Can't afford... really?

I often hear people say things like: "I can't afford it, it's too expensive, I'm broke, I can't pay my bills anymore, I need money, it's too expensive, I can't cope anymore... etc." Yet we have never lived in such an affluent society and there have never been so many people in dire straits.

These poor devils are struggling to make it to the end of the month, tightening their belts and having to count every item they put in their shopping cart. How is it possible for a worker to get to this point? Why work so hard if you can't even make a living from it? Not to mention that some even have to take on side jobs to ensure they pay all their bills, which means they're killing themselves working. Literally and figuratively.

Of course, employers have a large share of responsibility for this problem. They have been limiting their employees' salaries for decades, in order to increase their profits. At the same time, paradoxically, they develop products and market them with great marketing fanfare in order to sell them to the general public, the same people who have not had a salary increase for ages.

The problem is there. We create desire, we even create need, but we no longer want to provide the means. Since money has to be found somewhere, consumers accumulate small jobs, do overtime, get into debt, in short, they are sucked dry by multinationals. This is the Rat Race.

That said, it is also a bit easy to systematically criticize companies. Worker-consumers also have a very large share of responsibility for this problem.

By acting like sheep, consuming without thinking, systematically wanting the latest fashionable object, they put themselves in trouble. Very often, it is the same people who struggle to make ends meet who travel in a brand new Audi sports car paid for by leasing, the same people who parade around with the latest iPhone model, the same people who always wear only designer clothes and/or who live in homes that are too big or luxurious for their means.

For such people, I have no compassion. They are the cause of their own torment. They want to live like rich people, but in doing so they create their own poverty. You never get rich by using credit, or by accumulating side jobs to pay your bills.

You have to start by living within your means, saving part of your salary and investing it wisely. Afterwards, you will have all the time you need to buy what you want, when you want. The paradox is that by doing this, you gradually detach yourself from the trivialities of consumer society and that even when you start to become financially comfortable, you no longer throw yourself thoughtlessly at everything that passes before your eyes.