Money Can’t Buy Happiness. It Can’t Even Buy Status, a New Book Says | Hacker News Reader

Money Can’t Buy Happiness. It Can’t Even Buy Status, a New Book Says

nytimes.com

5 pointsMichelangelo119 comments

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Yes it can (buy status)?!?

Why do businessmen get knighthoods?

Do you think people would worship Elon if he was the boss of some small sports car manufacturer?

Why do people spend stupid amounts on cars that do all the same stuff as some bog standard Toyota?

I skimmed through the review, it seems it's skewering this book and the arguments it's trying to make.

But curious, if other people see expensive cars as status, me showing up in a fancy car means me showing up with status. If I'm female and I show up with a Louis Vuitton bag, that also means showing up with status, but with a Michael Kors bag? As a female friend told me a few years ago "Ewww, everyone buys that brand, it's now 'cheap'."...

Interesting long-ass documentary about status: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1MqJPHxy6g, but also about the "meritocracy" and the US' idea of "If you work hard you'll be successful" which imply the flip of it: "If you're poor, that means you're lazy".

People buy things that they feel says something about them. That is human nature. We want to fit in. In certain groups that Louis Vuitton bag is the thing. Other groups may still feel that the Michael Kors bag is the thing. Others may feel that a plastic bag signifies their rejection of status symbols. Your choice of bag will be informed by the group that you want to fit into.

Many people want to be successful. Money is a proxy for success. Expensive things indicates you have money.

I'd like to think I'm immune to all this but I'm not. I can identify when I want to spend money just to fit in a group, I can then pause and think, and my wallets much healthier for it.

I do it because they're pretty cars; did you do it for the chicks?

I don't own an expensive car. I would question why youre willing to spend 1000s on something that looks pretty though. Or we could go further and question what 'prettyness' is? Is it something objective, and in that case why are cars redesigned ever few years? Or is prettyness a proxy for some kind of fitting in with a group, and if you own pretty things, it says you're part of a group, and if you have prettier things your status in the group goes up?

Frankly I'd be more convinced by an explanation that you need to get where your going quickly, even though my rhetorical Toyota is fully capable of the speed limit.

Well, some day you may be interested in a job that involves working on pretty cars. Is that an interesting reason?

I'm sure the author is releasing this book fully open source and not selling it for profit.

If a book says it, it must be true! and therefor newsworthy.

Davos sponsored “research”?

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