Price shocks in formative years scar consumption for life • Hacker News Board

Re: Price shocks in formative years scar consumption for life

#211

Post by wing-_-nuts » Wed, Jun 15, 2022, 5:10 PM UTC

kosyblysk2 wrote: post #163

ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #2

Being 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 make the same argument (in reverse) about being rich. it is like saying: ohhh my mommy was so bad to me and now i have issues, ohhh my mommy was so good to me and now i have issues. victim mentality

I think you should try and understand the definition of 'victim mentality' a little better.

There's great power in understanding where you came from, and how that affects your behavior today.

Re: Price shocks in formative years scar consumption for life

#212

Post by samstave » Wed, Jun 15, 2022, 5:10 PM UTC

photochemsyn wrote: post #90

Mindless consumption is nothing but a disease, of the mental illness variety. People who get a dopamine burst or some similar neurotransmitter release when they go shopping have been indoctrinated into patterns of behavior that do them no good in the long run. They'll end up with a house crammed with possessions they never use, bought on a whim in order to make themselves feel better. A better mentality is to always…

>Mindless consumption is nothing but a disease

Take a moment, when you leave your house next, and find anything upon your travels/commute/walk, man-made, which is trying to NOT get you to spend (time/attention/money).

Our entire civilization is built around programming consumerism, and lauding profiting from the inability to NOT spend.

Re: Price shocks in formative years scar consumption for life

#213

Post by daniel-cussen » Wed, Jun 15, 2022, 5:12 PM UTC

nradov wrote: post #124

freeone3000 wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I promise you, Canada and Germany and Chile and France also have MRI machines and blood pressure cuffs.

Canada doesn't have enough MRI machines. Wait times are long and increasing. https://www.fraserinstitute.org/studies/waiting-your-turn-wa... All healthcare systems impose some sort of rationing. Canada rations care by imposing long queues for non-emergency cases, with significant variations between provinces. Affluent Canadians frequently travel to the US as medical tourists and pay for treatment out of pocket in ord…

Funny, I do the same thing, medical tourism in Chile. Like all Hispanics. We all get all medicine in Latin America, never in America, to the extent it's avoidable. It used to be the other way around, like I knew a kid who kept traveling for medical tourism from Chile to America because he had a rare heart thing, rare disease.

There should be flying ambulances, like international flights taking emergency patients to where they can be treated economically instead of getting signature after signature squeezed out of them, one per hour starting inside the ambulance.

Re: Price shocks in formative years scar consumption for life

#214

Post by scruple » Wed, Jun 15, 2022, 5:12 PM UTC

CapitalistCartr wrote: post #67

I remember there not being seconds at supper (1960s), Mom would serve, deciding how much everyone got: Dad first, then each of four kids, then herself. I know this is part of who I am, and some of why the house is stuffed. My wife laughs at how much clothing I have, because I still have clothes from 1979. Well, mostly she laughs at my stuff from the Eighties. But I remember shopping at Goodwill or my mom making every…

At first appearances, I'm not too dissimilar to you though I am younger (in my 40s).

> It's not worth the anxiety to not-have.

Yes, but having too much stuff can also cause anxiety. There's a line in there somewhere that I strive to meet.

Re: Price shocks in formative years scar consumption for life

#215

Post by sangnoir » Wed, Jun 15, 2022, 5:13 PM UTC

ciconia wrote: post #191

ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #2

Being 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.

> scars you for life. You could also say being poor in childhood teaches you how to be frugal. I regard this as a healthy habit and better discipline I wish I had with money (coming from a middle-class family). Another way to look at frugality is just an aversion to spending money on whatever it is that society or mass media tell you you have to buy, an important and healthy attitude one can have, IMO.

It goes way beyond frugality - it is usually accompanied by a touch of hoarding (bought a new phone? Let's keep the old one even if it has a cracked screen, just in case... .)

A term I've seen bandied about for the collective symptoms is having a Scarcity mindset and it's based on insecurity/fear of unexpectedly running out of money (which was a frequent event in childhood)

John Scalzi's classic "Being Poor" blog post[1] details the effects of poverty in detail.

1. https://whatever.scalzi.com/2005/09/03/being-poor/

Re: Price shocks in formative years scar consumption for life

#216

Post by dougmwne » Wed, Jun 15, 2022, 5:13 PM UTC

stu2b50 wrote: post #199

ciconia wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> scars you for life. You could also say being poor in childhood teaches you how to be frugal. I regard this as a healthy habit and better discipline I wish I had with money (coming from a middle-class family). Another way to look at frugality is just an aversion to spending money on whatever it is that society or mass media tell you you have to buy, an important and healthy attitude one can have, IMO.

There’s a fine line between frugality and being stuck in a local optima. Sometimes, expensive things are better in the long run, because they serve their purpose better and last longer.

First order frugality: buy cheaper things or go without. Hoard all your trash in case you need it again.

Second order frugality: Buy it for life. Quality over quantity.

