luka, i agree definitely that the there are a lot of different factors that determine the morality of someone's consumption, it's always more complicated than I try to describe it as. Anyway, my comment about "jesus, it sucks to be poor" was meant to imply that I think it's perfectly understandable to want to live a comfortable life where you can buy people drinks and not constantly worry about bills.
My real issue is about consumption. Conspicuious consumption just compounds it, but consumption is the base of it. I know that the people who made my running shoes, my t-shirts, most of my damn clothes are working in conditions and making amounts of money that I would never countenance if they were in my own backyard. And furthermore I know the rate at which we (meaning Western cultures) are consuming products is totally unsustainable and is doing the world great damage. I know I've made more money working in a couple programming jobs than many, many people out there make, and I know that many of these people work
far harder and are far more in need of money--let alone deserving of money--than I am. We all understand these principles, they aren't very controversial.
Where people differ (I think) is in the stories they tell themselves in order to justify their continued existence in a capatilist world. And I think where arrogance comes in is that I believe a lot of people actually convince themselves that they do desrve all this luxury in the face of others suffering because they're somehow
special. How else do these celebs making $20 mill for a movie justify earning that much? At some level there has to be self-delusion as to your own personal worth in relation to others. And then to flaunt your consumption....
Of course what's the other route? Modern liberal guilt, I suppose. Give a bit to charity to make it feel like you're making a difference. Also a crap solution. Why do I have to take responsibility for this stupid system that I've been born into, that treats some people so terribly? I could argue back and forth on that point all day. But the main thing is to realize that massive consumption and earning stupidly large amounts of money pretty much always involve someone else not doing so well someplace else.
I suppose I'm more or less working at this from the opposite end of things than luka. Backjob's description of people: "I've always had enough money, so I look down on people who like to show off their material wealth" is not totally off the mark unfortunately. Though I'd like to think that it's not an issue of "looking down my nose" at people, as it is disagreeing with them as a matter of reasoned principle, which I hopefully just gave a short description of above. Being a "counter-revolutionary" is also just being happy with the status quo, is it not?
(sorry for rambling on and taking this all so seriously...
but oh well. I demand dissent!)
