Post
I have given this life advice to lots of people. There are two categories of problems: those that can be solved with some money and those that can't. It's important to realize the first category is much larger than the second. The world is less stressful if you financialize it as much as possible.
Vicky Stiles
@nocherubsplease.bsky.social
· 3d
A phrase from Captain Awkward springs to mind: sometimes the cheapest way to pay for something is with money.
Time, energy, inconvenience and opportunity costs can all be reasonably factored in IF the amount of money isn't immediately prohibitive.
4:01 AM · Apr 21, 2026
I'm not saying money is trivial to come by - I am not wealthy. But so much stress comes from trying to think about how problems chain together - a lost item causes a delay which causes a cancellation which harms a relationship.
Or you can just say "Oh, that'll be $150." Not great, but livable!
I decided many years ago that I'm never going to look back from my deathbed and think, "Sure glad I won that argument with my wife over fifty bucks."
You can overplay this and get into real trouble. But within reason, relationships are better when they matter more than money.
Pretty sure Elon Musk is a case study in how that first category might be larger than the second but it’s not nearly as large as many of us assume. That second category is still gonna be pretty big for a lot of stressed out, unhappy rich people
I agree that Musk has that problem. He has some deep need that money can't fill, but as long as he has money he'll be insulated from the consequences he'd need to face to accept he has a problem. Therapy is hard and buying another platform to be King Poaster is easy:
chbarts
@chbarts.bsky.social
· Jul 8, 2024
There's one way where "money can't buy you happiness" actually makes sense, and it's when people have some deep hole in themselves they can't fix. They *could* buy therapy and get help, but something about their hole makes that impossible without external force. Which money insulates them from.
chbarts
@chbarts.bsky.social
· Jul 8, 2024
At a certain point, money will only buy what you want, not what you need.
When I got older and had a little extra money it became quite relaxing to "just throw money at it".
It depends. Financializing the world as much as possible also includes the surge of “prediction markets” where you have people gambling on human lives.
I’m a little sanguine about this in that people bet on human lives without thinking about it all the time. There’s just an intermediary in there composed of things you want to do. Avoid filling up your gas tank right now? You’re betting the price of gas will go down, corresponding to peace in Iran.
People going out to panic buy toilet paper during COVID? Betting pretty hard on death.
Didn't you post about struggling to pay rent?
Was it less stressful knowing it was a money problem?
Isn't your entire ideology about material analyses of material problems that need material solutions?
Oh, then I'm curious what you think my ideology is?
You should have known they were an anarchist because of how much they post.
My wife is old me (a direct translation) of something her aunt says, “money dies better than people”
I’ve often said that one of the best things about having money is being able to buy your way out of hassles.
I've known a few very wealthy people and it's amazing how many problems that don't seem like money problems to you and me can be solved with the application of ridiculous amounts of money.
My grandmother literally used to say 'If money can solve it, you don't have a problem.'