“Should I Buy This iPhone?” and Other Moral Dilemmas
by Steven Rossi on October 3, 2009 in Thoughts on Life
Whenever a new, exciting piece of technology is released, I have a pretty standard internal dialog, which goes something like this:
“MAN! That’s a cool lookin’ [product]! I would love to have that! How much does it cos…ah crap. I don’t really need it. But I want it so bad. Hm. Well, I bet I’d use it to bless people by doing [crap]. Yeah, I would! I can sacrifice $[lots of money] to bless other people!
And there you have it. I am pathetic at justifying my purchases. Often I want to buy the latest thing, but I just don’t have any good reason besides that. For instance, I once justified the purchase of my iMac by telling myself that I would use it to make other people gifts (pitiful, right?). Curious as to how many gifts I’ve made with it? By my count, 4.
But why do we have to justify our purchases? Why can’t we either not buy something or simply take responsibility (read: man up) for the things we purchase.
I read a New York Times article a while back that got me thinking about this topic (I’m pretty sure the title was what really got me thinking—the article was alright). It got me thinking about excuses lots of people make, like that their new iPod will encourage them to exercise more, etc. Why do we do this? This is very strange to me. Talk to me about it.
Image credit: dborman
by nia
On October 27, 2009 at 7:32 am
i don't make excuses. it's my hard-earned money, i do what i do with it. period.