My prejudice all starts with a faulty premise that a big chunk of society (or at least, the consumer world) wants us to believe: anything that's more expensive is worth more to you and is of a better quality. That is just so off. My favorite example is a sushi restaurant where the salmon sushi is $5 but the yellowfin abalone tuna (or some other exotic sounding dish) is $20. That yellowfin whatever is not $20 necessarily because it's necessarily tastier or the texture is better or that one will enjoy it more, there could be a number of reasons it's 4x as expensive as salmon: 1.) it's more rare, so it's harder to obtain, 2.) people like the name so they order it more, driving up the demand, 3.) Yelp experts or so-called connaisseurs liked it and gave it a high rating based on their own set of standards. Personally, my sister, my co-worker, and I all agree: Salmon sashimi is delicious and I'll eat it over any other type of sushi. It just happens also to be one of the cheapest, and I don't need "high-class" salmon sushi, or wild Alaskan caught sushi, I know that when I eat a piece of salmon sashimi that hasn't been sitting out in the sun all day or otherwise has become less edible in anyway, I am getting enough enjoyment.
I always wonder how people who consume high-class products can afford things. Sure you can drive a high-class car and might have the means to do it, but then there's so many other things that you can "upgrade" to and get the higher-class version of: cell phones, houses, jewelry, hotel rooms (man that can get really expensive if you 're living in a different one every night!) I believe that the whole "high-class" concept is a myth, a pyramid-scheme that exists to get the common person to spend more money, for people with money to feel more superior than people without, that it's an artificial, without much subsance. Sure when I go to a fancy restaurant I feel a little cleaner and the bathrooms are cleaner (although I find it annoying to have bathroom attendants), but I'd much rather go to a normal restaurant, order as many things and a variety of things I haven't tried that doesn't require paying the premium for a high-class experience.
Perhaps it's my attitude on life that contributes to this prejudie against high class. A lot of times after purchasing an item I'll pride myself on getting something for probably the lowest price that I could find, and getting much utility out of it that's equally as much as I would have gotten from another product (really the same with fantasy baseball players, I like the players who I got on the cheap and compare them to equal production from higher, more brand-name players). Conversely, when I feel like I paid too much for something just because of the name brand of the item or it was sold as the "higher quality" product, I feel cheated and ashamed and wish I could have that extra money back for other, more nobler purposes.
Maybe I just can't have nice things.
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
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