What is a luxury belief?
The term luxury belief revolves around the idea that some beliefs are adopted by the elite for status purposes while the cost for harboring those beliefs or rather the consequences, fall upon the lower economic classes. This idea has been coined by
Rob Henderson
and one of his examples of a luxury belief would be the idea of defunding the police.
Defunding the police, according to its activists, is the push for the reallocation of policing service funds in order to better benefit all members of a community despite their ethnicity. Some take this belief to the extreme of abolishing policing services entirely while other stances vary on a sort of defunding spectrum.
Now imagine a city where there are no police. Who deals with crime? The cost of crime falls most harshly on the roughest neighbourhoods and hence the lower economic classes. The suburban elite can afford the cost of private security or gated communities and so adopting this policy doesn’t necessarily affect their quality of life.
So why is defunding the police appealing to the elite?
That could be a post within itself. In a few lines, the idea here is that humans will harbour beliefs to elevate their status socially. When a popular idea concocts itself on elite college campuses, it manifests itself among the elite classes of society. Basically, one might uphold the view of defunding the police in order to fit in.
Now why do I think the idea of financial freedom is a luxury belief?
The term financial freedom must be properly defined here.
What is financial freedom?
Millions of TikToks, reels, and shorts flaunt this idea for what it looks like. You'll find people travelling, driving nice cars, wearing beautiful brands all talking about why financial freedom is the best. They exclaim that they have enough money to have a lifestyle where they can afford anything.
In other words, the claim is “I can consume and/or indulge in what I want, when I want”. The influencers trying to push this hedonistic idea into the cultural mainstream do seem to grasp that such a lifestyle comes at a cost. That cost is the grind or the hustle. It's time, energy and money.
The promise goes as follows; once it's achieved, you'll be able to make the most of life living like a f*cking baller.
Honestly, it sounds cool as f*ck. It sure as hell looks dope as hell to fly around on a private jet.
Financial freedom at its core is the principle that your time is the most precious commodity. The problem with this belief is that it is staunchingly luxurious. It is simply not the reality for most people, especially people part of the lower/middle class. It is appealing for the elite because it allows them to flex their materialism and gain clout online.
Let’s take students as an example. Students pay a lot of money to have a computer organize their schedule in order to facilitate the learning of skills that will compete on the labour market of the future. It’s called a degree.
Not only is the student's time not worth anything, it is worth less than anything and hence that compensation materializes itself as a tuition fee.
That might seem blindingly obvious when you think about it, yet students everywhere are pressured to go to post-secondary and are unaware of this contractual engagement. It seems we're so used to living in a capitalist society that we have forgotten that paying for something means we are agreeing to something. I find this especially true for my friends who's parents pay for everything. They have no skin in the game.
What are the costs of this luxury belief?
In the defund the police example it seems rather obvious. More crime hence more criminals. Most crimes are really bad whether it be a home invasion, car theft or human trafficking. Inflict those costs on the lower/middle class and we can all see that that is an issue.
Let’s keep going with my student example. Students who engage with financial freedom content are sold on the idea that their time is worth everything. The smart ones realize that they must make their time worth something, which I believe is a good realization, but then are sold on these bullsh*t courses that don't really add any worth to their time because they aren't skill-centric.
So for one, we have the classic scam. The scammers play on trends, and people's deep yearning for making a quick buck. Take any pyramid scheme messaging. A lot of it is centered on becoming financially free.
I’ve seen friends and family lose a lot of money because of these schemes.
I remember when I was twelve I was begging my dad so I could enroll in Tai Lopez’s Social Media Management course. Yeah, the “knowledge” guy who posted videos with flashy cars. I wanted to start my own business running social media pages. Bottom line was that the course cost a lot of money that I didn’t have.
My dad is a very successful sales manager. He told me, “Make that purchase when you have your own money. If you really wanted it, you could do that right now at no cost.”
And that was the end of that. His second piece of advice I loved most. It was so true in the moment that it stung. A book, a weird business proposal, a course or webinar in of itself won’t make you financially free. Or in other words rich.
It’s about doing your own due diligence. Putting in the work. Eradicating your own ignorance on the subject by researching it three times over. Financial responsibility comes before financial freedom.
More on that soon.
-MS
