@ Jacob

It is not our culture that is broken! Individuals have a natural inclination for the behavior you dislike.

Are we fat because of our culture or because of poor individual self control? Do we have crime because of culture or individual mistakes? Do we spend too much, save too little, and make bad buying decisions because of culture? I think that blaming culture masks two more real causes, human nature (hunter/gather instinct) and lack of self control (future return vs immediate gratification).

We have a privative reptilian brain buried under an advanced prefrontal cortex which regulates decision making and problem solving. Several studies (sorry for no links but Google should find them easily) have shown that our brains light up in funny ways when presented with buying decisions and frankly lots of individuals just aren’t up to the task of wealth building financial decisions. There are also behavioral finance studies based on brain scans which show that people are plain bad at weighing future returns against immediate gratification. This has nothing to do with culture and everything to do with neurology, biochemistry, and evolutionary anthropology.

Frankly, if we were all as intelligent and patient as you, there would not be a spending problem in this country. The problem is that you are rather unique (hence the extreme difference between your financial philosophy and that of nearly everyone else).

I think we should start looking for a pill to combat spending and shopping addiction, I heard somewhere that antidepressants can help

@ NDOutdoorsman

Over the past 8-9 years I have worked in some capacity in the computer and software industry. The work I do is specialize and requires training and skill. For this work I am paid well. Thus, when I have a problem I turn to those who specialize in fixing my problem. In the most basic example, I pay for an expert to fix my car and he pays me to fix his computer.
Labor has become specialized and most tasks are optimally performed by a professional.

Also, when I consider the value of my time, tasks that do not require specialization are most optimally performed by someone else as well. As an example, it is economically best for me to pay a neighborhood kid to cut my lawn as opposed me to do it. I pay him $7 an hour plus expenses while I can earn $50 an hour working (or be paying only $7/hour for extra relation and leisure time).

By extension, if there were an effective treatment for weight loss that did not have significant negative side effect, I’d take the pill and pay my fee. I hate the gym so paying $20/hour (or more) to get the effect of working out would be a god send! Unfortunately that is not the current state of medical science (hard work and self control really is the only real route).

Unfortunately its time sign off the net and head over to the gym

“Therefore to stop being poor people need to give up their consumerism.”
This is the heart of the issue, but I know some people that would rather die than do that! I’m really starting to see how consumerism is more insidious than merely having poor impulse control. It is a full-blown national addiction. We substitute living with buying; that is, I personally know many people who equate the “good life” with purchasing the newest and the best, only to find themselves caught in a vicious cycle of always chasing the carrot on the stick. Maybe you can explain how obsolescence works to them?

Culture is a huge contribution to the problem we are facing, obesity and personal finance. This culture is not ingrain, I believe it is being guided by the Corporations of the world. We can see how obesity rate went up so much in the last 30 years and the spending culture infiltrated the US. This culture is spreading through out the world. There were one or two chubby kids when I was in grade school (Thailand.) Now they are starting to see obesity problems there.
We all want to eat and spend instinctively, but the Corporations are pushing everybody to do more and more.
I’m not fat and my finance is ok so I don’t think we can put all the blame on corporates, but I think they would love it if I eat and spend more.

I currently live in a developing country … and I can say the people here would love to live an American lifestyle if they had the money. Those who ride bicycles want motorcycles, then cars, then luxury cars, then luxury SUVs. Those running successful businesses have big houses, his+her cars, hired help, etc.

Immigrants are a different class. Those who come over usually don’t speak English and hence have no choice but to save up to start a business. In additional, they often send money back home AND they need to save up money to sponsor more family over. Plus in a resource-rich country, even a big step-up from their old lifestyle would be considered frugal to an American-born.

So you might say it’s culture if it means growing up in an environment with no money or access to resources. They have no choice but to live a frugal lifestyle.