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The Rich Don't Penny Pinch

seanmcclure.substack.com

51–60 of 83 posts

Re: The Rich Don't Penny Pinch

#51
post #12

> But then you stop and think wait a second, this person is alone and wearing a mask. Isn't that odd? In fact it seems downright ridiculous. Why would anyone wear a mask in their car when they are alone? The author has clearly not spent a lot of time in normal mode around people who have to wear their mask for their full shift. Yes, those people forget. Not us keyboard warriors who put it on twice a day for a few min…

Taking the mask on and off introduces risk of infection when touching it. And risk of forgetting to put it on when needed. If you just keep it on you avoid the risks - and you get to breath less pollution and allergens as an added benefit.

How many people have have gotten Covid from fomite transmission so far? Last I checked the number of such confirmed cases varied from zero to one.

Meanwhile the entire globe has been anxiously sanitizing their hands and everything they touch for 18 months (a lot of people in my family were even washing the grocery produce with soap and setting them aside for one day before use). All this long, long after scientists had pretty much figured out that risks of fomite transmission of Covid were vanishingly small.

Re: The Rich Don't Penny Pinch

#52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A penny pincher is the person who goes to dinner with a dozen people and ends up spending an hour trying to "fairly" divide the check among everyone. Or, the one who says a few days later that you should treat him to lunch because he only had a single glass of wine whereas everyone else had two or some such. Alcoholic drinks in most popular cities are $10+ per drink, if not $18+ in tier 1 cities. If someone that do…

Maybe they wouldn't be as budget constrained if they were easier to invite places? I can't invite my teetotaling and vegetarian friends out to many of the casual things I enjoy, and their purity issues create a self-imposed artificial constraint on their life opportunities. Someone with an actual medical issue learns to adapt to life and live it, where someone with a purity constraint selects for oppotunities where t…

> Someone with an actual medical issue learns to adapt to life and live it

That's quite harsh to all the people who cannot join you for dinner on a hike because of some illness or disability.

Describing non-drinking as a "control ritual" and "self sabotaging substitute" is an equally harsh description of people's personal choices or medical needs. E.g. pregnancy.

> I don't eat with anyone I'm not willing to pick up the entire tab for, because the pleasure of their company is well worth it.

I never thought of measuring friendship and companionship with money...

Re: The Rich Don't Penny Pinch

#53
post #12

> But then you stop and think wait a second, this person is alone and wearing a mask. Isn't that odd? In fact it seems downright ridiculous. Why would anyone wear a mask in their car when they are alone? The author has clearly not spent a lot of time in normal mode around people who have to wear their mask for their full shift. Yes, those people forget. Not us keyboard warriors who put it on twice a day for a few min…

When I was in the mandatory army service earlier this year, we had to wear masks all the time and change them multiple times a day. After doing that for months, I literally don't even realize that I have a mask on anymore if I have it on. It doesn't seem to annoy or obstruct me in any way whatsoever. I even felt weird not having to wear a mask in the time after my service ended...

We also had to test every week. I've had so many swabs up my nose that that i keep a completely straight face when doing that kind of test now.

Re: The Rich Don't Penny Pinch

#54
post #12

> But then you stop and think wait a second, this person is alone and wearing a mask. Isn't that odd? In fact it seems downright ridiculous. Why would anyone wear a mask in their car when they are alone? The author has clearly not spent a lot of time in normal mode around people who have to wear their mask for their full shift. Yes, those people forget. Not us keyboard warriors who put it on twice a day for a few min…

[deleted]

Re: The Rich Don't Penny Pinch

#55

>What I want to talk about here is how the type of behavior that makes us look smart in the moment (i.e. penny pinching) ends up not being smart in the long run. Well said. I disagree with the article title, due to my experience with delivering pizza. We all certainly knew the non-tippers. And they almost always were in the wealthiest neighborhoods. So once you go to a house 3 or 4 times, and get stiffed (or hear abo…

I guess they liked cold pizza if they kept ordering more.

Re: The Rich Don't Penny Pinch

#56

The world is full of people who take a casual attitude towards their finances. They are the ones we keep reading about when we are told most people can't raise $1000 in an emergency or don't think they will ever be able to afford retirement.

The world is full of people with a hoarding attitude toward an arbitrarily chosen store of value. They are the ones we keep reading about when we are told poor decisions have collapsed buildings, destroyed ecosystems, caused wars and unnecessary human suffering.

Your view is that ecosystems are destroyed by people who consume less?

Re: The Rich Don't Penny Pinch

#57
post #12

> But then you stop and think wait a second, this person is alone and wearing a mask. Isn't that odd? In fact it seems downright ridiculous. Why would anyone wear a mask in their car when they are alone? The author has clearly not spent a lot of time in normal mode around people who have to wear their mask for their full shift. Yes, those people forget. Not us keyboard warriors who put it on twice a day for a few min…

It could also just be that someone deliberately wanted to wear a mask for literally any reason whatsoever. It’s just ludicrous to judge someone for that or to consider it “ridiculous.” You might as well say “have you ever seen someone wearing a hat in their car even though they’re inside a climate controlled car and don’t need sun protection on their head?”

https://www.google.com/search?q=ayo+and+teo

Wearing masks since 2017, WHILE DANCING.

Re: The Rich Don't Penny Pinch

#58
post #2

The author and I ascribe different meanings to "penny pinching" ... Also, > Imagine you are in your car driving and you notice someone in another car, alone, wearing a mask. This is during the covid pandemic so seeing someone wearing a mask is not overly surprising. But then you stop and think wait a second, this person is alone and wearing a mask. Isn't that odd? In fact it seems downright ridiculous. Why would anyo…

A penny pincher is someone who takes money out of the communal meal payment (deposited on the table like a poker pot) because it represents more than 5% tip. In other words, they effectively reduce their own tip below 5% because someone else tipped a higher, more socially-acceptable percentage.

Re: The Rich Don't Penny Pinch

#59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Taking the mask on and off introduces risk of infection when touching it. And risk of forgetting to put it on when needed. If you just keep it on you avoid the risks - and you get to breath less pollution and allergens as an added benefit.

How many people have have gotten Covid from fomite transmission so far? Last I checked the number of such confirmed cases varied from zero to one. Meanwhile the entire globe has been anxiously sanitizing their hands and everything they touch for 18 months (a lot of people in my family were even washing the grocery produce with soap and setting them aside for one day before use). All this long, long after scientists h…

I do wonder if we'll continue to see elevated rates of hand-washing in the years to come (as people have started to make it a habit), and if that will correlate to decreased rates of common colds/flus.
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