Latest news with #consumerism
Yahoo
15 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Details about Jeff Bezos' partner Lauren Sánchez's lavish gift from the Kardashians spark outrage: 'This feels like a nightmare'
You might have heard about the joyride into the stratosphere that a group of celebrities took in April aboard a Blue Origin mission. As fast as photos of the "crew" of A-listers clothed in matching violet jumpsuits flooded the internet, the PR stunt turned into a nightmare, and it just keeps coming. Blue Origin is a space tourism company that is revolutionizing space travel. Though the flights do not go very far into space, they are considered a major first step toward future space exploration. However, many have criticized space tourism as a gluttonous waste of money — money that could make a considerable difference if used elsewhere. Though the crew safely returned with, presumably, a newfound respect for our planet. However, the rampant consumerism didn't end there. For surviving the mere 11-minute tour of the edge of space, Lauren Sánchez, billionaire Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' fiancée, was gifted a $7,000 purse from the Kardashians. Mariam Qayum of She Finds reported that the purse was a "dazzling Judith Leiber Couture UFO-shaped clutch. The statement piece, encrusted with baguette and geometric crystals, originally retailed for $6,995." The purse and the flight received the same backlash. According to She Finds, some of the reactions on social media included: "It's just all so tone deaf," "maybe just suggesting that money could've gone to better causes that are needed," and "that money could have been used to feed several families in need." A similar message resounds from the audience regarding the wasteful Blue Origin flight. As everyday members of society transform their lives to lessen the strain on Earth's resources, it can feel frustrating to see the world's most privileged do the opposite. "And to think that every time I throw away a toothbrush I still feel guilty for the unrecycled plastic," said one commenter on an Instagram post from Blue Origin. Billionaires emit a million times more carbon pollution than the average person, according to Oxfam. Between yachts, private jets, and the dirty energy companies that billionaires run and invest in. "This has to change. These billionaire investors at the top of the corporate pyramid have a huge responsibility for driving climate breakdown. They have escaped accountability for too long," said Danny Sriskandarajah, CEO of Oxfam. "This feels like a nightmare," summarized one flight critic on Instagram. Do you think billionaires spend their money wisely? Definitely No way Some do Most do Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
Bloomberg
2 days ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
NetEase Shares Near Record High as China's Gen Z Embraces Games
NetEase Inc. shares are closing in on their first new all-time high in over four years, as a wave of youthful consumerism adds to a host of positives for China's game stocks. Hong Kong-listed shares of the company behind hits like Eggy Party are now less than 3% away from their 2021 record. The stock ranks among the top gainers this year on indexes of Chinese tech and global game companies.
Zawya
6 days ago
- Business
- Zawya
Why is Oman still a debt society?
Many people in Oman are still falling into a debt trap taking banks loans far more than they can afford just to keep up with their lavish lifestyles. According to the official statistics, local banks extended a total credit of OMR14.7 billion to private consumers by the end of March this year, which is 7 percent higher than the same period last year. There are no statistics available how private consumers spend the borrowed money. But looking at the trend, car purchasing certainly is on top of the list followed by holidays and domestic buying like furniture. No wonder local financial institutions never record a loss. Their profits are always on the rise year on year, thanks to the high impact of consumerism in the country. But there are some questions when you take a look at the population of Oman. Out of roughly 5 million people, about a million of them are manual workers employed in sectors like constructions, factories and domestic labour. School children and students in higher education are roughly about one and half million while the total number of pensioners are another 600,000. There are just roughly just two million people left who can afford a bank loan. That means too much money is burdening a quarter of the population, out of their own faults. You may argue that, it is good for consumerism but what about inflation? But when you look at the inflationary rates in the country, you see a small rise month by month. We are missing something here. Unless a lot of money borrowed from the local banks is being repatriated abroad. If so, then where is it going? Certainly, the inflationary rate is not giving us a clue. It is not the monetary system or local financial regulations are at fault. In any healthy, financial environment, banking systems need to thrive and grow. And local banks get the right support since the sector employs thousands of people in different parts of the country. Perhaps there should be some kinds of mechanism to educate consumers in the habit of spending. For example, if they don't have the cash to splash out, then they should be cautious taking out unsustainable bank loans. Without any doubt, it is not sustainable for them to rely heavily on loan taking, both for the country or personally. But who to blame? Obviously, lavish lifestyle encourages excessive borrowing. Also, easy credits from the banks. The latter, is also a problem where local financial institutions make it easier to borrow money that encourages the trend. Maybe there should be a limit where consumers are limited only 15 times their salaries and payable over 24 months as a condition for taking a loan. I am sure that would help to contain the problem of overspending the money that does not really belong to them. No wonder many people scratch their heads when the burden is too much. Unfortunately, banks do not write-off the loans once you have borrowed from them. I have not seen the statistics from the courts but I am sure there are thousands of cases pending of people who cannot repay their liabilities. © Muscat Media Group Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (
Times of Oman
7 days ago
- Business
- Times of Oman
Monday column: Why is Oman still a debt society?
