Branded and better options

I live in a modern, progressive and affluent country...and live reasonably well, but shit is spiraling out of control.

Wages and salaries don't keep up with inflation, shrinkflation means people are paying more for less and with automation and AI becoming more prevalent people's jobs are disappearing and new jobs are harder to come by because they don't exist. I know so many people who are looking at ways to reduce their costs - some are doing it responsibly while others are not. What I mean by that is some are cutting back in areas that may inhibit their enjoyment somewhat but maintain the important elements, and others are dropping off things like house, health and vehicle insurances, medical care and healthy foods in preference for cheaper unhealthy ones just so they can maintain their wants which could go very badly for them down the track.

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We live in a world where people (generally speaking) have (unfortunately) attached their feeling of self worth or value to material items like brand name clothing and accessories, vehicles, phones and other such things which are perceived by them and others to improve their likability, virility, social status and so on. It's not true of course, that's just something the marketers and corporations want people to think so they buy more...and they do.

Going without basic necessities, whatever that may be for each individual, just so one can afford a brand name handbag, outfit or shoes, an iPhone or other such purchase doesn't seem smart to me. Just because one may have the money for it doesn't mean one has to spend that money...and does the spend make them a better person? Not in my eyes, especially if they have compromised something more important to have that thing...savings, investments, health, insurances and so on.

I have many name brand name things because I have been able to, and can still, afford them; when I say brand names I mean those that are considered to be better than the rest for whatever reason - I never compromised more important things for them though. But a few years ago, probably five or six, I began to perceive the economic environment differently and realised that a fall was coming...indeed, that it had arrived. It's still happening and will build momentum in my opinion and it will take many many people down with it. With that in mind I began to focus more on the truly important things and less on those that were not. I always had this ethos in truth, but I upped the ante on it and have reaped the benefits for those years and can say I'm pretty well placed currently in a declining economic environment.

So many people have not made the shift, are unwilling or unable, (everyone is able in my opinion, in some way at least), and millions have resorted to credit to fund the lifestyle they're reluctant to relinquish even though they cannot afford it, or the credit repayments. So many are still chasing the perceived benefits that come from brand names and want-spending in general.

I believe there's better options than spending needlessly on designer labels and brands; they may be slightly better in quality but it won't matter if you have a Prada t-shirt on or a Vertu phone when you're starving to death in the gutter right?

I believe people should be less reliant on credit, move their want over need urges towards the latter and to find different ways to entertain themselves with a view to saving costs. I believe people should find themselves, rediscover that the things they have don't make them better, improving the person they are makes them better, and people should be working on a greater level of self reliance for when the crash comes. One only needs to look at some of the countries around the place and how they've degraded to see how difficult things can and will get...Venezuela for instance.

Is it time to make the millionaires billionaires and the billionaires trillionaires? No, not in my opinion...It's the time to recall one's own humanity, pull back into the family unit, rediscover self reliance and self worth as a human being, rather than living life as an over-using credit-debt-collared meat sack.

The end...is coming.