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Ok, I'll play devil's advocate.

Money.

Not so much to spend it on stuff, but rather the freedom that money buys in today's society.

You know, most of the freedom money gives you is the freedom to buy stuff.

It is also the freedom to: live wherever you want, do most of the things you want to do, go wherever you want, and (most importantly for me) the freedom to not have to spend most of your time at somebody else's whim.

But that's all because money pays for the stuff.

(I think I'm being stupidly obvious right now, so I'll apologize: I thought the OP was referring to the social impact that people knowing you've got money has, and I don't think that's actually what he meant.

You write that like "buying stuff" is a bad thing.

It isn't. Stuff makes things possible.

Entirely agreed! I was confused by his post, which said:

Not so much to spend it on stuff, but rather the freedom that money buys in today's society.

And I was arguing that the freedom money buys is the freedom to spend money on stuff.

at least that which needs stuff.

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