22. Why Do We Buy Things We’ll Never Use?

我们为何购买那些终将闲置之物?

No Stupid Questions

社会与文化

2025-05-18

31 分钟
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Also: how is social media like a knife? This episode originally aired on October 11, 2020.
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  • You guys are going to eat steak and mashed potatoes for the next three weeks,

  • and you guys are going to eat mung bean stew.

  • I'm Angela Duckworth.

  • I'm Stephen Dubner.

  • And you're listening to No Stupid Questions.

  • Today on the show,

  • why do we buy exercise equipment that we'll never use and health food that we'll never eat?

  • Who am I?

  • I'm like Beyonce.

  • What would Beyonce do?

  • She would drink the sparkling water.

  • Also, is social media net positive for society?

  • I personally would much rather have people rant online than punch someone in the face in real life.

  • So, Angela, I have a habit, and I suspect many other people do as well,

  • of acquiring, often by purchase, what I've come to think of as aspirational objects.

  • Which is to say... I will buy stuff that I think I want, or maybe more accurately,

  • that I would like to want, but which, in fact, I'll never actually use.

  • So one tiny example.

  • At home, we probably have 600 boxes of quinoa in our cupboard.

  • Quinoa?