lmao draug.. whooooosh

i already do those things, and yes they are cheaper than the alternative if you do them right.

Also, set for life can just mean being secure. with 250k in the bank, you would have quite a safety net and would no longer be forced to pursue a career simply for its pay, but could do a humble but more fulfilling job the rest of your days, like, say, tending a garden

just in case you didn't get it, i already live on $50 a week; it's not actually very hard, especially for a vegetarian

Thucy is making some excellent points this morning. Yes, you can live on $50 a week, proving that unemployment benefits and the minimum wage are really quite generous and not cruel poverty traps as less honest left wingers would have you believe.

It is also right and proper that people with means should be free to enjoy their lives as they see fit. Yes, this theoretical Thucydides with a quarter of a million in the bank could work himself to death in a highly paid job and donate a fortune to charity improving the lives of thousands, but everyone can do that to some extent. There should be no pressure to try, and if you want to have a life of leisure, be it yachting or lazing by a swimming pool or gardening, then that is your choice and privilege.

ugh octavious your ethical views are just so far from mine.

there's a reason i live on $50 a week in food.

and also, i am able to live so frugally mostly because i was blessed in so many other ways - good health through my life, a sophisticated education, a strong social network and normal psychological development, combined with 22 years of being coddled to prepare myself to do so, and finally combined that there is no one who expects to be able to depend on me, which is partially only true because my extended family is so prosperous

so let's not get carried away here. a lot of what i do isn't possible for everyone - I'm very healthy, and i'm healthy partly because i grew up with money. even now my health insurance is better than it should be for someone who makes what i make, thanks obama! haha

All you need to know about Octavious' and my relationship is that as we talk here I am up at 2am and he is up at 8am.

It might remind you that the Internet has amazingly cemented the Anglosphere into a single pan-culture in an unprecedented way that transcends nationality.

Which is good, because proximity and nationality are arbitrary and corrupt measures of morality, OCTAVIOUS

lol

sorry I couldn't help myself

To the man who wastes $250,000 on a yacht and a resort vacation for himself, I say

"If you cling to your life, you will lose it, and if you let your life go, you will save it."

There's nothing to defend with that kind of behavior, everyone knows it's wrong.

*slowly backs out of the room and runs away*

*raises hand*

But....I really want that yacht.

Oh? I am genuinely interested in why using 250k to buy a yacht for personal enjoyment is worse than using it to subsidise a life of playing farmer for personal enjoyment?

Because playing farmer results in food and health and buying a yacht results in a retelling of Forrest Gump, where boats just sit in the harbor until a storm takes them all away because there's no money left for gas, which is just as expensive in the long run as the boat was.

Vacations are easily made cheap too, if you're okay in a tent or a cheap hostel, or plan on going to places that don't require a car, etc. Best vacations are also where you don't have to fly, especially in the US, where you can find everything within a day or two's drive.

Seems like you probably misinterpreted my comment earlier as what I would do with $250k, which decidedly isn't "playing farmer"

Not to mention the fact that a farmer is at least productive in a real and important where, whereas a yacht rat is doing nothing but jerking himself off while other people are in agony.

But you know, whatever, dispose of your income however you want right

"It is also right and proper that people with means should be free to enjoy their lives as they see fit"

Wat. Virtually every one with a brain cell including John Stuart Mill, Adam Smith and the Koran acknowledge that there is at least some duty to spend your money to prevent others from starving or living destitute.

This also applies to Keynes and Friedman, hell I even think Nietssche said it at some point

Well you see, Synapse , Octavious is an individualist who doesn't acknowledge the existence of the moral bonds that bind people inextricably together.

His individualism goes even further than even conventional rightists though, his borders on solipsism, or even nihilism it sometimes seems

I wonder what the socio-economic conditions are that created such an inhuman state in a person ranting on the internet. The only conclusion I can come to is fear of inadequacy

@ Synapse

You're saying that no one should be allowed to by a yacht until global hunger is eradicated? You don't find that a tad draconian?

As for Thucy's traditional "isn't Oct evil" ranting, it is as usual bunk. Of course we have a duty to aid our fellow man. However we must also have the freedom to choose how we exercise that duty. If you force people to do what you see as right you take away their ability to do the right thing and rob them of their humanity.

