Greed, Consumerism, and Marxism

Yesterday, Francis discussed a post of Sarah Hoyt's. It got me thinking - our curmudgeon is excellent at doing that.

Fact is, I'm guilty of the some of the same thinking that led to an old man being left alone to falter at a Wal Mart. Francis points out the same thinking among Boomers, who feel their parents are inconvenient and expensive. It drives desires for euthanasia, and various utilitarian arguments for why this should be morally permissible.

What is that thinking? Well, we all know it, I'm sure. This year, my wife has been pining for a vacation, and since she got pregnant quite literally on our wedding night, we never did have a proper honeymoon. It's something that she periodically reminds me about. So I booked a cruise, starting in Venice, and sailing through to various ports in Greece.

The trip is absurdly expensive. It is a luxury I've never indulged in before. The last time we were in Europe was near to ten years ago, now, and that was done on a shoestring with frequent flyer miles, a place to stay for free courtesy of some friends, and a well-defined plan for what we would be seeing and doing. The whole trip was done for less than $2,000. That's the only other vacation I've ever been on in my life. I've traveled a lot, mind you, but it was always for business.

I think in the end, this vacation will cost me on the order of $8,000. On the other hand, I can afford it. I have the cash, it can be done.

It got me thinking, though. On social media, I constantly see friends and acquaintances flying off to exotic vacations, buying new cars, and eating at fancy restaurants. And I know they make far less money than I do. And, paradoxically, they often complain about living paycheck-to-paycheck, apparently not seeing the obvious connection between their lifestyles and lack of savings. Some of them even purport to be Socialists.

Bernie Sanders tweeted that "80% of Americans live paycheck-to-paycheck" as if this was somehow unavoidable; that they were forced to live this way. It's a blatant denial of Free Will. You were fated to be a spendthrift. It's not your fault. You shouldn't have to fix it.

Starting to see the connection to Francis's topic yet?

Why spend money helping inconvenient family when you can go on exotic vacations and live high on the hog instead? More to the point, if you're loaded with debt from decades of living this way, you might not even have the ability to help your family anymore. So letting them languish alone becomes the way out. Promoting euthanasia, pushing utilitarian and quasi-eugenics arguments suddenly becomes an imperative. Through granny in a government-paid old folks home and be done with it. Let him traverse Wal Mart by himself; we have to eat at that fancy new restaurant downtown.

And so, oddly enough, many of these people are promoting Marxism.

It's like people who say they deliberately engineer their exemptions on their taxes so they get a big refund check at the end of the year, because they are unable to save if they are not forced to do so.

Similarly, people who spend, spend, spend cannot bring themselves to support their own friends and family. They do not exercise control over their finances, and so they offload this to the government, instead, and do not understand that some of us don't act this way.

Of course the government should garnish your wages for 'charitable' causes! Who actually saves their money for helping friends and family in need, amirite? So passe.

When I started planning my vacation this year, I found it extremely difficult to contemplate spending that much money on something that was, in essence, throw away money. If it was just me, I wouldn't do it. But the wife is right. We've never had a proper honeymoon. I can safely afford to indulge just this once.

Even so, I started thinking about all the times my spending priorities shifted toward consumerism; times when I failed friends and family when I was younger, because my spending habits at the time were terrible.

Oh, I'm guilty of the same sin; of elevating consumer crap over people in my life when the priorities should be reversed. The only difference is, I'm aware of it, and it brings me shame and regret.

When I was a kid, my grandmother got cancer. My father paid for the medical expenses. She was given 6 months to live - it was finally resolved to be untreatable. Family issues were such that my uncle was estranged from all of us, and my aunt did not have the means to help. My grandmother was somewhat estranged from the rest of the family too, for reasons I don't care to go into. Suffice it to say, she and my father did not get along so great. My grandmother was broke and living alone, and so despite all this, my father drove a couple thousand miles, picked her up, and brought her down to live her final days with us. My uncle didn't care to help, despite possessing the means, because my grandmother was broke, and there was no inheritance to be had.

They made up - there was much mutual forgiveness. She felt at home with family again, she was loved... and she passed within two weeks of her arrival. We all got the sense that she was at peace, and just didn't want to fight it any longer. She had done what she felt was needed; she had made up with the family, she was with us.

Between the medical care, the trips, funeral costs, etc... this was not cheap. My father forewent a number of planned expenditures to make it all happen.

I couldn't imagine doing any different. I couldn't imagine leaving someone to die alone, or to pressure them to relinquish life because someone wants to take a vacation, buy a new car, or buy a load of consumer crap. I can't imagine leaving my cancer-ridden grandmother to die alone.

At times when I find myself getting too focused on stuff, on goods, on money, on keeping up with the Joneses and all that, I often think back to my father - who didn't even hesitate. He was in the car and driving  to pick her up a few hours after she got the final diagnosis.

Someone failed the old man in the Wal Mart. And so many folks are failing their own family and friends now. And over what? A vacation? A car? Some random kitsch to decorate their homes? Earlier today, in a tech forum, I had a guy assert to me that cell phones are a need; that they should be provided free of charge to everyone. Priorities are so far out of whack.

And these very same people presume to lecture us on charity, tell us we need to do more, and explain that they are suffering because they live paycheck to paycheck.

Sometimes, I think Marxist thinking - at least the modern variety - is actually rooted in blatant, irresponsible consumerism. That, after spending themselves into oblivion, the State should step in to solve all their problems. By taking my money, perhaps.

Or perhaps by killing off the old and infirm for the sin of being too expensive.

My trip to Venice and Greece would be cancelled immediately should I need that money for friends and family. These things are luxuries. Trifles. The people in our lives are far more important.