Is Conspicuous Consumption back in fashion?

[Dannyalcatraz]

Re: dogs

I'll just say this about our Border Collies, who are part of our upper-middle class/rich family.

1) They get fed 73/27 hamburger, cooked by yours truly into 1/2lb patties. Each dog gets 1/2 of a patty- IOW, 1/4lb- heated in the microwave with water*, then mixed with dry kibble. This simultaneously spoils them ("We getz people food!") and is cheaper and less wasteful. They eat all of their food every time (they didn't always do so with the canned stuff) and it costs less per serving than canned dog food.

2) They drink tap water...but we DO serve it out of a pitcher we keep in the fridge.

Personally, there is no good reason to be intentionally wasteful.








* just enough to make it warm and smell like a hamburger. Just like us, they find that quite appetizing.

 

[Scott DeWar]

An acquaintance of mine cleaned a house on Lake of the Ozarks that the wife of the couple shops for $20,000 in clothes every April, then orders two exact copies of that batch of clothes for two other houses they own, one in Florida. So, once a year they spend 60 K on clothing after throwing out all the clothes they had. I have beenon the receiving end of some of their clothing being passed on and the clothing many times still had the tags on them.

 

[Homicidal_Squirrel]

There is also the opposite, where people go to extreme methods to save some money, like this woman.

 

[sabrinathecat]

Re: dogs
I'll just say this about our Border Collies, who are part of our upper-middle class/rich family.
1) They get fed 73/27 hamburger, cooked by yours truly into 1/2lb patties. Each dog gets 1/2 of a patty- IOW, 1/4lb- heated in the microwave with water*, then mixed with dry kibble. This simultaneously spoils them ("We getz people food!") and is cheaper and less wasteful. They eat all of their food every time (they didn't always do so with the canned stuff) and it costs less per serving than canned dog food.
* just enough to make it warm and smell like a hamburger. Just like us, they find that quite appetizing.

That's loving your dogs and pampering them with good food. These people buy omaha steaks, and get extras for their dogs. Or when given omaha steaks as a present, give one or two to the dogs.

In one case, I could see that family just not knowing what to do with money and blowing it on stupid stuff. On the other hand, two of these families have kids they're going to have to support, and the money isn't going to last forever--something they should already know, since one family lost a house and is now renting.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Never bought Omaha steaks- I live in Texas, where steak can be had cheaper than veggies some days...

And I won't lie- our dogs HAVE had steaks. Not because we bought them for canine consumption, but because we didn't want them to go to waste. For example, we threw a party, and took advantage of a sale at the butcher's. But we had an unusually large number of no-shows. We had more leftover steaks than we could eat or store in a timely fashion, so the doggies ate handsomely for a couple of days.

It was either that or they'd have gone bad.

 

[sabrinathecat]

That was "not wasting food". I have no problem with that. I'm actually more disturbed by the dogs being given evian, because "somehow they know it's better than tap water."

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Well...Evan isn't exactly pure, so its possible they can smell and taste the difference. And if they like the taste, it could set their tails wagging...

the running dogs of conspicuous consumption.

 

[delericho]

In the UK at least, there is definitely a certain amount of class-ism around the issue of food waste.

When growing up, we were always told to clear out plates. My father's refrain, whenever anything was left, was either "that could feed a family of X people for Y length of time", or "I worked for Z time to pay for that".

Conversely, in my wife's family, if you cleared your plate that was an immediate signal that you had to be given more. Because a good host should always ensure a guest eats until they have had enough, and if they've emptied the plate then how can you be sure of that?

It took me a good while to get used to that.

 

[delericho]

Well...Evan isn't exactly pure, so its possible they can smell and taste the difference. And if they like the taste, it could set their tails wagging...

My guess would be that the Evian is kept in the fridge and is chilled, while the tap water comes from the tap, so it merely cool.

But then, I'm constantly bemused that bottled water has become a major industry. Especially here in Scotland, where our tap water is effectively indistinguishable from bottled - indeed, the Scottish brands of bottled water basically come from the exact same source.

 

[Kramodlog]

There is also the opposite, where people go to extreme methods to save some money, like this woman.

That is cheap. I thought that keeping my battered tercel made me cheap, but she is way out there.

Oh, and that guy is totatlly nutured.