Third order frugality: This inert matter is not nearly as interesting as the people who wish to sell it to us want us to believe.

Re: Price shocks in formative years scar consumption for life

#217

Post by bombcar » Wed, Jun 15, 2022, 5:14 PM UTC

cpsns wrote: post #34

ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Could you explain what you mean? Sure. I realize I waste a lot of time in supermarkets, shops or online stores, browsing/walking around and comparing prices just to penny pinch on low value things, when the savings I would make would have no meaningful impact on my yearly net worth, but the time and mental energy wasted browsing/walking around comparing prices could have better return on investment if used on other…

I'm guilty of doing everything you've mentioned as well, for the same reasons, but this especially: >I'm afraid to make investments fearing that the market could crash the second I enter, and erase my money, leaving me vulnerable to being homeless or dependent on doing shitty jobs I hate just to stay afloat, so I just hoard cash like an idiot as that makes me feels safe and lets me sleep well at night. I am terrified…

I've found that reducing the "monthly" bills can help - which usually means paying down and off debt entirely.

Then consider things as "one time purchases" instead of monthly obligations - buy Disney+ for a year, once, and immediately cancel. Then if something goes wrong, there's no upcoming bill to pay.

Re: Price shocks in formative years scar consumption for life

#218

Post by daniel-cussen » Wed, Jun 15, 2022, 5:16 PM UTC

jodrellblank wrote: post #87

daniel-cussen wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> " Lowest medicine costs in the OECD, blows every other developed country out of the water. America is the most expensive and Chile is the cheapest. " I just happened to have this RAND corporation ranking of "most expensive insulin in the world" from 2018 handy; America is first, Chile is second. https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/cost-of-i...

OK yeah the medication is expensive, the pharmacies are rigged. Farmacias Ahumada, Farmacias Cruz Verde, and Salcobrand are three divisions of the same single...trust, basically. The Chilean pharmacy monopoly. Enforced with eg intermarriage. However, now there's lots more pharmacies, it's opening up. And I am personally boycotting Cruz Verde in almost all circumstances because I saw a shill of theirs (a real life shill, not on a forum, in a brick-and-mortar retailer) shilling for Cruz Verde[1] at a pharmacy that actually competed with them. There's some.

But I don't know, did you try the municipal pharmacy in Recoleta? Way cheaper.

[1] Note for admins: this is not the same as calling someone a shill on the forum, I went and gave my account and signed an affidavit in the complaints and suggestions book, with the help of the guard who also witnessed the shill, and backed by a third witness who conversed with the shill like I did. I told them by all means use this in court, I'll vouch on the witness stand, and I'm doing this with the same moral authority and motivation of being a hero according to Roman Law, in a very similar set of conditions that led to my actions and consequent recognition as a hero by the victims in the spur of the moment, ten years ago.

Re: Price shocks in formative years scar consumption for life

#219

Post by bombcar » Wed, Jun 15, 2022, 5:16 PM UTC

pea wrote: post #110

ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Could you explain what you mean? Sure. I realize I waste a lot of time in supermarkets, shops or online stores, browsing/walking around and comparing prices just to penny pinch on low value things, when the savings I would make would have no meaningful impact on my yearly net worth, but the time and mental energy wasted browsing/walking around comparing prices could have better return on investment if used on other…

Strangely, I've observed the same behaviour with people on the exact opposite side of the spectrum too (i.e. UHNW). A friend of mine worked on superyachts which were £400k a week to rent. He said that without fail the owners would be penny pinching at the end over a few £ here and there (on food, drink, suncream etc.) Same with upper-class Brits who had hundreds of years of intergenerational wealth but won't turn the…

I wonder how much of that is because at those wealth levels, you start to feel you don't have much in the way of agency (you're not bargaining for the cost of the superyacht, someone does that for you, etc) - and you want to feel "in the game".

Now if by "owners" you mean the owners of the yacht, then it makes more sense as it's a business and they're controlling costs, especially the ones they see as "variable".

Re: Price shocks in formative years scar consumption for life

#220

Post by bombcar » Wed, Jun 15, 2022, 5:18 PM UTC

Infernal wrote: post #209

jacobr1 wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For I-Bonds the rates are now worth it. They are very CD-like, in that you can't withdraw them for the first year, and in the first 5 there is a few month interest penalty for early withdrawal. You can only buy $10k per person per year, but as a married couple, you could build up 100K in savings over 5 years, and even faster if you hold them in a trust.

Can you explain why it would be faster to hold I-bonds in a trust?

From the internet:

One limitation of buying I Bonds is the annual purchase limit. Each person can buy a maximum of $10,000 per calendar year as the primary owner.

In addition, if you have a trust, you can buy another $10,000 per year under the name of the trust. A lawyer created a revocable living trust for us back in 2018. It was surprisingly easy when I opened an account for the trust at TreasuryDirect last month. It took only 15 minutes to open a new trust account and buy another $10,000 of I Bonds.

So it lets you double the amount you can buy.