Do you think it's wrong to buy a $1000 pair of shoes when others

[Ladyhawk]

can't afford shoes at all?

If so, at what price is it considered no longer wrong? As for myself, I could never even consider paying that much for any article of clothing; however, I have spent that much on electronics equipment. That was before I realized that credit cards are very, very bad for folks like me who live below the poverty line.

Computer equipment, especially, is my weakness. If / when I'm in good enough health, I plan to do computer repairs, builds, rebuilds, upgrades, etc. to supplement my very low income. In order to do that, I need to re-aquaint myself with the latest and greatest hardware and software. This tempts me to buy. I can go years without buying new clothes, but dangle a new video card in front of me and I have trouble resisting.

Obviously, the obscenely rich are doing something wrong, but where should we draw the line? I don't believe in making the financial playing field completely level, but neither do I believe it is right that some have so much when others are starving to death or dying from diseases because they have no health care.

I've also been thinking about this on a global scale. A poor-ish person like myself in America lives much more comfortably than most people in Third World countries. Of course, there are folks in America who are just as poor as those in Third World countries and I feel guilty for any physical pleasures I enjoy that they will never know. At the same time, I feel extremely poor, emotionally. Our society values rugged individualists with lots of money. It doesn't value poor, sensitive, artistic types like me. It especially doesn't value disabled poor, sensitive, artistic types who are atheistic. I'm having a really hard time finding people in real life with whom I can relate. There's no one I can call and say, "Yo, want to go have some coffee and shoot the breeze?" It gets really lonely.

Condi pissed me off when she went to buy $1000 shoes when folks in New Orleans had no shoes at all, not to mention no water, no food, no comfortable place to lay their heads. In your mind, where is the best place to draw the line so that the needs of the poor and disabled are met? When is conspicuous consumption too conspicuous?

[mondo joe]

1. I don't care what anyone spends on shoes. I DO care that Rice was out

shopping during the crisis in NO. Doesn't matter what she was out shopping for.

[Silverhair]

2. Do you think it is wrong to buy a TV set, when others are homeless?

Same question. Just the amount is different.

If you are going to ask the question you are asking, then you need to go all the way with it, and live as Ghandi did.

For me - I like my comforts if I can afford them, so I will not critize others for the things they buy if they can afford them.

[Somawas]

3. I have no problem with it.

I've never been a Republican, and I'm not obscenely rich. I make a pretty decent living. I pay my taxes. I give generously to charities. And I've spent a good bit more than that to have my tailor cut a suit for me. I don't feel guilty about it.

I say that having experienced hard times, too. Like right now. I'm in the 11th month of a disbility that is likely to persist for another 4 to 6 months. And living off the benefit of a couple of insurance policies that are not enough to pay my basic middle class type bills and living expenses is hard.

[MazeRat7]

4. For "shoes" that is obscene...

However, to your greater question of "indulgence" when others are "suffering"... you are starting to sound like my mom who chastised me as a child when I didn't eat all my food. (Remember the "starving" people in Ethiopia she would say...). And yes, I remember them every day I have a full stomach.. but that is another story.

Bottom line, at the end of the day you have to do what "you" can live with, what "you" can afford, and what "you" are doing to help the greater good. It really doesn't matter what others think... unless of course you are republican. *grin.

MZr7

BTW: Hope you are doing well... sure sounds like it.

[aquart]

5. If your feet really hurt, and the shoes are really comfortable...

and enable you to walk like in the good old days....

Sorry, I'm fantasizing. Such a shoe would be a pearl beyond price.

[MazeRat7]

7. Fantasy ? Perhaps not.. if walking brings happiness... then ....

What price are you willing to pay ? If the only way I could walk was in a $1000 pair of shoes, guess what... I would own several pair.
However, I guess Condi could walk just as well in some Converse All Stars.

Good point however. Thanks.

MZr7

[yorkiemommie1]

11. my ferragamos

are no way near as comfortable as my Lands End clogs !

[JDPriestly]

6. Don't feel overly guilty.

It's true that most Americans are better off than the poor in other countries. Americans, however, do not realize that many people in other countries are actually better off than many Americans are. Many ordinary Europeans can afford vacations (and have the time off to enjoy them) that we would not dream of even wishing for.

How rich you are does not depend just on your annual income in dollars. It depends on what you can buy with the money you have in the economy in which you live. Many seemingly middle class Americans have buried themselves so deeply in debt trying to keep up the pretense that they have all they need. In fact, they are underpaid and very poor.

Someone with a seemingly lower standard of living in another country may own his or her own home or have a legal right to housing at a reasonable rent, guaranteed health insurance at a price that fits his or her budget, no debt, money in the bank and the promise of a pension that pays an amount he or she can live on.

His American counterpart may have an expensive house with a mortgage at more than the market value of the house, two cars with debt owed on each, mounting credit card debts, no savings, health insurance only so long as he or she works and no pension beyond a few hundred dollars from social security.

Which person is really richer? Don't feel so guilty.

[PinkTiger]

8. I don't have a problem with people spending if they have the money.

After all, if I can afford it, I buy what i want and don't worry about the fact that others can't. But what galls me is, those people who earn (or who just plain have it given to them) much more than a person needs to live well should be paying a proportionate amount of tax to the good of all. Just as all of us pay taxes when we work. I don't think it is fair for the rich to get a tax cut that is disproportionate -- yes, wildly disproportionate -- to what the rest of us pay.
My tax rate last year, based on my salary and my husband's social security and filing the long form and taking all the exemptions we could take was about 12 percent. If the rich were to pay 12 percent tax on their income, we wouldn't have any problems in this country with poverty, healthcare, or education.

[Cleita]

9. I have no problem with anyone buying $1,000 shoes if they

can afford them. However, for Condi to be blissfully shopping when the country was in crisis was a statement about her character, not on how she spends her money.

[tocqueville]

10. The problem is not what things cost....

In Europe there are very few politicians in active duty that have that much money (money enough to put 1000 on shoes). And if they are most of them are not stupid enough to go and buy them so openly. An European political person doing what Rice did during such a situation would commit political suicide.

There was a crisis 2003 when about 15 000 elderly in France died during a heatwave. Most of them were lonely and at home and besides the fact that all medical resources were put in place within 24 h, many died. The Health minister was on vacations. He showed up 2 days late on TV and started to minimize... he was wearing a sweater (he was in a coler area). He had to resign 3 days after....

There are too many US politicians with BIG fortunes. in Europe they wouldn't be eligible in many cases just for that. For two reasons : people wouldn't vote for them and legally their ties to corporations would legally bias them out...

there are exceptions of course and Berlusconi in Italy is one of them.

[physioex]

12. The Money Spent on the Shoes is Not the Issue.....

And I am not a New Orleans Resident. So My Problem Lies with the Poor Response of the Federal Government.....

[Eugene]

13. Rice was on the town in NYC during a national emergency.

Shrub played guitar. Cheney continued his vacation.
They all had jobs to do.

I don't fault Ms. Rice for buying nice shoes.
High profile people are expected to look good.

I do fault the Bush cabinet for not letting a bigger
disaster than 9/11 interrupt their leisure.
Strong leadership in times of crisis was supposed
to be BushCo's key selling point.

[proud2BlibKansan]

14. My friend is buying a couch

for $5800.

That seems too conspicious to me.