Many people in Oman are still falling into a debt trap taking banks loans far more than they can afford just to keep up with their lavish lifestyles. According to the official statistics, local banks extended a total credit of OMR14.7 billion to private consumers by the end of March this year, which is 7 percent higher than the same period last year. There are no statistics available how private consumers spend the borrowed money. But looking at the trend, car purchasing certainly is on top of the list followed by holidays and domestic buying like furniture. No wonder local financial institutions never record a loss. Their profits are always on the rise year on year, thanks to the high impact of consumerism in the country. But there are some questions when you take a look at the population of Oman. Out of roughly 5 million people, about a million of them are manual workers employed in sectors like constructions, factories and domestic labour. School children and students in higher education are roughly about one and half million while the total number of pensioners are another 600,000. There are just roughly just two million people left who can afford a bank loan. That means too much money is burdening a quarter of the population, out of their own faults. You may argue that, it is good for consumerism but what about inflation? But when you look at the inflationary rates in the country, you see a small rise month by month. We are missing something here. Unless a lot of money borrowed from the local banks is being repatriated abroad. If so, then where is it going? Certainly, the inflationary rate is not giving us a clue. It is not the monetary system or local financial regulations are at fault. In any healthy, financial environment, banking systems need to thrive and grow. And local banks get the right support since the sector employs thousands of people in different parts of the country. Perhaps there should be some kinds of mechanism to educate consumers in the habit of spending. For example, if they don't have the cash to splash out, then they should be cautious taking out unsustainable bank loans. Without any doubt, it is not sustainable for them to rely heavily on loan taking, both for the country or personally. But who to blame? Obviously, lavish lifestyle encourages excessive borrowing. Also, easy credits from the banks. The latter, is also a problem where local financial institutions make it easier to borrow money that encourages the trend. Maybe there should be a limit where consumers are limited only 15 times their salaries and payable over 24 months as a condition for taking a loan. I am sure that would help to contain the problem of overspending the money that does not really belong to them. No wonder many people scratch their heads when the burden is too much. Unfortunately, banks do not write-off the loans once you have borrowed from them. I have not seen the statistics from the courts but I am sure there are thousands of cases pending of people who cannot repay their liabilities.
Wall Street Journal
22-05-2025
- Business
- Wall Street Journal
How to Break the Buy-and-Replace Trap - Your Money Briefing
Full Transcript This transcript was prepared by a transcription service. This version may not be in its final form and may be updated. Imani Moise: Here's Your Money Briefing for Thursday, May 22nd. I'm Imani Moise for The Wall Street Journal. We've all been there. It's easy to convince yourself that that shiny new gadget, living room upgrade, or new car with that fresh leather smell is technically an investment when you first buy them. But odds are you'll be eyeing a new version long before you get your money's worth. Jeff Galak: That's the treadmill, where we're just constantly chasing our tails, looking for the next thing to make us happy. That's fine if you can afford it. But unfortunately, the reality of the world is that most of us have budget constraints. Imani Moise: This cycle of consumption, buying, replacing, and then buying again, can take a real toll on our wallets. So, how do we break free? We'll talk with Wall Street Journal contributor Jeff Galak about how to trick your brain into being happy with what you already have. That's after the break. Buying new things makes us happy, but for how long? Research shows that we tend to get bored with our things before they actually need to be replaced. A recent Wall Street Journal article outlined ways to beat boredom, boost happiness, and save money along the way. The writer of that article, Jeff Galak, joins me to explain. Jeff, let me start with a confession. I bought a couch during the pandemic that I loved. It was plush. It was stylish. It made my living room feel like a hotel lobby. But now I barely notice it. And when I do, it feels kind of blah. What's going on in our brains when that shift happens? Jeff Galak: So, you're not alone in this situation. This is what we typically call hedonic adaptation. Some people call it satiation. Some people call it habituation. Others just call it boredom. What you're seeing is that most products that we want to buy that are enjoyable, they start out that way. But unfortunately, our brain tends to reduce that amount of enjoyment as we continue consuming or being exposed to any product that we might have. An example I always like to give is a simple one. If you take a bite of pizza, it's delicious. But by the 10th or 20th bite, it's just pizza at that point. It doesn't really have the same value, the same utility. It's the same thing that's going on with your couch. Imani Moise: So, if this feeling of boredom with our stuff is natural and pretty much universal, why should we resist it? What does it mean for our wallets? And what's the cost of constantly chasing that sense of newness? Jeff Galak: There's a phenomenon called the hedonic treadmill. And it's this idea that every time we buy something, as we just said, it becomes less enjoyable with time. And then what we're forced to do to regain that initial high level of enjoyment is to buy the next new flashy