22. Why Do We Buy Things We’ll Never Use?

No Stupid Questions

社会与文化

2020-10-11

31 分钟
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Also: how is social media like a knife?

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  • You guys are going to eat steak and mashed potatoes for the next three weeks.

  • And you guys are going to eat mung bean stew.

  • I'm Angela Duckworth.

  • I'm Stephen Dubner, and you're listening to.

  • No stupid questions today on the show.

  • Why do we buy exercise equipment that we'll never use and health food that we'll never eat?

  • Who am I?

  • I'm like Beyonce.

  • What would Beyonce do?

  • She would drink the sparkling water.

  • Also, is social media net positive for society?

  • I personally would much rather have people rant online than punch someone in the face in real life.

  • So, Angela, I have a habit, and I suspect many other people do as well, of acquiring, often by purchase, what I've come to think of as aspirational objects, which is to say, I will buy stuff that I think I want, or maybe more accurately, that I would like to want, but which, in fact, I'll never actually use.

  • Tiny example.

  • At home, we probably have 600 boxes of quinoa in our cupboard.

  • Quinoa?

  • Yeah.

  • As far as I know, we've never actually eaten quinoa at home.

  • High protein grain.

  • Well, it's not actually a grain per se.