One-Percenters Keep Shopping at the Dollar Store | Hacker News Reader

One-Percenters Keep Shopping at the Dollar Store

wsj.com

9 pointssharkweek9 comments

In the share of dollar-store visits this year among those making more than $100,000, compared with the second half of 2022.

No, $100k does not make you a one-percenter. Not by a long shot.

Yet another piss-poor WSJ article.

Based on the political history of the WSJ, I'm pretty sure they do this intentionally. The WSJ has a historically-demonstrated desire to shift goalposts on wealth inequality to prevent the crushed middle class from rising up. It's very much the FOX News model of journalism (where they lean extremely hard into a right-wing political agenda while hiding behind the diminishing-by-the-year actual news). People making more than $100k but less than $200k are solidly middle class in the US today. Calling them "one percent" sounds like a whole lot of "shut up and take it, peon" and "look, you already made it so you can stop now" vibe.

I would go with just plain sloth and cluelessness. But yeah, not surprisingly of a kind that also fits with their plutocratic ethos.

Nobody on the editorial staff of the WSJ is clueless. This is not a new problem.

News flash: People who have lots of money often don’t like to spend it. That’s why they keep on having a lot of money.

I'm not a one percenter but I shop the dollar stores simply because I can buy stuff I wouldn't otherwise buy. I don't have to buy for a big family so I don't think I save much. If it's useful then I will buy it again. If it's not then there's not much lost. It's kind of fun. I suspect I'm not the only one that goes to those stores as a fun distraction.

Also, I used to live in a 1% household. They had lots of assets that brought in a lot of income. So they really did not have to be thrifty but they were. Where ever they found a way to save a penny they did. They bought in bulk. Waste was minimized. Education was super important. And on, and on it went. There's a reason why many 1%ers are there and stay there. And it starts with saving a buck when ever possible.

I hate the Dollar Store. But...

At our favorite camping spot (some bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River), the Dollar Store is the only store offering necessary items. The weird thing is that it's not an isolated place, it's just really far from an interstate or large city. The gas stations sell only 87 octane and diesel. No premium gas available for my fancy SUV.

Another place we like to hang out is along a particular coast, surrounded by $$$$ houses. But to shop at anything other than the Dollar Store means that you are adding almost an hour to the round trip. Great part about that area is that the sand dunes block all cell phone signals, so it's really relaxing to be cut off from the world (but you can hike to the top of a dune for super fast 5g/LTE).

In my observations, wealthy people often act like they are poor. In fact, their aversion to letting go of money can be likened to hoarders not wanting to throw away anything. If dollars were old magazines and newspaper, wealthy people would show up on Hoarders with the worst clutter imaginable.

https://archive.is/2rTMe

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