thing. And then that, once again, succumbs to hedonic adaptation or hedonic decline. And then we again have to buy that new thing. And so that's the treadmill, where we're just constantly chasing our tails, looking for the next thing to make us happy. That's fine if you can afford it. But unfortunately, the reality of the world is that most of us have budget constraints. And certainly, the more we consume, the more environmental impact that has. So there's a real negative effect on us as individuals from a financial perspective and on our planet from an environmental perspective. Imani Moise: So, now let's talk about solutions. How can I keep my brain happy without succumbing to the urge to buy a new couch? Jeff Galak: There's a few things you can do. The easiest is to think about what is your couch? Is it just the thing that you sit on in your living room or wherever you have it? Or is it also the accessories that happen to be on that couch, like your throw pillows or your blankets or whatever else you might be keeping there? Replacing a couch is expensive and costly. Replacing the covers on your throw pillows could be a few dollars or a couple dozen dollars. And that small change might be just enough to revitalize the enjoyment that you get from that couch. So, changing some of the accessories that go with it could be enough to reset that level of enjoyment at a much more financially and environmentally friendly way. Imani Moise: In your story, you also talk about how you don't necessarily need to buy something in order to trick your brain into getting more enjoyment out of it. How does that work? Jeff Galak: There's a couple ways we could do this, but I think the one you're talking about is this idea of just rearranging something. There's a study, not my own, that was done that looked at how novelty is perceived and experienced when the core features of it are just merely rearranged or reorganized. So, a real-world example of that might be, if you look at your closet and you're tired of your wardrobe, okay, you could go buy new clothing. That's an option. But of course, as we said, that's expensive. Or you could literally just rearrange how you organize your closet. Put your shirts where your pants usually are, put your pants where you keep your socks, and so on and so forth. And merely that act of moving things around makes the entire set of clothing that you have feel new, even though nothing has actually changed. Imani Moise: And that also reminds me of this social media trend that I've seen, where people aren't just rearranging things, they're changing how they engage with those things. For example, wearing your pants as a top or a blouse as a skirt. Can you talk a little bit about how engaging with things in a new way can also give you that sense of novelty? Jeff Galak: Yeah, absolutely. One of my favorite studies that I've read about, again, not my own here, is about consuming food, so popcorn in this example. Most of us will use our fingers to eat popcorn. But in this study, they asked people to eat popcorn with chopsticks. Most of us don't eat popcorn with chopsticks. And it turns out your enjoyment lingers for more. So, if you change the way you're consuming something to something that's unexpected, that will keep happiness with that popcorn lasting longer. And that's true of anything we do. So, I can't speak to the fashion choice of using your pants as a shirt or a top. But I can certainly say that that would be a new way to reconsume the exact same thing you have without being forced to buy something else. That's what we're trying to avoid here. Imani Moise: Okay. So, if someone out there is listening and they're thinking that they're really feeling this itch to buy something new, what's one quick thing that they can do to try to revive joy in what they already own? Jeff Galak: Instead of saying, "I don't have any shirts that I like," is there a way you can reuse one of your shirts, as you pointed out, in a novel way? You could also think about taking that product and changing it in some way. I mean, you can dye your clothing to be a different color, and that doesn't require a new purchase. It's simply making a superficial change to the existing items you have. So, just being creative with new uses for existing products is surprisingly effective at not just reducing financial burden but in increasing happiness, which is kind of what I'm mostly after. Imani Moise: But modifying things you already have can also be expensive. Going back to the example of my couch, getting it reupholstered would probably cost more than getting a new one. Is there a rule of thumb to help you decide when it's better to refresh or replace? Jeff Galak: The answer to that is incredibly idiosyncratic to the situation we're talking about. So, like, reupholstering a couch, I agree with you, that could be more costly than buying a new couch. And so you have to weigh that financial decision for yourself. Is that the appropriate thing for you to do? To buy a pack of dye to change a white shirt to a red shirt is pretty costless. How much does dye cost? A couple of dollars. So, that might be an easy one to do that'll maintain the happiness. But if the financial burden is high, then sure, that's probably not a reasonable solution for you. So, in the article, I also talk about a paint job for your car. That could be hundreds or thousands of dollars. That's cheaper than tens of thousands of dollars to replace a car. But obviously, that's a decision you might want to take a little more time with. So, I would scale the time you spend with the cost of the decision that you're facing. A new shirt doesn't have to be expensive. A new car is almost certainly going to be expensive. I'd take a lot more time on the expensive purchase than I would on the less expensive one. Imani Moise: That's WSJ contributor Jeff Galak. And that's it for Your Money Briefing. This episode was produced by Ariana Aspuru, with supervising producer Melony Roy. I'm Imani Moise for The Wall Street Journal. Thanks for listening.
