Kamala Harris buys pot

[No War, but the War on Christmas]

Please Democrats don't be dumb enough to nominate this woman in 2024...  

That's $350 beyond what a pot should cost that could've gone to a food bank or homeless shelter.

[No War, but the War on Christmas]

What? People aren’t allowed to have expensive hobbies now?

I mean, I guess there isn’t anything legally stopping you.

I’d argue it isn’t a good look for any politician who claims progressive values though. Know your voters and all…

[No War, but the War on Christmas]

What? People aren’t allowed to have expensive hobbies now?

I mean, I guess there isn’t anything legally stopping you.

I’d argue it isn’t a good look for any politician who claims progressive values though. Know your voters and all…

Well, a good portion of Dem voters are UMC liberal types who might buy a $300 pot. Cookware is generally pretty expensive, $300 is typical for a high-end product but it’s not outrageous or ostentatious.

No, I can assure you. For the vast majority of middle America — and for those whom $300 is nearly a weeks worth of wages after taxes, a $300 pot is both outrageous and ostentatious, certainly the latter.

I realize Atlas is mostly a bunch of white, upper-middle class yuppies, but that level of being out of touch is new.

Edit; $400 pot.

[No War, but the War on Christmas]

What? People aren’t allowed to have expensive hobbies now?

I mean, I guess there isn’t anything legally stopping you.

I’d argue it isn’t a good look for any politician who claims progressive values though. Know your voters and all…

Well, a good portion of Dem voters are UMC liberal types who might buy a $300 pot. Cookware is generally pretty expensive, $300 is typical for a high-end product but it’s not outrageous or ostentatious.

No, I can assure you. For the vast majority of middle America — and for those whom $300 is nearly a weeks worth of wages after taxes, a $300 pot is both outrageous and ostentatious, certainly the latter.

I realize Atlas is mostly a bunch of white, upper-middle class yuppies, but that level of being out of touch is new.

Edit; $400 pot.

The median family income in the United States is about $70,000. Among Democratic voters it's probably higher. Sure, it's an expensive pot, but you're acting like the typical American hasn't seen more than $100 at a time in their life. Anyone can recognize that someone who cooks as a hobby might buy a more expensive pot; even middle-class people spend $400 on non-necessary items occasionally. They wouldn't see that Harris bought a $400 pot and think of her as some gilded multimillionaire elitist ala Trump.

First off, the average American made around $37,000 in the last year on average, which I think is more relevant to this discussion of personal comparisons. Second off, I don't really want to have an extended conversation about this. It isn't like I genuinely think this is a big scandal or anything. But I'm going to stick by my guns, that the majority of Americans have never considered purchasing and would see buying a $400 pot as pretentious and out of touch. I don't see how anyone can disagree with that, even if you don't think it's a huge deal, unless you haven't spent much time anywhere in this country 50 miles away from the coasts.

Trump, in comparison, blew millions of taxpayer dollars so he could fly out and play golf.

We can't keep comparing ourselves to Trump for the next 10 years. It's a very low bar, and I've seen Liberals do it way too much every time they receive criticism.

[No War, but the War on Christmas]

What? People aren’t allowed to have expensive hobbies now?

I mean, I guess there isn’t anything legally stopping you.

I’d argue it isn’t a good look for any politician who claims progressive values though. Know your voters and all…

Well, a good portion of Dem voters are UMC liberal types who might buy a $300 pot. Cookware is generally pretty expensive, $300 is typical for a high-end product but it’s not outrageous or ostentatious.

No, I can assure you. For the vast majority of middle America — and for those whom $300 is nearly a weeks worth of wages after taxes, a $300 pot is both outrageous and ostentatious, certainly the latter.

I realize Atlas is mostly a bunch of white, upper-middle class yuppies, but that level of being out of touch is new.

Edit; $400 pot.

The median family income in the United States is about $70,000. Among Democratic voters it's probably higher. Sure, it's an expensive pot, but you're acting like the typical American hasn't seen more than $100 at a time in their life. Anyone can recognize that someone who cooks as a hobby might buy a more expensive pot; even middle-class people spend $400 on non-necessary items occasionally. They wouldn't see that Harris bought a $400 pot and think of her as some gilded multimillionaire elitist ala Trump.

First off, the average American made around $37,000 in the last year on average, which I think is more relevant to this discussion of personal comparisons. Second off, I don't really want to have an extended conversation about this. It isn't like I genuinely think this is a big scandal or anything. But I'm going to stick by my guns, that the majority of Americans have never considered purchasing and would see buying a $400 pot as pretentious and out of touch. I don't see how anyone can disagree with that, even if you don't think it's a huge deal, unless you haven't spent much time anywhere in this country 50 miles away from the coasts.

