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points by simonw 10 hours ago | 0 comments

Terry Pratchett once wrote about the concept of "horizontal wealth". Vertical wealth is where you spend money on rich people stuff - yachts and suchlike. Horizontal wealth is where you spend more money on the things you liked before you got rich: https://chibuikeani.blogspot.com/2017/02/the-price-of-happin...

"But horizontal wealth means not letting your increased income dictate your tastes. You like books and now you have money? Buy more books! Change those catenary bookshelves for good hardwood ones! In my case, build a library extension to your office. And, of course, you buy what will be useful for that most wonderful of pursuits, blind research, which is research without direction for the sheer joy of it."

(Original source is his book A Slip of the Keyboard - this linked blog post quotes that bit.)

[–] jebarker 9 hours ago

I like this mindset and have tried to adopt it as I’ve made some money. What has proven more insidious than being tempted to buy yachts though is just the daily creep of spending slightly more on everyday things or when you travel.

[–] cite_please 6 hours ago

Traveling is a strange phenomenon that has mutated into a narcissistic behavior. Not sure where it comes from.

[–] numbsafari 6 hours ago

Care to explain more?

Humans have been traveling pretty much their entire existence. Being sedentary seems to be a much more recent development.

[–] lanfeust6 5 hours ago

Sedentary isn't the word you're looking for.

[–] pjscott 3 hours ago

One of the dictionary definitions of “sedentary” refers to living in the same spot and not traveling, usually used in anthropology to talk about non-nomadic populations.

[–] localhost8000 5 hours ago

what word would you suggest?

[–] paulryanrogers 4 hours ago

Homebodies, grounded, rooted?

[–] lanfeust6 4 hours ago

settled, static, parochial

[–] jebarker 5 hours ago

Traveling is something I live for. It’s been a great joy in my life to see and experience the variety of nature and culture around the world. You can certainly warp it into an extravagant experience though. I’m struggling to see where narcissism comes in though - maybe travel with the intent of showing off on social media?

[–] roenxi 3 hours ago

Interestingly; that goes to whether someone is a hedonist or not. Dumping money into personal pleasures would defeat the point of the wealth for many. The idea of bettering themselves is expressed through boosting social status rather than hedonistic pleasure. If you gave the average man on the street more money they'd buy yachts and whatnot because they know that people have yachts generally have a higher social status than people who do not. They don't have a strong concept of wealth independent of status.

[–] wcunning 10 hours ago

I bought a house, lived there for a couple years and then bought a better tractor (Kubota L45) than we had on the farm growing up. Now I can get 10 truckloads of woodchips from ChipDrop and mulch a whole acre of my yard in an afternoon.

[–] vntok 10 hours ago

This documentary of a French nouveau-millionaire perfectly showcases this mindset: https://youtu.be/jK4wnCLuBtI?is=2Q2QYQyfoCnaObhv (AI powered English subtitles available)

> "I bought 10 Kangoo vans"

> "I used to drink one bottle of [awful] wine a day, now I drink 10"

> "He bought 1500 pairs of the [horrible] shoes he wears everyday"

> "I used to spend a month a year camping, now I can spend 10 months a year camping"

[–] prmoustache 9 hours ago

Note: this is not a real documentary but a satirical one.

[–] boothby 9 hours ago

> "I used to spend a month a year camping, now I can spend 10 months a year camping"

Okay but most of those are contemptible and that one sounds like a marked change in one’s commitment to enjoying life.