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by bko
2602 days ago
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> It's a world where a 10-20% can afford the "whatever" (e.g. best phone, live in NY/Bay area, university degree, etc) and the rest have to scrap by and increasingly pinch pennies (while still doing some desperate wealth-signalling purchases, like poor urban blacks that buy $200 sneakers to feel like they have something nice and can participate in the kind of society they see in ads). I don't see why "poor urban blacks" buying $200 sneakers is a "desperate wealth-singalling purchase". Maybe they just like them. I don't see how its any different that the 10-20% buying the "best phone" when it provides no greater utility than a cheaper model. > And living in NY or the Bay are was still very affordable (to the point that both areas had large artistic / bohemian communities living there, and not of the latte sipping urban wealth variety, but the penny pinching / stick it to the man / junky variety). I would think as neighborhoods become safer and more gentrified, the number of people that want to live there increases and naturally the price to live there increases as well. Comparing crime ridden NYC from 50 years ago to NYC today makes no sense. |
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According to economists Banerjee & Duflo: “The poor are skeptical about their supposed opportunities, and the possibility of any radical change in their lives…Therefore, they focus on the here and now, on living their lives as pleasantly as possible, and on celebrating when the occasion demands it.”
>I don't see how its any different that the 10-20% buying the "best phone" when it provides no greater utility than a cheaper model.*
The difference is that for the 10% that is an insignificant amount, and they still can cover their more basic needs with aplenty left anyway.