Status things

[Ocean11 0]

A recent thread and the experiences of the last two days made me think of this. What communicates 'status' to you?

 

Yesterday, an estate agent friend took us around some properties in his BMW. It had brushed aluminium highlights on the dashboard that reminded me of nothing so much as the Quicktime interface; dog-turd brown upholstery that was probably leather but looked a lot like plastic; and a dual automatic/manual clutchless shift that still managed to be jerky. The fancy interior wasn't very well put together, and it had gaps here and there. The sporty lack of a rear door meant I had to be careful not to keep slamming the door in my wife's face when we got out. The good thing about it was the feeling of power, which is actually not that useful of thing in a car, if you're at all adult and have a worldview.

 

Tonight I went to a wine, sake and shochu tasting at a hotel in town. The booze shop that arranged the thing had gathered all sorts of rare, fancy wines from Europe and could talk for five minutes about each one. How it is organic, how M. Michel Bordeaux makes it only twice a blue moon, the vines are fed virgin's hymens, there are only twenty bottles of it in Japan etc. When he pulls the cork, there is genteel shoving and elbowing to ensure a 5 mm serving, and it actually tastes - of mouse hair. The cry goes up "Ah, ii ne, kore!"

 

Personally, I like home-grown vegetables, raised on Liquid Organic Fertilizer. They are now my main status symbol. Not a lot of people have them so they are quite exclusive. They have rarity value, taste good, and are healthy.

 

So what do you value?

[spook 0]

Most of the things people aspire to have little significance for me. A relaxed happy lifestyle is more important to me than a stressful job in order to buy shiny new toys. Of course, having more money does make life more comfortable. It’s a struggle trying to balance my ideal lazy lifestyle and being able to afford the things I want.

I was invited to an art viewing at Sothebys the other night and felt completely at odds with everybody else there. While everyone was talking about salaries/bonuses/expensive places to eat, all I could think about was getting changed out of my suit and sitting on a beach somewhere.

[damian 0]

I get no value from the things money can buy, I am even in the process of moving into a cheaper apartment that will let me commute every where I want by foot. The only money indulgences/status items: recently I have enjoyed some snow and surfing experiences plus I have spurts of buying clothes (I like clothes). Trying to maintain modesty, I uncomfortably admit that I could actually spend quite a deal of money on quite a many common as crap 'status' items, such as living in a cool designer house and having a shit hot cool boy sports car crap crap crap... it makes me sick. I have not owned a car in 4 years. I certainly wont accumulate a credit card debt on this shit, let alone spend my hard earned money on it. Money to me has one purpose: saving to funding my ongoing speculative pursuits. Many people would incorrectly call it gambling and for ease of expression, I am happy with that term. I do this as it is something I enjoy immensely and conduct it as a near full time business after my day job and on the weekends. I also do it with the pure objective to position myself so that I never have to work again. By 'never work again' I do not imply that I want to be rich. More to the point, I just don't want to 'work for a living': I would happily earn below average income from investments if it meant that I could choose exactly what I wanted to do with every day. So, ultimately, the objective is FREEDOM.

 

Status to me is freedom. A person who has freedom has the potential to have everything else he wants, which is usually happiness. Working for a living is a waste of a life. All of us are amazing living things and it is a disgrace that we waste such stunningly valuable lives toiling away at a menaingless job to earn a living so that we can buy the things we don't need. I save every thing I can so that I can escape. I'll be damned if I will blow my one chance at freedom for the sake a car.

 

Sadly, most humans are so addicted to watching tv and buying junk that they are not even conscious of their own existence, let alone the exquisite beauty of their presence and prescious time on Earth.

 

I admire people who work for the advancement of purposeful science and medicine, who produce essential food and consumables for comfortable civilised living, who educate children and care for sick people, who create rich communities abundant in art and culture (this excludes the vulgar hollywood output). These people are not wasting their lives, they are not working for a living. These people have far greater status than myself and I often feel uncomfortably ashamed around them.

 

Ocean - I agree with you and I regard your situation as one of 'status'. I quite envy your crops.

 

Spook - I will show you my cheesy as hell surfing video that I have almost finished editing. I too would like to sit on a beach somewhere with no more possessions than would fit in a 2 room house.

 

I like this topic. Sorry for babbling so much about it.

[sakebomb 0]

 Quote:

Working for a living is a waste of a life.

Couldn't agree more with this!

