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Comment by sokoloff | Hacker News Reader

Yes, making sure to fill up the oil before loading two kids into the rusty, 19 year old, 235K mile CR-V to drive 750 miles to see their grandparents, while trying to not have someone break in and steal their stuff.

High status, conspicuous consumption, gram-worthy life, indeed.

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Yeah actually. The key is the phrase "why do you still drive cars like this?" It's not because you have to, but because you are signaling that a car as a status signal is irrelevant to you. That's actually the next level status signal :)

It's probably driven much more from being an optimizing engineer (alternatively phrased: a cheapskate) and wanting to spend as little as feasible on reliable transport in order to funnel more money into retirement savings/financial independence.

https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-si...

Not taking a side, but to understand the comment you are replying to, you would do well to look up the concept of countersignalling.

Does counter-signaling require intent or only action?

A. If I care what people think, but work to communicate that I don't, that's pretty obviously counter-signaling.

B. If I genuinely don't care what people think, but my actions are outwardly indistinguishable from those in A, is that counter-signaling?

This sounds equivalent to "Is signaling about the signal-giver or the signal-recipient?"

Indeed it does. If I practice haruspicy*, in so doing am I receiving signals from the gods?

* - the inspection of the entrails of sacrificed animals

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