While I didn't reply with the same degree of hostility as the GP, I had the same emotional reaction to your comment. My immediate thought was "who are you to say what I 'need'?"
I'm self-aware enough to realize that this is because of a larger cultural struggle in the US between "rural" and "urban". It's not quite that simple, but that's a close enough approximation for the conversation at hand.
The rural people on the US feel like we are constantly fighting a system in which we have no voice. We're subject to regulations that we feel to be frankly ridiculous; regulations that get in our way, make our lives more difficult and expensive, and most of all... don't even serve the purpose for which they were ostensibly designed.
In that context, the GP's response to your comment is understandable.
This is a common sentiment but it always makes me chuckle. People living in rural areas quite literally have more of a voice (as much as that counts for anything with political corruption) than people living in urban areas due to the Senate and gerrymandered congressional districts.
It was tongue in cheek/sarcasm. Point is people with the money to buy new buy more vehicle than they "need" because it is what society expects of them so in some sense they "need" it to meet the expectations of those around them.
> Point is people with the money to buy new buy more vehicle than they "need" because it is what society expects of them so in some sense they "need" it to meet the expectations of those around them.
I'm afraid that you are guilty of what psychology would call "projection". Unless you can back your views with hard facts. I have yet to meet anyone just blowing away $100k on a truck that don't NEED.
I'm self-aware enough to realize that this is because of a larger cultural struggle in the US between "rural" and "urban". It's not quite that simple, but that's a close enough approximation for the conversation at hand.
The rural people on the US feel like we are constantly fighting a system in which we have no voice. We're subject to regulations that we feel to be frankly ridiculous; regulations that get in our way, make our lives more difficult and expensive, and most of all... don't even serve the purpose for which they were ostensibly designed.
In that context, the GP's response to your comment is understandable.