 Quote:

"The more you own the more it owns you"

I don't know who's quote this is but I always thought it had a lot of relevance for this day and age! So I guess the real estate agent has to work hard to maintain his status symbol/BMW.

[cal 6]

I value my family and friends. Thats not status though is it? Hmmm. I don't think I'm bothered about "status" kind of things.

[Yuki's Passion 1]

I think the posts by O11, Spook, BPC, and others are spot on.

 

I dont get any satisfaction, nor do I care, about having material objects because at some point, theyre going to break, get lost, cause problems, etc. Dont have any desire to obtain objects to make me feel better about myself or to try to fit in with a certain crowd/act cool.

 

What do I value? I value my free time and ability to travel and live the lifestyle I want. My mates back home are tellin me how they just bought a new Land Rover, a 4000 sq ft house (or something ridiculous), his/hers matching Rolex watches...I could care less about any of that. When i ask about their last vacation they just sigh and say it was only a weekend trip to Red Rocks for a concert. Ummm, thats nice and all, but Ill stick to having 4 months paid vacation a year so I can do what I want and travel where I want.

 

I value being able to do different sports with my mates like skiing thoughout the winter and surfing in the summer. Above all, I really value my mates here in Japan - without a doubt, my mates here are some of the coolest, like-minded, and fun people I have ever met in my life. Wouldnt trade that for the world...especially my roommate right now, been best mates for 5-6 years here.

 

You cant put a monetary value on a lifestyle and freedom - maybe you can: priceless

 

Nice thread O11

[damian 0]

A happy person can say this:

 

>>my mates here are some of the coolest, like-minded, and fun people I have ever met in my life. Wouldnt trade that for the world...

 

Not only am I cropless but I am generally mateless (kinda always have been). There are two real status items there: mates and home grown vegetables. Sounds silly, but I am serious.

[minus 1]

My current level of general "happiness" would be my status thing if I had to poo one out.

 

Some of the people I know with far more money than I have simply do not have that. They hate their work and I think they basically hate themselves, although they will not admit to that (probably not even to themselves). In fact, I'd go as far as saying that some of them are a real sad bunch.

 

Oh yeah, the people I know with money also seem to feel the need to let others know about it as well, which is pretty sad in itself. Yeah right, so impressed.

[yoroshiku onegai shimasu 2]

Things I like to buy:

 

- clothes;

- food;

- beer.

[js 0]

Yes good thread - agree with all 'n sundry.

 

Lots of my work colleagues 'earn' six figure sums, but still complain about how expensive stuff is and the lack of money to travel, etc - though they all have the latest toys and mod-cons ... they also rib me about skiing OS ... F***, GIVE ME A BREAK!

 

As Robin Williams apparently said: 'A cocaine habit is Gods' way of telling you, you make too much money'.

 

Likewise, I earn more than enough to do what I like AND grow vegies/fruit in the backyard, does it REALLY get any better? Only the media would have us think otherwise.

[NoFakie 45]

Markie may have mentioned BMWs or whatever in questionable taste, but self-congratulatory "Aside from the ....., I am not materialistic. Honest" comments just seem like the flipside of the same coin.

 

As for the idea of "status", I look at how much knowledge, wisdom, and experience people appear to have, how comfortable they appear to be with themself, how healthy they appear, how they interact with others, how happy they are with their lot, things like that. In reality, acquiring knowledge, wisdom, and experience will often directly or indirectly involve money. I sometimes wonder how my life would have turned out if instead of buying a house in the suburbs, my parents had just stayed in the run-down areas where they grew up and I'd went to a much worse school.

 

I like nice things, and I'm happy we now live in a bigger house because we can have long family visits without everyone getting on top of each other. Ultimately though, I'm not really fussed about personally owning material things because I believe in socialism. That's my basic moral position.

[sunrise 0]

Yeh, what is that about being ribbed for going skiing? I tell people I'm going skiing and they look at me with that look of "oh yeh, Ms Extravagance" in their eyes. They just don't get it.

 

And I agree - it's the media that tells us we need more than just the simple things to be happy.

 

I know people making lots of money who are totally happy leading simple lifestyles doing things they love doing minus all the status stuff, likewise I know people who seem to use their money on things they not necessarily need. And yes, there are well off people around who have nice things but also really enjoy them and their lives. I don't mind that, though my own needs seem to be simpler.

