At the baseline, buying things is all about conveinence. I don't have to put in the work to make my own food, if I live within range of a market; my range goes up if I buy a car. Even with the real junk, it can still boil down to conveinence. It's easier to pay for happiness via a silly band, pet rock, or cool shirt, than it is to find intrinsic happiness.
Buying food = trying to feed oneself Buying clothing = trying to keep a shirt on one's back Buying bait and tackle = trying to fish for a day. What are you fishing for?
Rarely is face value remitted for any purchase as there are semi-legitimate mark-ups for the purpose of profit. Are we to buy this argument to gain your acceptance? Methinks you are selling us a bill of goods...
At this point in "the game" the act of purchasing is indicative of society's unhealthy reliance on the infrastructure for sustenance which means the true meaning of buying anything is that we're addicted to the dangerous drug that is economic status- whose pursuit has effectively disconnected us from the ability to sustain ourselves.
...so other people approve of what you're wearing, and where you live, and of what you do and eat and read...
only if your desire is that they approve or what you're wearing, and where you live, and of what you do and eat and read... personally i couldn't give a flying fuck what anyone thinks of about what i buy.... playing "keeping up with the joneses" is middle class bullshit that shoulda died out in the seventies (when all the sitcoms were made about it)
I also can understand that those gadget horny people get a kick of buying all the newest shit but I'm rather happy that I don't have those urges myself
yeah that seems pretty crazy to me. I'm barely interested in my own awesome computer and annoying (though up-to-date) cellphone... unless those folks spend all day and night on their newly aquired gagets, i don't get it.
what you profess here is a relationship between purchasing and value. increase the value, and you can argue the buyer is bargaining their acceptability. however, the question here is about simply buying. because of this, you cannot disregard the assumption people buy products to fulfil their basic needs.
I work 7 days a week for just above minimum wage for 2 really stupid reasons: 1) I like to eat. 2) I like to sleep indoors. I very rarely buy anything expensive and if I do it is a quality issue. I share a studio apartment with my fiance. I don't have cable. I have a cheap as fuck cell phone that I almost never use. Once in a while I allow my ADD to take over and buy something impulsively. It happens. I usually buy out of necessity not to be the coolest, sharpest, hippest motherfucker out there. At 35 I've already figured out I'll never be cool so I don't sweat it. Stay Brown, Rev J
