We all know it was in the intrest of Democrats to perpetuate poverty...

[Drake Tungsten]

I specified the "average DVD" for a reason. I'm sure the rapper uses his bedroom and in-home recording studio a lot.

[Elok]

Why? Any number of things have a psychological use and not a practical one (music, movies, literary fiction, video games, fashionable clothes, etc.). In the modern day, most of the things people buy are things that make them happy, not things that they need for any practical reason. Elok's muddled argument is completely stupid.

And no video game, music, movie, or book costs much over $100. The exception being stuff like Guitar Hero, which I don't get but whatever. For $10-20K you could (theoretically) buy so much that you'd never be bored again. The only forms of actual entertainment so grotesquely wasteful of resources that they can only be enjoyed by the extremely rich are golf...no, even that's not utterly inaccessible, it's just country club membership that'll gouge you IIUC...maybe habitual skydiving? Really pricey prostitutes?

Fashion is a whole different story; I think people who spend lots of money on clothes are stupid for entirely different reasons, which I don't feel like getting into. But even designer clothes, the kind that make you look like a complete tool, aren't so expensive that you need millions and millions of dollars. The "best" only cost thousands.

The fact of the matter is, most of our pleasures are designed for mass consumption, and the few that aren't have little appeal beyond being unavailable for the masses. And for what I hope is the last time, stop saying "need," you jackass. This has nothing to do with need.

[Drake Tungsten]

And no video game, music, movie, or book costs much over $100.

I have several books that cost more than $100. I'd have many more if I had the money for it.

Anyway, why don't you just admit that you have no logical reason for bemoaning the spending habits of the rich and are just envious that they can spend more on the crap that they want than you can? Your haphazard attempt to demonstrate that they're "pathological" for acting like every other rational human being has clearly failed.

[Elok]

Only by your estimation, Drake. You still haven't summoned up a single cogent argument, just "they want this junk, so it's a good use of money." If you frame the argument in those terms, of course you can't lose, but by the same token, if I want a pile of horse manure big enough to dwarf Mount Everest so I can sit there and stare at it, I'm a perfectly sensible human being. And now you're pulling an AAHZ, declaring that I've "lost" the argument to try and shut me up. Get real.

And why would I envy them? I'm personally quite frugal, but really there's not much I want. I might buy StarCraft 2 when it comes out...maybe Civ V, but so far it looks like they're ****ing it up with gratuitous innovations, so maybe not. Which is not to say that everyone should be happy with nothing, only I have no reason to envy the rich.

[Kidlicious]

God gets people fired? Do tell.

He gives you a job every day. It's best to be thankful.

[Kidlicious]

Remember all the restrictions the will placed on how Monty could spend the money?

Well that's what spending is, having nothing to show for it.

[Kidlicious]

Human wants are insatiable.

Why would someone give to charity then?

[Drake Tungsten]

And no video game, music, movie, or book costs much over $100.

List price of $450...

http://www.amazon.com/Germany-Second-World-War-Administration/dp/0198208731/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1270106939&sr=8-1

And that's not even the worst in the series...

http://www.amazon.com/Germany-Second-World-War-Global/dp/0198228880/ref=sr_1_16?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1270106939&sr=8-16

$1400, *****es. I can't believe that ****. Why are British university presses so greedy and/or economically retarded? The most expensive books I own are a couple volumes of the Cambridge History of Japan, while these translations of Das Deutsche Reich und der Zweite Weltkrieg that none of us will ever be able to afford are from Oxford University Press. It's really a shame that an American university didn't produce these two series, as American university presses seem far more interested in making quality academic texts available at a reasonable price than their British counterparts...

edit: More Oxford UP bashing...

http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2009/11/the-high-price-of-scholarship.php

[Elok]

Yes, I was aware of the outrageous price-gouging practiced by publishers of college textbooks, but I consider them a subset of the cost of education. You actually buy those damned things when you don't have to?

[DaShi]

One of my professors had a book for around $100. I bought the earlier edition for $10. However, on Amazon there was customer review by someone who claims to be my professor saying, "This is a really good book. I have read it several times."

[Patroklos]

I'm a census clerk now, but whatever. Please explain a worthwhile use of $30 million.

What is worthwhile to you is not the same as what is whorthwhile to me.

[Solomwi]

Well that's what spending is, having nothing to show for it.

No.

[Drake Tungsten]

Yes, I was aware of the outrageous price-gouging practiced by publishers of college textbooks, but I consider them a subset of the cost of education. You actually buy those damned things when you don't have to?

Those aren't college textbooks, genius. They're translations of one of the best histories on WWII.

[Elok]

Oh. I saw "university press" and didn't bother going further. Exactly whatTF makes it worth $450, anyway? Let alone $1400? Those better be some damned valuable historical insights...

[Asher]

Happy endings always cost extra money.