Trump, in comparison, blew millions of taxpayer dollars so he could fly out and play golf.

We can't keep comparing ourselves to Trump for the next 10 years. It's a very low bar, and I've seen Liberals do it way too much every time they receive criticism.

Far more relevant metric is median household income, which is about $68,000. Most people live in households where they and their partner, or they and relatives, are all sharing most costs.

Kitchenware is a durable good that can be used for several years, just like furniture or appliances. You're not going to buy the $400 pan every week or month. You're buying it to use for many years. Just like you don't buy a $1,000 sofa or $2,000 refrigerator every month. These are large purchases that a household amortizes out over time.

This would be comparable to a $6,000-7,000 Pottery Barn sofa, not a $1,000 sofa which would be around Ikea cost. Lol. Just for the sake of argument I did some research on Nordstrom, Kohls, Bed, Bath & Beyond, so higher-end than Walmart, and even the high-end SETS (so multiple pots) come out to around $200-300.

I'm not interested in this conversation any more. But if I asked any of my middle to lower-income friends or family what they thought about a $400 pot, they'd say it was outrageous.

And at this point, I guess we've figured out that it's both subjective and depends on how you grew up I suppose.

[No War, but the War on Christmas]

What? People aren’t allowed to have expensive hobbies now?

I mean, I guess there isn’t anything legally stopping you.

I’d argue it isn’t a good look for any politician who claims progressive values though. Know your voters and all…

Well, a good portion of Dem voters are UMC liberal types who might buy a $300 pot. Cookware is generally pretty expensive, $300 is typical for a high-end product but it’s not outrageous or ostentatious.

No, I can assure you. For the vast majority of middle America — and for those whom $300 is nearly a weeks worth of wages after taxes, a $300 pot is both outrageous and ostentatious, certainly the latter.

I realize Atlas is mostly a bunch of white, upper-middle class yuppies, but that level of being out of touch is new.

Edit; $400 pot.

The median family income in the United States is about $70,000. Among Democratic voters it's probably higher. Sure, it's an expensive pot, but you're acting like the typical American hasn't seen more than $100 at a time in their life. Anyone can recognize that someone who cooks as a hobby might buy a more expensive pot; even middle-class people spend $400 on non-necessary items occasionally. They wouldn't see that Harris bought a $400 pot and think of her as some gilded multimillionaire elitist ala Trump.

First off, the average American made around $37,000 in the last year on average, which I think is more relevant to this discussion of personal comparisons. Second off, I don't really want to have an extended conversation about this. It isn't like I genuinely think this is a big scandal or anything. But I'm going to stick by my guns, that the majority of Americans have never considered purchasing and would see buying a $400 pot as pretentious and out of touch. I don't see how anyone can disagree with that, even if you don't think it's a huge deal, unless you haven't spent much time anywhere in this country 50 miles away from the coasts.

Trump, in comparison, blew millions of taxpayer dollars so he could fly out and play golf.

We can't keep comparing ourselves to Trump for the next 10 years. It's a very low bar, and I've seen Liberals do it way too much every time they receive criticism.

Far more relevant metric is median household income, which is about $68,000. Most people live in households where they and their partner, or they and relatives, are all sharing most costs.

Kitchenware is a durable good that can be used for several years, just like furniture or appliances. You're not going to buy the $400 pan every week or month. You're buying it to use for many years. Just like you don't buy a $1,000 sofa or $2,000 refrigerator every month. These are large purchases that a household amortizes out over time.

This would be comparable to a $6,000-7,000 Pottery Barn sofa, not a $1,000 sofa which would be around Ikea cost. Lol. Just for the sake of argument I did some research on Nordstrom, Kohls, Bed, Bath & Beyond, so higher-end than Walmart, and even the high-end SETS (so multiple pots) come out to around $200-300.

I'm not interested in this conversation any more. But if I asked any of my middle to lower-income friends or family what they thought about a $400 pot, they'd say it was outrageous.

And at this point, I guess we've figured out that it's both subjective and depends on how you grew up I suppose.

This reminds me a quote from the late and extremely talented fantasy author Terry Pratchett,

Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles.

But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that’d still be keeping his feet dry in ten years’ time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.

This was the Captain Samuel Vimes ‘Boots’ theory of socioeconomic unfairness. —Men at Arms

Modern boutique capitalism has absolutely nothing to do with that analogy. Not in an era where the cost of something can go up 10x, 20x, even 100x over a logo. It's a great quote, but this ain't it Chief.