📘 Part 3: Money, Buying Things, & Materialism

This episode's vocabulary

Strictly necessary (adj) – absolutely essential or required. → A smartphone is strictly necessary for my job in this day and age.

Marketing ploy (noun phrase) – a clever and often dishonest marketing tactic used to persuade people to buy something. → Offering a limited-time discount is a common marketing ploy to create a sense of urgency.

In the loop (idiom) – part of a group of people who have information about a particular thing. → My manager makes sure to keep me in the loop on all major decisions.

Left out (phrasal verb) – excluded from a group or activity. → He felt left out because he wasn't invited to the party.

In this day and age (idiom) – in the present time. → You can't run a successful business without an online presence in this day and age.

Squirrel away (phrasal verb) – to hide or store something, especially money, in a safe place for future use. → She managed to squirrel away a little money each month for her vacation.

For a rainy day (idiom) – for a time in the future when one might unexpectedly need something, especially money. → It’s wise to have some savings set aside for a rainy day.

Knock-on effects (noun) – the indirect results of an action or event. → The new highway had several knock-on effects for local businesses.

Derive pleasure from (verb phrase) – to get a feeling of happiness or enjoyment from something. → Many people derive pleasure from gardening and watching their plants grow.

Ostensibly (adv) – as appears or is stated to be true, though not necessarily so. → He called ostensibly to check on her, but he really wanted to ask for a favor.

Crave novelty (verb phrase) – to have a strong desire for new or unusual things or experiences. → Young people often crave novelty, which is why they are drawn to the latest trends.

Accountable (adj) – responsible for your decisions or actions and expected to explain them. → Politicians should be accountable to the public for their spending.

Fritter away (phrasal verb) – to waste money, time, or an opportunity on unimportant things. → He frittered away his entire bonus on gadgets he didn't need.

Questions and Answers

Maria: Do people buy things they don't need?

Rory: I suppose it's easy to say yes, given all the things people buy that don't seem strictly necessary, like big TVs or the latest smartphones and gadgets when the older ones work just fine. But I doubt people would buy things unless they felt like they needed them, even beyond a purely material level.

Maria: And why, why is that?

Rory: Oh, lots of reasons. They might have been manipulated by marketing ploys into thinking the things they get are things they cannot do without, or they may feel insecure because people around them have things which are better and they want to feel in the loop. No one likes being left out, do they? And of course, maybe these things are actually necessary. I absolutely need a smartphone for my work in this day and age. I actually cannot function if it's not there. So that's quite an important consideration as well.

Maria: Do you think it's important to save money?

Rory: I suppose that depends on your goals in life, but generally speaking, it's a good idea to have at least some money squirrelled away for a rainy day, like when someone or something goes horribly wrong and you have to fix something in an emergency. And of course, many people want to retire one day and that involves some kind of saving as well.

Maria: And where else might it be important?

Rory: Not sure really, maybe there are some knock-on effects of having a saver's mindset, like planning and self-control and self-discipline, but if you're saving, those things should already exist to some extent, so maybe you're just developing them.

Maria: Who do you think saves more money, men or women?

Rory: I'm tempted to say men, just because in married households, I think women make something like 80% of the major purchasing choices. So that means that women would spend more money. But that's just talking about married people. Probably if they're not married and they're living their own lives, then men and women will spend and save equal amounts, because they don't really need significantly different things for the most part, do they?

Maria: Why do many people derive pleasure from spending money?

Rory: Oh, there's lots of reasons. I think there's some kind of thing that happens in your brain or your cognition where you anticipate getting the reward, the reward being the thing that you want to buy, and in pursuing that, it makes you feel good. And then, of course, you get the thing, and that allows you to enjoy life a bit more, ostensibly. So that could also give people a great deal of pleasure as well. I don't think it's the actual spending of the money, I think it's the achievement of the goal or being able to do the thing that you want to do with the thing that you bought.

Maria: What do you think young people usually spend most of their money on?

Rory: You'd have to ask them. At a guess, I imagine they, well, just since they crave novelty more than most, they'll invest in the means to get access to that. So things like smartphones and related gadgets probably take up the majority of their budgets. They're also, well, at least they seem very health-conscious. So maybe things like gym memberships too.

Maria: Do you think the government should let people know how it spends their money?

Rory: Well, if it's collected their money through taxes, then yes. I mean, that's part of being accountable, and it reinforces the legitimacy of the system if you can see that the money is being spent in responsible ways or if you see it's being spent irresponsibly, you can address that to prevent it from happening, perhaps recoup some of the lost money as well. So, that's quite important. Of course, if you don't care about having a system being presented legitimately in that way, then it's not really a priority, but certainly in I think almost all of the countries I have ever lived in, the government is pretty transparent about that kind of thing.