Experiences suck because you have to stand up to get to them.

The chapter ends with something like, "Joy had the best lunch of her life, and five minutes later she couldn't taste it anymore. Dameon had a terrible tasting lunch, and five minutes later he couldn't taste it anymore, either."

Seems like an odd note to end on. Shouldn't Dameon realize that Joy is a member of the exploiter class, and that he needs to seize the means of lunch production, or something?

I just ordered new glasses, which was both purchasing a thing and having an experience if getting temporally blinded counts.

I love shoes.

The ability to thoughtfully match one's shoes with one's outfit because you have more choices, and, more broadly, the ability to surprise yourself with how you dress in the morning are both experiences.

I hate when right as I press post and can no longer edit I see that I switched pronouns mid stream.

When people say they love shoes, they should clarify if they mean owning/wearing shoes or like stealing them to sniff and the like.

I hate buying things.

And also experiences.

And everything else, really.

Hating things is an experience.

Hate that too.

Without evidence, I figure higher SES people probably buy things they need when they need them. Experiences are more of a special occasion thing. Lower SES people can't always buy the things they need when they need them so they save up; finally having the need satisfied is a bigger deal. (For loose values of "need" that include getting a new TV when the old one breaks.)

As a further experiment, they should have the well-off people walk in busted shoes for three months, and see how they feel when they get new ones.

I think you summed it up nicely - marginal return of material goods which can be used over and over is less for people who already have a lot of material goods. Vice versa for experiences. Shit, ideas of scarcity value have been around for ever.

Maybe a more interesting thought - does the rise of internet conversation / wikipedia type standards, which often requires citations (Citation please!), drive a lot of these studies being produced?

Assuming we were discussing this topic in a world where this study doesn't exist - does the conversation go better or worse than our world, where people can now cite this study?

I've always valued experiences (cinema, concerts, travel) more than purchases even when I was poor. OTOH I am positively delighted with my new sports car.

13 and 14 are correct. Periodically it seems like the New York Times runs a profile of some tech type who has figured out the key to happiness is only owning 100 objects. And the response is, sure, if you can always buy new things when you need them, no need to have them cluttering up the house all the time.

15: Yeah, even when I was at minimum wage (but still comfortably living at home), things didn't excite me much. I've been teased as a penny pincher or complimented on my frugality-- weirdly, I get pleasure from stretching resources or making do. (Probably due to a childhood filled with "waste not, want not".)

I can absolutely see an income below which I'd really be cheering purchases -- where a splurge would be getting a better version of a useful thing. Since I'm well above that threshold, objects have to prove themselves -- I feel guilt if I buy a thing and don't use it, or don't use it much.

In conclusion, we need a Value Added Tax to add all these Experiences to the tax base.

15: I guess since Halford isn't around, I'll ask - what kind of sports car did you get?

Did Hanford steal cars if they were a certain kind?

18

Gamifying the real world, one in-app charge at a time.

18

Gamifying the real world, one in-app charge at a time.

Wife and I can't even buy each other presents because if there's something moderately priced that we need we just buy it; If it's high priced we're not going to buy it as a surprise because we have to discuss large purchases. Have I mentioned what happened when I followed Ogged's toilet advice?

Piss on the seat?

19 A Mini Cooper S

I don't remember ogged's toilet advice. Always go before you have the house? Never wash your hands in an Arby's?

I don't think I would buy a sports car if I had nowhere cool to drive it. I pretty much gave up on driving entirely when I left California, but if I were to buy a car, I guess it would be a Pursuit Special.

Install a bidet seat. Those things are not cheap but I got a pretty good deal on one. Did not consult wife- I figured if she doesn't like it you just don't turn it on and it's a regular seat. Mistake.

A bidet seat in a sports car seems like a mistake.

To be fair to ogged, I'm guessing he didn't recommend a butt spritzer as a surprise gift.

I am such a follower of ogged that I ended up buying two and still haven't sold the first one on. Oddly, the market does not seem huge.

I once stayed at a mid market hotel on Rutland Water (to break a journey, since you ask) and found that butt spritzers in the toilets and jacuzzi mods in the tubs came as standard. Never seen the like before or since. Didn't use either (I mean I use the toilet and the shower obviously, but not the fancy attachments.)

A bidet seat in a sports car seems like a mistake.

But sports cars are full of assholes.

(Sorry, Barry.)

I fear he's going native.

Just as long as he doesn't do a DNA test.

5: You're joking, but I think you're right. Or at least that having a reasonable quality item that one uses regularly isn't something to be overlooked. Or maybe I just want to justify my boot purchases.

16: and the interviewee practices mental accounting such that items that are owned by "the family" don't count. I have 100 items, if you overlook everything that I need for work, or the house, or the kids.

I have way more.

Does a book count as an item?

Do bookends count as one item or two?

It counts as the sum of the digits of its ISBN.

I have like six cigarette lighters, only three of them disposable, and I don't even smoke.

I suppose one of them could count as "family" since we use it to light the grill.

So much stuff in the house. Just today I found a big pile Reese's cups shaped like pumpkins. I don't even know why we would have so many in the house and never eat them, so I just started.

I have little stuff! Life-stagnation FTW!

Quite possibly more than 100 though.

||

Burmah is of a soft and molluscous consistency, and is consequently far less adapted to serve the required purpose.

Well so much for that, we had heavy thunderstorms with major flooding all over the place including in the parking lot where I parked my car. The water was almost up to the door handles and I tried to drive it out like a dumbass. I'm afraid it may be totaled. I'd post pics to the group but I lost my log in when I got my new computer. FML

Oh, that's horrible.

Every toilet here comes with a spritzer*. It's great.

*Not on the inside of the toilet but a hose with a sprayer nozzle like you'd have in the US in your kitchen sink.

49 No work tomorrow, I just opened a new bottle of bourbon and I'll see how much I can drink of it.

That sucks Barry.

The flood insurance must have been cheap though.

Insurance and plates stay with the car so I didn't have to get new insurance. This means I don't know if I'm covered (if I had had to get new insurance I would have insured it to the hilt).

Good luck! Here, take some comfort in human folly:

The Secretary for Upper Burma wrote to the Chief Commissioner: 'The people of this country have not, as was by some expected, welcomed us as deliverers from tyranny.'

Many respondents report less satisfaction than anticipated from acquisition of dominions in Southeast Asia, is what I'm saying.

Clearly I will have to buy another Mini Cooper S, it's a better bet than a dominion in SE Asia.

Apparently white elephants are auspicious. Also, totally unfazed by floods.

I parked my car. The water was almost up to the door handles and I tried to drive it out like a dumbass.

You're supposed to blow the bloody doors off.

That's really bad luck, Barry. No one expects to lose their car to rain in Arrakis.

Hopefully he won't poison himself with an excess of water-of-life.

OMG, the brand new car that you mentioned upthread? I'm so sorry.

Ugh, Barry, that's awful. You've had the worst luck.

Thanks all. I tried drying it out a bit today and set up a tow. We'll see what happens. I'm not usually attached to possessions but it feels like someone just died.

Speaking of, if you do need to junk the car, can we borrow the trunk?

It's a hatchback with a really tiny trunk so...good thing you brought that bone saw.

||

In Burma the strength and political dominance of a Burmese/Myanma identity based on older Ava-based memories has never allowed the development of a newer identity which would incorporate the divers peoples inhabiting the modern state. Instead, it has led since 1948 to recurrent warfare, the growth of a large military machine and an army rule which seems unlikely to end.

That seems a bit pessimistic given there is a civil-led genocide.

A Burmese/Myanma civil/military genocide! (It's from 2004.)