this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2026
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I didn't know you had to be an ascetic monk to be a leftist.
okay, say i have 3k euros, i can go to either usa or cuba for vacations, which one is the moral spending of money?
living in global north, net expropriation from global south is somewhere between 10-25%, not a lot of jobs has that much disposable income, and yet one might think a good idea to balance the scales by consumption habits
if you see someone with rolex or ferrari, you don’t think them a bougie fuck? or hear they’ve rented a chalet in the alps for two weeks? gone to the monaco to gamble? all these things are affordable in europe with good job in unionized sector
and i’m not saying sit in empty room like a monk. spending money on socializing, pursuing hobbies are all great for human mind, getting good bed and pillow to not break your spine, but there is extravagant side of this, the consumerist side, which i dont find particularly moral and yes, aspirationally - bougie.
so to circle back to op question - spending money on stuff you don’t need (or overspending on stuff that you do need) and acts as upper class signifier is bougie, to me at least.
going on vacays is one of those things I judge about. people think it is acceptable is intentionally go somewhere that they can economically exploit someone in a way that isn't possible locally. I find it despicable. but yet it is so normalized. Pervasive in the west, not exclusively.
I dunno, i have mixed feelings, cause economically tourism is pure cash injection into local economy, with basically no leakage to international capital, but it does have warping effect on populace and local class resentments (not to mention learning colonizer language to get better paid). i still think locals, even uninvolved in industry, would rather you visit them and waste money than not.
but obviously some sicko could behave like a viceroy bestowing their grace to the savages