Can a T-Shirt Be Worth $275?

IHateGovernment said:
What's modest for you may not be modest for someone else. Really we don't need anything above what the Amish have or what small tribes throughout developing countries have. You're just comfortable with electricity, indoor plumbing, TV, and other spoils. The same judgement you place on people you consider to live extravagently can be placed on your lifestyle. Judging one's ethics based on such crude forms of subjectivity seems to be a bit unfair. There are many other factors that come into play.

I don't have a problem with people having conveniences. Conveniences makes peoples lives easier and I won't sit and say they must work as hard as the Amish. If you want a GPS or a computer to make your life easier thats great. What I am against are things that people spend money on just to spend money on to make themselves look better or feel better than others. Its all about how much happiness it can bring you relative to how it can help others.

Living without electricity or plumbing would make people very unhappy.

As far as predjudice goes its all a matter of degree. We can't survive without predjudice. If a man in a ski mask holding a crow bar comes running at me I may prejudge that he intends me harm and take evasive action.

The problem is when we take predjudice to far or use predjudice of the wrong things.
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Prejudging people based on their actions is acceptable. You said earlier that you were prejudiced against people because they were rich. That's as bad as prejudging someone for being poor, latino, black, geography or anything else that has nothing to do with their character or morals.

Getting back to that house example. Wouldn't the $3 million just have extra conveniences? An inground swimming pool? Grounds to host large parties? Gourmet kitchen? Etc. How is it OK for you to have conveniences of up to $300K but someone else's conveniences be considered "unethical"?
 
Prejudging people based on their actions is acceptable. You said earlier that you were prejudiced against people because they were rich. That's as bad as prejudging someone for being poor, latino, black, geography or anything else that has nothing to do with their character or morals.

thats not what I meant to say. Sorry I meant actions. If someone tells me I have a million dollars in the bank I don't judge them on that alone. What they do with it I may extrapolate into other negative behaviors though.

Getting back to that house example. Wouldn't the $3 million just have extra conveniences? An inground swimming pool? Grounds to host large parties? Gourmet kitchen? Etc. How is it OK for you to have conveniences of up to $300K but someone else's conveniences be considered "unethical"?

Depends on how often you use them. A pool isn't much of luxury. 40 acres to have a party is by my measure. Gourmet kitchen. It really depends on what that entails.

This really is like the pornography standard. You know it when you see it.

the 300K example I used is about relativity based on prevailing prices. 300K is a lot different in value in Jersey vs. Nebraska.
 
I think that I'd buy the $7 tee and tell my friends I bought it for $275 rather than waste my money that way. I can't imagine it ever being so important that I have "intrinsic value" in my clothes.
 
Damocles said:
I think that I'd buy the $7 tee and tell my friends I bought it for $275 rather than waste my money that way. I can't imagine it ever being so important that I have "intrinsic value" in my clothes.
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I think the guy from the Luxury Institute was talking about these hollow souled people trying to buy some intrinsic value in themselves, not that the clothes had any.
 
Our cultures self esteem is based on posessions now, not true self worth.
Very , very sad and scary for our future.

I never bought the alligator shirs and such. Heck I even removed the labels from Levis, If they want their advertisement on my butt they can pay me.
I thought for a while that 1/3 of the population had changed their name to Ttommy Hillfigger.
I really did think Tommy was some kind of sports idol or something, was dissapointed and amazed when I found it was just a brand name.
 
uscitizen said:
Our cultures self esteem is based on posessions now, not true self worth.
Very , very sad and scary for our future.

I never bought the alligator shirs and such. Heck I even removed the labels from Levis, If they want their advertisement on my butt they can pay me.
I thought for a while that 1/3 of the population had changed their name to Ttommy Hillfigger.
I really did think Tommy was some kind of sports idol or something, was dissapointed and amazed when I found it was just a brand name.
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Well, I grew up on Long Island, so it's always been like this for me. Susan Issacs calls it the "suburban alphabet" a very clever way of describing the handbags of Long Island women. Gucci, Chanel, Coach, Fendi. It's always been that way here, at least in my memory. I was like that myself all through my 20's. It took me a long time to knock it off. Now, instead of diamonds and gold, I wear silver and turquise, and I got rid of my coach bags too. It's a very freeing feeling, but when you grow up around that, you do absorb it.

The only weakness I do have left is shoes. I spend a lot of money on good shoes. But all things considered, I've gotten a lot better.
 
Darla said:
Well, I grew up on Long Island, so it's always been like this for me. Susan Issacs calls it the "suburban alphabet" a very clever way of describing the handbags of Long Island women. Gucci, Chanel, Coach, Fendi. It's always been that way here, at least in my memory. I was like that myself all through my 20's. It took me a long time to knock it off. Now, instead of diamonds and gold, I wear silver and turquise, and I got rid of my coach bags too. It's a very freeing feeling, but when you grow up around that, you do absorb it.

The only weakness I do have left is shoes. I spend a lot of money on good shoes. But all things considered, I've gotten a lot better.
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I haven't gotten over my obsession with jewelry, but I can't get into expensive purses. Most of them all look the same and aren't that nice. Especially the Louis Vuitton bags that look EXACTLY the same puke brown. I can't stomach spending that much on something that everyone else has. If I'm going to splurge it has to be fab and no one else can have it!

Just thought I'd add.
 
LadyT said:
I haven't gotten over my obsession with jewelry, but I can't get into expensive purses. Most of them all look the same and aren't that nice. Especially the Louis Vuitton bags that look EXACTLY the same puke brown. I can't stomach spending that much on something that everyone else has. If I'm going to splurge it has to be fab and no one else can have it!

Just thought I'd add.
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I've always thought that Louis Vuitton had some of the ugliest bags going, gucci too actually. I'm with you there. But I did have a long love affair with Coach.

With the jewelry I just got really into silver. The whole thing with the diamonds turned me off, because you don't know what you're funding, and from what I've read the same holds true with gold. Also the fact that after I broke up with my very well-off fiance, expensive jewelry was less of an option. Although, my next boyfriend, though financially challenged, did buy be a very beautiful pair of gold and amethyst earrings. But today, I would tell him to save his money. The books he bought me still mean more to me anyway.
 
Do you mean like cubic zircona? I don't have an opinion on them. I don't wear them. I have real diamonds, and I hardly wear them anymore. I've become like, obsessed with turqouise. I have this one beautiful turquoise bead necklace, it's five strands, and twisted. I love it.

Is there a story behind cubic zirona that I don't know?
 
No just wondering. That's what my wife has for jewelry. No one can tell the difference and no one is exploited. In our society this is almost considered a taboo but neither of us have even been much for established customs.
 
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