Artificial Inflation.

Another small incident on the bus back from campus: the service I take passes by a couple of schools, and depending on what time my classes start, the bus usually gets filled with gaggles of schoolchildren, which promptly empty out at their proper stop.

It just so happened that I was sitting at the back of the bus, and a small herd of schoolboys - five of them or so - seat themselves in front of me. By my wager, none of them were any more than eight years old; they're a bit noisy and active, as they should have been. No problem there.

What was irking to me was that they all had iPhones, and were showing their possessions off to each other in a display of boyish showmanship. There was something about them that irked me, though, and it wasn't until they'd gotten off the bus that I realised what it was about them that disturbed me so much.

Why on earth did they have iPhones?

Seriously, think about it for a moment. What does an eight year old need with an iPhone? All right, so many they need to be contactable. Then a normal phone would do just fine.

What does an eight year old need with an iPhone?

Seriously. I don't see the point.

Of course, when I was eight, there was someone at the door waiting for me when I came home, so I didn't need to be tagged with a mobile phone at an early age. Bloody hell, I still remember when I first got a hand-me-down phone when I was sixteen. I never called anyone, and no one called me, because there was simply no need to.

I didn't need a maid - my mother did the housework, and made sure my siblings and I helped out; and for the same reason, we didn't need daycare. We didn't need tuition that cost ridiculous amounts of money - we actually applied ourselves, and as I've mentioned in one of my previous posts, our parents helped out where they could. We complain about the rising cost of living, and I don't deny that inflation happens, but how much of this rise is our own fault and keeping up with the Joneses (of the Lees, if you want a local context?)

Bells and whistles, toys and trinkets, all designed to distract us from our miserable lives so we can go back and work - for the sake of buying more noisy, shiny, stuff.

What do we want? What do we need? How much of the stuff we have do we actually use, and if we use it, do we use it to its fullest extent?

Cappy Cap says to get rid of your stuff. I can't help but agree, especially if you're a MGTOW. You don't need fancy shit to attract women. You don't need a big home and plenty of status. Sure, you can go for stuff if that's your desire, but make sure you're doing it for yourself and not because society's telling you to. Anything else you don't need - get rid of it, or don't buy it in the first place.