Yeah, we were joking about power of marketing, and my cousin from US starting telling us about this. We refused to believe it's an actual thing over there.
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Sadly, as Kyle points out, it is a thing. But localized to only idiots in San Franciscos and some techies.
In this era of social media and fake news propagation causing the crumbling of democracy and inciting genocide, there are a lot of folks who are calling for more media literacy. I have to side a bit with Danah Boyd on this one: media literacy and the empowerment to question things is part of the problem, and not the solution. Too many clowns in tech now believe they are omnipotent and smarter than science. This includes Steve Jobs skipping a perfectly treatable state-of-the-art medical regimen for his pancreatic cancer and instead pulling a whole new protocol out of his ass of eating nothing but peas for months... and dying from it. It includes anti-vaxxer nut jobs. And it includes the raw water tards.
I get that. Though I do like to wear nice clothes. I think it adds a bit of confidence and you just feel better wearing nice stuff. But I do make sure not to buy too much, because a huge wardrobe only becomes a burden at some point.
As for your budget, I think an important factor is deciding what you find important. Belgians care a lot about cars. It's insane just how many people have a very nice car here. Personally I'd much rather invest extra money in a house. Over time cars depreciate crazy fast. But obviously that means my budget for a car is small.
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One thing I respect about people in Europe is that they actually take pride in themselves and how they look. Maybe not the Italian mamas-boy style where the guy spends two hours in front of a mirror before going out. But unlike the U.S., it's unthinkable to go out in pajamas or sweatpants and not be embarrassed by it.
Property is where everyone should invest in if they’re smart.
Thankfully there aren’t many smart people that are smart about their finances so that’s good for the few of us that are.
I guess what I’m saying is that we do need dumb people of all economic statuses.
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Dumb people fuel the smart ones. The challenge is when you find an opportunity to capitalize on them. I've been trying to work an angle on how to profit off of climate change deniers for years, but nothing has come up solid enough for me.
But even property is suspect. And not just because all land on earth is only on lease with climate change, but even the persistence of government rule or even the cost of maintenance have created enough dilapidated, abandoned properties around the world as ample evidence of how it's not a universal profit-maker.