Are You in an Arms Race Against Yourself?
An arms race is when two entities, usually nations, compete to see who has bigger genitals, aka a bigger arsenal of weapons. The classic example is the US and the Soviet Union during the cold war. After WWII when the US and the Soviet Union fought and died together to defeat the Axis, there was a struggle between the two for influence in Eastern Europe.
The US had shown the incredible power of the atomic bomb during the war in 1945 by dropping them on Hiroshima and Nagasaki as well as New Mexico. Unsurprisingly, the Soviet Union decided it was necessary if they were to challenge the US, to have some big ass bombs. They tested their first A-bomb in 1949 and the rest is history.
Living in Fear
This lovely time led to decades of fear of nuclear annihilation for millions of people and a glorious stockpile for each side totaling over 60,000 warheads that could have demolished the human population many times over.
If a-bombs that could demolish entire cities weren’t enough, the US and Soviets created bombs 1500 times more powerful than Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined. The Soviets dropped a bomb on themselves in Siberia that was 10 times more powerful than all of the explosives dropped during WWII combined! What the fuck? Who wins in this scenario? The Soviets who just decimated part of their country? The entire world population who are living in fear of nuclear annihilation? The taxpayers of these two nations who are funding this insane race to the bottom?
The only winners I can see are those profiting off the military-industrial complex and the politicians who capitalized on fear.
Scarcity Mindset
Having the American Consumer Mentality is like being in an arms race against your neighbors and you guessed it, yourself. Having a nicer house, car, cell phone, clothes, and TVs than your neighbors is an arms race where no one wins except for those on the selling end. There will always be someone with a bigger house, a nicer car, and more expensive clothes. The race will never end. And the joke is on you because you are the taxpayer funding this arms race.
The toughest pill to swallow is that this race is actually against you. It’s against your beliefs about what it means to be successful. It is about your wants and “needs” which are mostly wants as well. It’s against the bountiful consumer life that you think will make you happy. You work so hard and spend so much time buying things and consuming media that you lose sight of what actually matters- your health and connections with people you care about. You find yourself too busy to work out or stay in touch with friends. Yet you have time to buy shit you think you need but definitely don’t on Amazon. To watch Succession on Netflix, and scroll the latest asinine dance videos on TikTok.
This is a life where you cannot win. You are stuck in an arms race against yourself. Arms races end in fear, reckless spending, and dropping bombs on yourself.
Break the Cycle
You might be thinking, “What a horribly dark picture of American society you’re painting”! I agree, this is a dark picture but there is an alternative to compulsive consumption. It’s called Financial Independence. This is a way of optimizing your life so that you can spend your time doing things that satisfy you. It is a way to choose to buy your time back rather than buy more stuff. The tenets are simple but not easy. They require making hard decisions to make your life easier. They can allow you to exit the arms race by stopping your consumption at the point of diminishing returns. But this is only possible if you decide to change your goal from having it all to having enough.
Disclaimer: FI is easier to achieve for some than it is for others. There are a million challenges that people are up against like: poverty, substance abuse, caring for sick or disabled family members, racism, sexism, consumer debt, and poor education. There is no doubt that there are many people who are severely disadvantaged and these disadvantages can slow or even prohibit people from achieving FI and yet, the tenants of FI can help everyone get to a better place in their lives.