 

I'm sure I must have some status items - but they seem mostly to be related to gear that I use for productivity/work, so I'm not sure they're really status - such as decent computer, good studio monitor speakers, (all needed for what I do in my life)... no Louis Vitton bags for me (ugh, ugly looking things....).

 

Is a piano a status symbol? For me it's an necessity, though my place is too small so instead I have a digital piano with weighted keyboard and a couple of lighter keyboards/synths. I need them cos I make a living from them. But I dream of having a really good grand piano one day - I play them all the time and I rented one a few years back, is that a status symbol? I could get the job down without one, but they're just sooo much nicer to play and sound so much better than uprights. What a shame they're so expensive so fit into the "luxury items" category.

 

I haven't had a car since I moved to Tokyo, though I rent cars when I travel. I guess once I leave I may have to get one again if I'm living in the countryside, but I'd be trying to go the hybrid route, better still, get some horses....

 

Personally I prefer a real beach/river/lake/waterhole to a swimming pool and would just prefer to have a place somewhere in the middle of nature. A simple rustic dwelling with a nice view and lots of light in the middle of nature would suffice me plenty.

 

Maybe my biggest "status" symbol currently is my iPod, but I got my first one before they were popular, because I USE it all the time, so is it really status?

 

When I think about it, I really I don't need all that much to keep me happy, at a pinch if I had to I could live with just a kalimba instead of piano, a couple of hand drums, toss the recording equipment and even the computer, if there was no electricity, etc.... though I'd like to have some painting gear, and yeh, definitely some kind of garden, maybe permaculture garden or whatever where I grow my own veges again.... and a nice little artistic/creative community to hang with..

 

db, I'm surprised to hear you say you don't have many friends. I think the people on this forum who have met you would all consider you a friend. Still, we're all over here and you're in Rondon...

 

Personally I think there's nothing wrong with working for a living, if you're doing something that you love. I'm all for passive income, and I respect everyone who has skills at building this for themselves, I hope to build passive income for myself too, though even if I ever (hopefully) get to the point of one day being financially independent, I still aim to be working till the day I die, doing what I love doing - because I love doing it. Because it's work I'd do whether I was getting paid or not.

 

Right now the work I do for money, though I enjoy it, if I wasn't getting paid for it (well, most of it that work anyway), I wouldn't be doing it. I don't want to be doing that kind of work the rest of my life. My aim is to reach the point where I am earning my living and more from the kinds of things I'm currently doing for the love of it (which currently bring in no income). This could take a long time, and who knows, I might wind up with a passive income portfolio that helps me along the way instead of putting all the pressure on making the living from it. Either way should be fine for me, as long as I can get out of the city again and keep doing what I want to be doing, which is making music and art that I like.

[damian 0]

 Quote:

Originally posted by Mr Wiggles:
self-congratulatory "Aside from the ....., I am not materialistic. Honest" comments just seem like the flipside of the same coin.

You have forgotten to differentiate between enjoyment of materialistic consumables and the accumulation of symbols of perceived status.

I for one never claimed not to be materialistic. But I do claim that physical symbols of status are quite lacking from my outward projection into the community.

Sunrise – I lack for a large set of friends due mostly to my selfish laziness. I quite simply forget to stay in contact with people. Plus, I am about 4 rather diverse people rolled into one ball, so it is quite hard to find a multi-purpose friend that shares all those interests at the same time. Another story...

 Quote:

Originally posted by sunrise:
Personally I think there's nothing wrong with working for a living, if you're doing something that you love.

Then in my eyes, you are not working for a living, you are living something you love, and all the better for it.

[big-will 7]

My belly is a status symbol in itself. It tells a lot of stories.

[nzlegend 1]

 Quote:

Originally posted by sunrise:
you say you don't have many friends. I think the people on this forum who have met you would all consider you a friend.

I am guessing what he saying is he doesnt have that many good friends (def: A person you know well and regard with affection and trust), but has many acquaintances (def: A relationship less intimate than friendship).
There is a difference.

[me jane 0]

Among the doctors at my company status seems to be much more about which schools/university you went to, who you work for and which schools your children are now in than any physical possessions.

[js 0]

 Quote:

Originally posted by sunrise:
But I dream of having a really good grand piano one day ... get some horses... Personally I prefer a real beach/river/lake/waterhole to a swimming pool and would just prefer to have a place somewhere in the middle of nature. A simple rustic dwelling with a nice view and lots of light in the middle of nature would suffice me plenty ... some kind of garden ...

