Viewing 23 posts - 81 through 103 (of 103 total)
  • Modern life – all about the £?
  • jam-bo
    Full Member

    The world seems to be full of wannabes & gottahaves driven by the media. A mate spent from 5am until 3.20pm last Friday queuing for a couple of poxy iPhone 5’s just so his wife could have one before any one else she knew. Pointless.

    Well that’s just stupid. I got one delivered to my door by 2pm.

    grum
    Free Member

    don’t concern yourself with what other people owndo concern themselves with

    singletracked
    Free Member

    don’t follow advice posted in an internet forum

    Nobby
    Full Member

    Well that’s just stupid. I got one delivered to my door by 2pm.

    That’s the problem, he wanted two 😉

    johndoh
    Free Member

    you can’t control your sister in law so just leave her to it.

    I try to, but our worlds collide and every time I find myself in the middle of the latest game. I try to ignore it but she upsets my wife (and to an extent my mother in law who I really like) so she bothers me.

    flange
    Free Member

    It seems to me that everyone wants something without having to put the effort into getting it. I want a massive car but don’t have the money to buy it, therefore I’ll just get it on finance. I want such and such a bike but don’t have the spare cash, I’ll stick it on 0%. The problem being is that when it gets nicked, or you smash it to bits you’re still making repayments on it, a bike that you no longer can ride. Which for me robs the fun out of riding/driving said posh bike/car….

    It’s not just from a ‘must have the latest possession’ point of view either. How many people have thought they could ‘buy’ speed or fitness, be it signing up to an expensive gym, getting a coach or buying lightweight bike parts. Sit online doing a job you hate surfing the internet planning your piece of escapism, however when it comes to actually having to hurt yourself you’re less inclined.

    Chuck Palahniuk is pretty spot on with what he writes..

    “Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes. working jobs we hate, so we can buy shit we dont need.

    Aristotle
    Free Member

    AlexSimon – Member
    TK Maxx is interesting. Clothes that someone deemed worth £100 one year, that now look not worth £20 because you realise they’re badly made and the brand name emblazoned across them is meaningless.
    (mostly)

    From what I’ve seen, much of the clothing is pretending that it was “worth £100 one year”, and so attempting to increase its desirability…. a bit like the special offers on wine in Tesco.

    I’d like to think that I’m not materialistic (I don’t covet expensive possessions and have mostly modest and many second-hand/repaired ‘things’. We too have a CRT TV. Only 28″! I’ve even been known to go on mtb-based retreats with the Dalai Binners), but I probably am materialistic to some degree as I do have more things/toys than I need. I do prefer using things to collecting them in order to tell people about them.

    As for not wishing to see TV adverts: I rarely watch TV ‘live’ (iPlayer, Virgin TV on Demand etc.), although few of the very few programmes I do watch are on commercial TV anyway. As a consequence TV ads have little effect on me.

    molgrips
    Free Member

    As mentioned umpteen times before, hardly anything is priced on the basis of its materials and labour. It’s priced on demand and a load of other factors.

    I have no idea why everyone keeps being suprised at this. Why do you think package holidays are say £599 six months before and £199 a week before?

    In the case of clothes, someone probably decided they’d sell so many units during a particular season when something’s ‘in’, so they have that many made up in advance. They might pull them from the shelves when they stop selling so well, and they can replace them with something that sells better. So they put them on sale. The same thing happens on the sale rail, then what do they do with the stuff that they have to pull from the sale rail? They sell it to TK Maxx (this is actually what happens btw). It’s clearly not ‘worth’ as much after two efforts at selling it and being bought by a clearance shop, is it?

    singletracked
    Free Member

    Much of the consumerism which leads to unhappiness is promoted by the media. TK Maxx or not, It’s all marketing hype which tricks lemmings into wanting things they didn’t even know about. I was once one of these people but I went on a retreat a few years back and studied with a sensei who taught me how to avoid all this. Since then I have been impervious to marketing and advertising and am able to make informed choices about my needs.

    molgrips
    Free Member

    Much of the consumerism which leads to unhappiness is promoted by the media.

    I doubt that, personally. Most advertising is trying to get you to buy that particular brand when you come to buy whatever it is, instead of a competitor.

    Last big thing I bought was lenses for my Olympus DSLR. When was the last time you saw an advert for one of those?

    rudebwoy
    Free Member

    You all have reasonably nice bikes, I bet?

    they don’t count 😉

    scuzz
    Free Member

    I was once one of these people but I went on a retreat a few years back and studied with a sensei who taught me how to avoid all this. Since then I have been impervious to marketing and advertising and am able to make informed choices about my needs.

    Did this cost money?

    singletracked
    Free Member

    It did cost money, yes. But it was money well spent.

    ddmonkey
    Full Member

    There’s a balance to be struck, I think I’m gradually getting there but I’ve had to spend a lot on money on the way… I tried to add up how much I have spent on bikes in my life recently, I gave up when it became too shocking.

    molgrips
    Free Member

    But it was money well spent.

    Lol.. seriously.. 🙂

    trickydisco
    Free Member

    who taught me how to avoid all this. Since then I have been impervious to marketing and advertising and am able to make informed choices about my needs.

    this has got to be a wind up surely?

    rudebwoy
    Free Member

    I have a ‘retreat’ , i can teach you not to desire consumerism, and will do it for a suggested donation 😉

    singletracked
    Free Member

    who taught me how to avoid all this. Since then I have been impervious to marketing and advertising and am able to make informed choices about my needs.

    maybe it was, but it worked. The sensei himself lives a very ascetic life in the far north.

    …and it went beyond ‘not desiring’ it lead to being unaffected by it’s tentacles

    crikey
    Free Member

    The sensei himself lives a very ascetic life in the far north.

    Edinburgh isn’t the ‘far north’, and TJ isn’t ascetic…

    noteeth
    Free Member

    rudebwoy
    Free Member

    singletracked- i have never been ‘affected by the tentacles’ of consumerism, but then i’m a communist

    davidtaylforth
    Free Member

    Im punk as **** though, mindless consumerism is for the brain dead zombies. I only spend my money on essentials like cans of Coke, bikes and my anarchist accessories.

    While you’re all wandering round shopping centres on a Saturday afternoon, Im out there shredding the hillside.

    Listen to Fugazi!

    [video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNail6JjEiE[/video]

    druidh
    Free Member

    Woah! There’s nothing wrong with owning nice stuff – if you can actually afford it. It’s just that I see too many folk working and stressing themselves into an early grave in search of what they CAN’T afford – and I mean over the long term, once you’ve put money aside for your future.

    The biggest expense most of is will ever have is a mortgage. Chasing larger properties and/or going for buy-to-let is one of the main problems with the UK. We have a never ending stream of TV programs stimulating demand so that the wealthy can get ever richer and affordable property is now a dream to the lower paid.

Viewing 23 posts - 81 through 103 (of 103 total)

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