I’m not doing that meme. For one thing, it makes no sense to me. I can’t even figure out whose standards it is using.
The bigger reason, though, is that I refuse to buy into the notion that it’s bad or shameful to enjoy the fruits of one’s labor.
Conspicuous consumption is a problem because it’s done solely for the sake of consuming, for status. It isn’t evil to hire someone to clean your house. It isn’t wrong to have more than one vehicle in a family or to own top-of-the-line products. Buying crap because it has a designer’s logo on it is stupid, I’ll give you that. Buying something well-made because it will last longer than crap, whether it has a designer emblem on it or not, isn’t stupid.
I do make fun of people who won’t wear anything BUT the “right” clothes, who worry about driving the “right” cars, and so on. They’re constantly trying to keep up with whoever they see as having more status than they do while scrambling to find someone else to put down for not keeping up. What very expensive Habitrails and wheels those are!
I’ll go on enjoying being marvelously pampered, and pampering my loved ones at every opportunity. We may not have all the luxuries some people have, but you better believe we aren’t ashamed of enjoying what we have!
