13 Comments
User's avatar
Faith Wong's avatar

Banging 🧨

Julian's avatar

> This is the culture that has produced the phrase “net worth” for how much money someone has and people use it unironically

Man I've always been struck by the craziness of that phrase

Lovely essay btw

Stephen Reid's avatar

lovely piece 🐙💗🐙

Octopusyarn's avatar

💓🐙💓

Charles Blass's avatar

my lord did you genuinely write that headline?

Octopusyarn's avatar

not sure I get the question? (yes I did)

I initially formulated it as "I thought I needed..." but then went for the "You" move (my hope in publishing is to reach a few people for which this is true)

Charles Blass's avatar

ok understood so far....queued up to read

Varsha's avatar

Can relate so much to wanting fuck you money for that freedom. The more I explore spirituality, i realize the answer is probably fuck you love, not money. Glad to have people like you sharing what it is like to walk the path I am starting now.

Russell's avatar

the sub-heading really speaks to the insanity of the rich. at least some of the rich of days past used to go out do some insanely wild things like build absurd monuments or adventurise things with high risk of death, first-hand. now they set aside venture funds for the illusion of being pioneering and essentially live as paranoid, middle-class millionaires.

fuck you money does not make one any more themselves. it only widens the aperture of the existential donut and makes that hole more formidable to stare into. literally, only God can help them at that point.

Hall Street Index's avatar

One’s relationship money is a reflection of those underlying desires. Great read!

Andy the Alchemist's avatar

I realized a few years back that after losing a corporate job I hated that the hardest part for me was giving up the little badge I wore around my neck every day and used to swipe myself in and out of the building. That stupid badge was proof that I was a somebody, worthy of access to a part of the world that most others could never access. I'd somehow grown emotionally attached to an RFID chip with my face on it. I wasn't particularly upset about the loss of the money the job provided, but of how I felt as if a part of my actual identity was taken from me against my will. I have never really cared that much about money once I had enough to live comfortably. Greed does not motivate me. But learning how to not tie my identity to my source of income has been way harder than I expected. The cultural programming that you are worthless without a high status job is so deeply engrained in my psyche that I still struggle with this today. Money is a means to an end, but the desire for status is a much harder beast to slay in my experience. The system finds a way to make you anxious about your work as it relates to the social strata no matter who you are. It's arguably the most insidious part of capitalism and the most necessary because it keeps most people from opting out of the system entirely no matter how miserable they are.

Agi Dubi's avatar

omg, I love your style! i guess I mean the things you give weight to. 🔥