Why Are People So Concerned About How Others Spend Their Money?

Upon reading the original post my first thought was that's just plain envy.

Now after about 30 seconds(!) of reflection I do believe that there is more to it

than that.  I'm thinking that there is some jealousy involved as in "I can't believe

that the SO of this audiophile allows this amount of dollars to be spent on this stupid hobby"

Envy and jealousy are a very volatile mix.

Regards,
barts

BTW, I finally caught on to all the robot phrases.  Jeez I'm slow on the uptake.

BTW, I finally caught on to all the robot phrases.  Jeez I'm slow on the uptake.

Well, faster than me for sure. I still have no clue what and why Robots everywhere 😂

@cd318

However, what I do find disagreeable is the commonly propagated notion that spending more money always brings sonic improvements.

This seems exactly correct. For me, the value in this forum is the discussion of *criteria* for sonic excellence, and since virtually no one here has limitless resources, the tactical problem become how to optimize sound-for-dollar.

In short, spending "excessively" -- as measured by the (ostensible) purpose of an audio forum -- equates to "spending disproportionately on gear/treatments which won’t advance a *sonic* agenda."

Charles1dad, thanks for the thoughtful reply.  If I read into what you  said a little, it seems to be the intent of the person that determines the validity of focusing on another person's money.  If so, I could not agree more.  However, I think reasonable people can also make valid value judgements on the spending habits of others.  For example, a person buys a $500k house and it's far and away the best house in a neighborhood with a median home value of $150k.  Another person spend $500k on a house that need that needs some TLC in a neighborhood with a median home value of $1.5 million.  Each homeowner could be completely happy with their purchases, but one made a smart real estate move and the other didn't.  To point that out shouldn't be out of bounds.

Money is often conflated as measure of happiness and worth. Money is how we keep score and value other's purchases, this is perhaps the one objective critique we have available to us.

The level of pleasure another derives from their purchases is not so easily measured by any other means than money. Money often seen as measure of man's worth, why would it not be used in judging other's audio equipment purchases.