I worked in a grocery store in the late '90s, and the older customers (who grew up in the Great Depression) always carried penny pouches, because they remembered a time when one had to keep track of cents to survive. This is how I know that, even if we miraculously fixed our medical system tomorrow and outlawed private health insurance by a constitutional amendment, we'll still have, thirty years from now, 60-year-ol…
Doctors say they are the only profession that saves lives. Well they're the only profession allowed to save lives. And the only profession making money saving lives. Charging for saving lives. Price discriminating to save lives. What happens when they make a mistake in what someone is able to pay? EDIT (I tried replying but can't yet): The basic solution to make medicine cheaper is supply more medics. In Chile anybod…
Price shocks in formative years scar consumption for life
71–80 of 478 posts
Re: Price shocks in formative years scar consumption for life
#72I worked in a grocery store in the late '90s, and the older customers (who grew up in the Great Depression) always carried penny pouches, because they remembered a time when one had to keep track of cents to survive. This is how I know that, even if we miraculously fixed our medical system tomorrow and outlawed private health insurance by a constitutional amendment, we'll still have, thirty years from now, 60-year-ol…
Honestly fuck the medical system, young people don't care. Housing is what's really getting us. Some days I feel like driving up to McLean and burning banks down. EDIT: I'm out of comment quota but dymk I'm so tired of hearing that, here's my reply: Oh fuck off. I make six figures and work remotely. My family lives in a rural part of a small state and I can't afford a house within driving distance of them. EDIT2: Ass…
Re: Price shocks in formative years scar consumption for life
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
My grandma did this. Never left a penny on the sidewalk, always took the bread from a breadbasket home. Even my parents absorbed some of that behavior despite being born in the next generation.
> always took the bread from a breadbasket home Care to explain it to non native speaker from Europe? Is it some bakery chain and she took home some cheap/free leftover bread?
Re: Price shocks in formative years scar consumption for life
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
I’m a very well off millennial. My fiancé and I both have high paying tech jobs. We easily make the income of multiple families. That being said we are strained to buy a 3-bedroom house like that of my single Mother who only has a high school education to her name. Given our success, we don’t have the “burn it all down” mentality but I fear it building in many of my friends and totally understand the sentiment of thi…
At least you have a partner. If you're on your own you're absolutely fucked. Not only are you alone but everyone else is out to get you. When we have the crunch in the near future I could see me and my peers torching things. I don't even worry about this anymore; I look forward to it.
Re: Price shocks in formative years scar consumption for life
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
> the time and mental energy wasted comparing prices could have better return on investment if used on other things like learning a new skill, meeting a friend, reading a book Maybe. Actual cost savings are observable now, with very high probability. Maybe that book or skill is useless; in other words, there's a broad distribution on possible outcomes. Who actually measures this stuff to assess ROI? It's not obvious…
Correct, this is what I’ve observed too. It’s stunning to me that the big tech companies - Amazon comes to mind - aren’t writing colleges big checks in exchange for “produce us people who can function in real life teams”.
The US has has the privilege($$$) to import the minds and workforce it needs, thereby skipping the need to invest in local education, and offshoring this burden to brain-drain countries in the process.
Re: Price shocks in formative years scar consumption for life
#76I worked in a grocery store in the late '90s, and the older customers (who grew up in the Great Depression) always carried penny pouches, because they remembered a time when one had to keep track of cents to survive. This is how I know that, even if we miraculously fixed our medical system tomorrow and outlawed private health insurance by a constitutional amendment, we'll still have, thirty years from now, 60-year-ol…
My grandma did this. Never left a penny on the sidewalk, always took the bread from a breadbasket home. Even my parents absorbed some of that behavior despite being born in the next generation.
Yup. As a child of immigrants it gets passed down a very long way.
Pass it down far enough and it just becomes “culture” and “tradition”.
Re: Price shocks in formative years scar consumption for life
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
> always took the bread from a breadbasket home Care to explain it to non native speaker from Europe? Is it some bakery chain and she took home some cheap/free leftover bread?
Some restaurants give a free basket of bread with a meal as a sort of appetizer. Most people either consume all of it or just leave the leftovers.
It might be buttery, lightly seasoned bread or something like rolls, usually fresh-baked.
Re: Price shocks in formative years scar consumption for life
#78I worked in a grocery store in the late '90s, and the older customers (who grew up in the Great Depression) always carried penny pouches, because they remembered a time when one had to keep track of cents to survive. This is how I know that, even if we miraculously fixed our medical system tomorrow and outlawed private health insurance by a constitutional amendment, we'll still have, thirty years from now, 60-year-ol…
Doctors say they are the only profession that saves lives. Well they're the only profession allowed to save lives. And the only profession making money saving lives. Charging for saving lives. Price discriminating to save lives. What happens when they make a mistake in what someone is able to pay? EDIT (I tried replying but can't yet): The basic solution to make medicine cheaper is supply more medics. In Chile anybod…
Re: Price shocks in formative years scar consumption for life
#79Being poor in general, during your childhood, scars you for life. It makes you penny wise and pound foolish, adverse to taking risks in your career and investments, can destroy your confidence in yourself, while always having to look over your shoulder monetarily speaking. Habits that even after you remove poverty from your live, you still feel the the anxiety and triggers in your head.
You can learn to cope with the anxiety better if you talk to a therapist but it will never fully go away.
Re: Price shocks in formative years scar consumption for life
#80Being poor in general, during your childhood, scars you for life. It makes you penny wise and pound foolish, adverse to taking risks in your career and investments, can destroy your confidence in yourself, while always having to look over your shoulder monetarily speaking. Habits that even after you remove poverty from your live, you still feel the the anxiety and triggers in your head.
So yeah, I dislike the idea of being mortgage slave, but if I didn't optimize my income I wouldn't mind taking one to buy investment apartment, so I had to invest money in stock.
But the funny thing is I will refuse to buy something I consider overpriced even when total sum makes absolutely no difference at my income, I just don't like the idea of wasting my money on something which can be bought cheaper, so some people may think I am poor or cheap although I don't mind spending money on something I consider worth the money. For instance almost nobody here in Czechia has AC, but I am one of those few people who have one, because I value my comfort at home more than having newest smartphones and other crap.