell, if I didn’t get so many freebies thanks to the beauty blog, I might be right there with them. I can only speak for myself, but this type of behaviour largely originates from one thought/feeling: The future is not a secure place. When you don’t put a lot of trust in tomorrow, spending today doesn’t seem like such a bad idea. Delaying gratification isn’t something that those who lack self-discipline have any idea they should be doing. After all, why bother?
In my case, there’s a little bit more to it than that, but this applies to those I know who are extreme spenders. It seems in keeping with a general lack of self-discipline in younger people in the west, along with an alarming sense of entitlement. I think it’s safe to blame over-indulgent parents for the latter, along with the TV shows and magazines that Chris cites.
Filed under: Life