Opus 2025-160: The Cheap Capitalist

Do you get irritated by the adds that keep interrupting on You Tube?  When I do I need to remind myself that if I don’t like it I can pay the fee to be exempted.  My choice.  Your choice.  We need to stop complaining.

My contribution to free enterprise and the entrepreneur spirit is not paying for things if I can help it and still remain honest.  I’m all for people going out starting businesses offering services, selling products, doing whatever it takes to earn a living and make a profit.  I salute him.  At the same time I must concede that my responsibility is to keep them honest . That means that I often don’t buy much unless I have to.  It means I price shop.  It means I wait for a sale.  It means I realize I didn’t need it anyway.  

Some suggestions.

Use the library.  I find that the list of books I want to read keeps growing.  There is no way I can keep up.  Many of them can be read a year or two later at no loss.  Many of them I don’t hear about until they are decades old, some centuries.  Unless the book is a reference book that I feel I will need repeatedly, there is little reason to pay full price.  Libraries will also add books you want to their list of purchases.  If you must buy something start checking the Friends of the Library section, yard sales or used book stores.  I guarantee you will be able to find plenty to read.

Movies?  Wait until it comes out free on YouTube.  That may mean you have to watch a few commercials.  So be it.  Is it worth it?  If not then maybe you didn’t need to see it anyway.  And also, again, libraries.  They have aisles of things to chose from.

Add up all the money that you would save each month if you cancel the subscription services and really unnecessary things online or on the phone.  Multiplied by 12 that gives you what you save in a year.  Now multiply over your working career of 40 years and ask yourself how much would I be worth if I had simply shown a little more discipline.  Would it be a down payment on a house?  Would it mean I could stay retired when Social Security goes away?  I have no idea but I do know that it adds up.

If you must purchase, then enjoy the euphoria.  And please donate your purchases soon so that I can do my part to keep the economy going.  

homo unius libri