Too Expensive

Technically, if you take all the money you have at your disposal, and it's still not enough to buy this one thing, then it's too expensive.

No, I didn't look in the dictionary and I know it's probably not what people usually understand by "too expensive".

We can't just spend all our money on one thing. We have to save some for the food, some more for the apartment, electricity, internet, cable tv, movies, bars, travels, gifts, gas...

I'm playing with extremes. But I'll get to the point. Eventually. Or not.

Everything comes down to priorities. If we take a snapshot of ourselves when we decide if this particular thing is too expensive, what we're actually thinking is: What is more important? This thing I want to have or do, or the other things I'd have to or may have to give up to pay for this?

Some people would say, "Nonsense! I don't think about that at all... If I have the money and I want it, I'll pay for it. I'll see about the rest when it's time."

If you're one of these people, and you haven't realized it yet, I'm sorry to break it to you but what you're saying is that either this thing is more important than the rest, or fulfilling your immediate wishes is. Were it not the case, you'd make sure the rest would not be impacted.

Now that we have established how I think about priorities, we can see how it applies to every decision we make.

Except for some pathological cases à la kleptomania, lack of information, or a real pun from our memory (the classic "I forgot about that!" which is often my case), decisions are based on priorities.

Everything starts with our basic needs. Food, rest (may imply shelter). If you're starving to death, chances are that you'll do (almost) whatever it takes to eat. But once those basic needs are done with, we start prioritizing what we'll do next.

Some diversion can be considered a basic need. But what happens to our priorities if we start putting our own biggest satisfaction all the time before a lesser satisfaction that is shared by others? What message are we passing? I'll let you think about that and come with an answer on your own. Speaking of thinking about it, there are a couple of exercises I'd like to share with you later on.

I have been reviewing my priorities more often in the past few years. I remember myself a few years ago thinking that buying the cheapest without caring about how it got that cheap was a logical decision. Not my problem if it includes slave work or a little more pollution. Maybe because my old self had a more difficult time balancing the monthly budget.

Today, I feel I have enough to allow me to think twice before saving my own money at whatever cost. Maybe that's no big deal. Anyone can do that, right? Can you?

So here are the two small exercises I mentioned before:

Exercise 1

Imagine something you dream about having that is almost at your reach. Something you're sure to have, say, within 6 months. Now write that down. The exercise consists of answering the following questions to yourself (I hope you'll be honest to yourself):

1. Do you need that?

2. Do you need it for within 6 months?

3. Is it acceptable to have it within 9 months instead?

4. What if this 3 month difference means perpetuating suffering of some kind (not yours, sorry, that doesn't count in this exercise), would you still take it in 6 instead of 9?

Exercise 2

Imagine that you like olive oil. Or don't imagine, if you really like it. You have 20 options in front of you that range from $ 3 to $ 60. Suppose you don't know anything about the options except the price, so that you have no reason to believe that they represent different products. Now answer the following questions to yourself (same reason as for in Exercise 1):

1. Considering the conditions above, which option would you buy: The cheapest, the most expensive, or something in between?

2. Now suppose that you decided to look for more information and you found out that the lowest price means lowest product quality (tastes horrible, no nutrition value...) and lowest production quality (produced by slaves somewhere, makes a lot of people miserable, highest pollution rate...). At every small price increase, some characteristic is improved. Which option are you likely to take now?

3. Now think about the latest 5 things you did. How do they compare to Exercise 1 and 2?

That's it! I hope this post serves you some purpose. Discussions are welcome.

As for the next post(s), I plan to introduce you to the demi-cercle. A group discussion animated by a friend of mine dealing mainly with social topics. My plan is to post English translations of the minutes of their meetings. I just hope my priorities will let me...