My wife used this old, cheap cooler on Thursday night and it’s been left outside for three days and four nights since then in 100+ degree weather. Today I thought I’d look inside and was truly surprised that the water bottles were still ice cold. It makes me wonder if you really need to spend $400 on a cooler 🤔.
A lot of things in life are probably that way. The magic is often not in the expensive product, but in the marketing. My hat goes off to those that successfully create veblen products. If you can bring something to market with a stratospheric price and it only increases demand, you’re something of a financial wizard. If you’re the sort of person who spends money you don’t really have to impress people who, at best are demonstrably shallow enough to care about luxury brands and at worst, actually jealously resent/hate you, you’re something less of a financial wizard.
I think most people have been the latter at one point or another but in my opinion, life gets a lot better, easier and more successful when you buy things for their actual utility to you. I would argue that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t ever buy veblen goods. I know some people who actively avoid things they would really enjoy just because they’re afraid people will judge them to be shallow. Ironically, that seems shallow. The people I most admire simply don’t care. If you can truly afford it and there is some artistic or other intangible quality that enriches your life and you would enjoy it even if you were the last person on earth, then have at it without guilt IMO. Otherwise, consider creating or investing in veblen goods instead of simply consuming them.