Totally agree there, though with some minor variations:

1. Gotta be a Steinways & Sons grand piano, or better still, a Harpsichord - love the sound of those things.
2. Draft Horses - preferably a team of bay Clydesdales or Shires, and learn how to work them - Dad once used them on the farm, so the connection is there.
3. Already got dibs on the family house/farm overlooking the bush/river and huge swamp filled with birds, etc ... rather that than an ocean view anyday.

Ah, it's nice to dream - better to make it a reality one day (hopefully soon!)

[2pints-mate 0]

Houses / where you live are pretty much the status things round these parts.

[brit-gob 9]

Yeah that which school / which university thing seems to have a lot of status attached to it.

[damian 0]

 Quote:

London: An Oxford University law graduate who works at the auction house Sotheby's is sleeping in a ditch for a year to cut down on living costs.

Hugh Sawyer, 32, says he is continuing his career while surviving in the woods near the village of Lewknor, about 60 kilometres west of London.

With just some clothes, a stove and a sleeping bag, Mr Sawyer claims to have set out on his eccentric adventure in June.

"I am trying to prove it is possible to do everything you normally do, maintaining a full existence, while cutting back.

"I have realised I can lead my life without television, carpets, sofa, electricity, chairs, tables, a fridge and a freezer."

But things have not gone well for Mr Sawyer, who commutes to London for his job in Sotheby's bids department.

He was forced to move ditch after being mugged, and fell ill after trying to make Thames water drinkable with a purifying tablet. During a recent storm he got soaked by ground water despite his tarpaulin shelter.

"When I first wake up I think, 'Oh my God I am living in the woods', but then I get up and it really is nice being surrounded by country," Mr Sawyer said.

His girlfriend, Natalie Skidmore, 24, admitted people thought it strange that Mr Sawyer lived in the woods. "But now I am really proud of him."

Press Association

http://smh.com.au/articles/2005/09/04/1125772411718.html

[Ocean11 0]

People who go to Oxford are generally a bit driven in that way.

 

Freedom is a good standard of status. Finding it is also an interesting challenge.

[damian 0]

 Quote:

Originally posted by Ocean11:

Freedom is a good standard of status. Finding it is also an interesting challenge.

Measuring freedom is also a challenge.

Is this status?
£20,000 per week rent.

no comment

[Davo 1]

My concession to status symbols these days is getting a 4,000 yen haircut every 6 weeks or so. I can't afford it and would be just as happy to go with a clippers no.2 but the girl won't have it. My hairdresser is a really cool person anyway ,and its like a Japanese conversation class talking with her for 40 minutes I guess.

 

I'm skating perilously close to bum status in the clothing department, with hardly any new clothes or footwear purchased in the last 3 years.

 

Status is about feeling good about yourself and how you're living your life. Just trying to be a good Dad is where my status kick is at right now mainly.

 

I can also relate to the idea of having some kind of status type feeling from good experiences. Travel, snowboarding and other outdoor things I enjoy, enjoying times with friends and family, trying to get better at my work, attempting to grow as a person and mature, maintaining self-control, and trying not to be selfish. These are the things that status seems to be made of for me.

 

Totally with the idea of working to gain freedom. I work and save with the long term objective to create security and facilitate the freedom of choic in lifestyle. Of course I would love to buy material possessions, but these are chiefly lifestyle focused wants i.e. the neverending need for new sporting equipment/toys. Anyway, it's character building to go without in a lot of ways.

[damian 0]

 Quote:

Originally posted by Davo:
would be just as happy to go with a clippers no.2

mate, I am home-administering clippers no. 0 at the moment. Less than 1mm long, I have skull stubble. It has been deemed innapropriate for someone of my position to have a haircut so short in the office.

As trivial as it seems, that is one restriction on freedom that I hate: being judged by conservative traditionalist corporate farts on the basis of my haircut.

[Ocean11 0]

Haha, skinheads in suits is so London.

 

My refusal to wear 'proper' shoes and socks to work (when there were 'free dress codes' in operation, indeed) was a major contributing factor to me becoming 'freelance'. 'Firedlance' might also be a valid term here. I sometimes wonder who exactly is to be credited with my 'free status' in this case.

 

BPC, Triodos Bank in Bristol would probably be sufficiently cool to accept a suedehead in the office.