Agreed oct but within reason. We all deserve breaks and a bit of fun. But a $250,000 vacation? What are the limits of decency in the face of incalculable suffering? It's hard to pin down but I'm sure the limit is much lower than $250,000 spent on frivolity and conspicuous consumption.

Is the person who spends their wealth on frivolity causing any more hardship than the person who doesn't spend their wealth at all? Indeed, at least the person who spends allows others to benefit from their actions.

And I will make again the point I attempted earlier. What brings more benefit to the world? The person of privilege and potential who works hard, builds a personal fortune, and spends it on frivolity? Or the person of privilege and potential who opts instead for an easy existence under the banner of humility, creates very little wealth, and makes very little impact?

Noblesse oblige, Thucy. Those born to privilege have a duty to use their advantages.

"Is the person who spends their wealth on frivolity causing any more hardship than the person who doesn't spend their wealth at all? Indeed, at least the person who spends allows others to benefit from their actions."

So then we should tax the rich and penalize those who just throw their money in an offshore account and let it sit around as foreign investment bonds, glad we've come to an agreement...

@ bo

Well, yes... Obviously. We could also agree the sky is blue and fire is hot if you like.

Tell the GOP that. The sky is red and the ices of hell will someday fire over.

"Playing Farmer"...

Just like it is ridiculous and expensive and only for the elite to buy a "hand built" car instead of a mass-produced vehicle with all the efficiencies there-in, so too is it an elitist **hobby** profession that produces low-yields for high prices to be a small farmer. People do it for personal enjoyment, as a lifestyle choice, not to feed the world - the suggestions that small farming is for the health and benefit of society is complete bullshit - more left-wing propaganda pumped into gullible libtard minds.

Lol krellin tell that to the world's smallholders.

You live in the US, where corporate farming can feed the world. We aren't talking about some third world shithole.


Your refusal to refute my argument is evdence of your silent admission that I am correct.

Corporate farming might be able to the feed the world, but is it? And why aren't we talking about "some third world shithole"? Don't you know what my life's ambitions are?

I'm not going to let you bait me into becoming angry. This is my area of study and focus; I'm not concerned about your uninformed criticism.

Tell you what though if you're interested in being corrected, you can start your readings here:

http://www.fao.org/family-farming-2014/en/

That it Does Not it because of shit hole corrupt governments and violence, such a in Africa, where local warlords steal the food intended for starving people. Your desire to live on a small farm won't do jack crap to save a starving person half way around the world.

Thucy, I'm not baiting you - I'm telling you your idea that a small farmer in the US isn't going to help anyone except the 1%ers you claim to despisr.

You want to help people? BECOME a 1%er, and, just as people like Bono do, you will be able to use your masive wealth a personal power to help thousands, even millions of people.

Your fascination with the merits of poverty is PERVERSE.

Truth is Thucy, I RESPECT your objectives - the problem is that you are so freaking misguided it isn't even funny. You think you are the first guy with the udea to teach some uneducated pagan in Africa to farm? You're NOT! And how's that "let's teach the Africans to farm" shit working out? I actually watched a very interesting documentary on PBS about a year ago about a buhch of people just like you....went to Africa, told the locals they were doing it all wrong, thought they shell out a bunch of resources to teach them to farm, move some people around, build a resevoir,tc etc etc...when they were done, the locals, who resented the arrogant white Americna and Europeans coming in and telling them how to live their lives, tore all the shit apart and went back to the way they were. Ignorance, coupled with uber-corrupt government officials combined.

The problem is far byond your simple-minded childish notions - but to accept the scope of the problems, you have to accept that many people, down to their cultural cores, are broken and will suffer by the necessity of their arrogant pride and cultural stupidity...which you will not be able to change.

Put another way: As with most Libtards, you confuse good intentions with good ideas.

"Your desire to live on a small farm"

Again, where are you getting this? That's not what I want to do with my life.

Also, did you miss the part in that link where it says that family farming is the predominant mode of food production in the developing AND developed worlds?

"let's teach the Africans to farm" shit working out?"

Again, who said anything about that?