The Best Thing You’ll See Today
My blog is only two and a half months old and I’ve been trying to establish a rhythm. I’ve been putting out my main posts on Tuesdays which tend to be longer content, with an additional post on Fridays. The Friday posts have been mostly Turnip FIRE! posts till now, but I’m going to start switching them between Turnip FIRE! posts and other content.
If you’re not familiar with Turnip FIRE!, please check it out if you have a second. They’re very short “satirical financial news” pieces written in the style of a certain famous website I’m sure you’re familiar with. I think we need more humor in life, and although I may not be that funny, I’m trying. Help me make money funny.
For the Friday pieces that will not be Turnip FIRE!, I will post about something cool or perhaps ridiculous that I’ve found on the web related to money, finances, or retirement. The mainstream media gives me plenty of fodder for the “ridiculous” category, so I think I’ll have options.
Today’s post however, is definitely about something cool. This is actually beyond cool, to me it’s an amazing piece of art:
*Do yourself a favor and watch this very short video from an artist named Steve Cutts.*
Yeah, that was pretty amazing wasn’t it? In four minutes he beautifully and hilariously illustrates what so many (most?) Americans are doing with their lives.
This Will Make Me Feel Better
They’re on a treadmill to nowhere of instant gratification, magic elixirs, new stuff, and medication. And they’re chained to their desks like mice caught in a trap working in jobs they hate to make the money necessary to get those things.
All in the desperate, fruitless pursuit of something called “happiness”. And the vicious cycle goes round and round.
As the video points out, society has assaulted us with the dogma that happiness can be bought. Be it coke, hot dogs, TVs, cars, pills, or liquor.
Once the “treadmill of stuff acquisition” is hopped on, it’s really hard to get off. Like George Jetson screaming to Jane for help, we’re stuck and we don’t know how to get off this crazy thing.
Modern Happiness
#GreatWayToRackUpTheTickets
A good artist conveys a strong message in his or her art, and this guy hit a home run on this video. I had to watch it a few times to see all the funny stuff. Go slow through the escalator scene and take note of all the funny signs in the mall about buying happiness. This guy’s good.
Then there’s the kid spray painting the male-parts on the sports car when he’s stuck in traffic. I’m from Baltimore, I can totally see that happening in my hometown and it probably has.
The message is, your stupid sports car doesn’t matter. You’ll be happy for maybe a few months tops then you’ll probably be back to normal. And oh yeah, someone will ding the bumper parallel parking in the city and then kids will spray paint boy-parts on it. Just don’t bother.
I was glad to stumble upon this video and I hope you enjoy it too. It’s a perfect piece of art that illustrates the message we’re trying to send here in the financial independence community. Send it to your friends, family, or co-workers and let’s spread the FIRE!
Man that video is good! Thanks for the share.
My pleasure cheesy!
Wow holy shit that short is amazing!!!! I actually got really sad at the the Black Friday part. This is literally how humans treat other humans. It’s 100% dead on! Thanks for that find!
i really want this movie to get made! i’ve been thinking along the same lines of needing to have some yucks and guffaws while building our golden stairways. you’ll live longer if you laugh, mark it down.https://wordpress.com/post/freddysmidlap.com/352
Thanks for the comment Freddy!
Thanks so much for sharing that video today. The trap at the end really sends it home and why I had to take my chances with early retirement this year. Enough was enough, although I do find it hard sometimes not buying a few of the things I really want. That being said it’s about retraining ourselves to focus on the things that we really need instead
We’re both really into outdoor sports so yeah, that’s a gear nirvana! I commiserate, it is hard to resist the temptation of that new hardshell or those new Salomon hikers. And I know you review gear on your site, that’s something I’m not sure I could do as I’d probably start buying everything for review. My basement already resembles a mini REI as it is.
I went all of last year without buying any outdoor gear, including outdoor sports performance clothing. Most of my stuff is still holding up nicely but I might need to make a few small purchases this year.
Thanks for the comment and the Facebook share!
We do get a lot of benefit out of being in the outdoors and the gear we buy. It is our gym , therapist and doctor all in one 🙂
Thanks for sharing! Those prostitute rats with the 6-bit covering bikini tops might have been my favorite part. It’s well worth taking a slow stroll through that video to catch all the awesomeness. And the artist has some other great videos well worth the watch.
My life has improved so much since learning how to internalize goals and stop comparing every aspect of my life to people around me. Life can be so much easier if you just allow it to be.
The multi-kini is hilarious, I didn’t catch that till the second time. It’s so good….
Comparison is the devil. It’s natural though, so we have to fight evolution to stop it. A never ending battle.
Thanks for the comment!
I wish I had included this video in my 8 finance videos post from December: https://www.themastermindwithin.com/fin-edu/8-silly-cheery-and-amazing-personal-finance-videos-for-the-holidays/
You can always go back and add it, the post will live on for anyone to read!
Thanks for the comment!
Awesome video. Loved the message and attention to detail. I’ll have to watch it again to read more of the signs. Liked the 60″ “plasma” tv. A good reminder that you have to keep working to pay for all of the excess in your life. Cut out all the unnecessary things and you can work much less or even not at all. You dont want to have to work till 60 or 65 for the man just to pay off all your ridiculous purchases.
Yeah the Black Friday scene was a favorite, with rat-limbs flying around. Hilarious stuff. But remember a Walmart employee got trampled to death a few years back on Black Friday so unfortunately not too far from the truth. Sad.
Thanks for stopping by!
Nice video!! Thanks for sharing it. It’s great message that the happiness of waiting in line for Black Friday sales, driving a cool car, and taking pills are just instant gratification and are wants, not needs. Eliminating such wants can have you leave this rat race earlier than the standard age of 65.
Yep, he chose rats as the characters for a reason 🙂
Thanks for the comment!
That video is epic! Hilarious and sad at the same time. Thanks for sharing.
I’m still laughing!
Glad you liked it, thanks for checking in!
Ha – those are both new things to me.
Really liked that scene where it gets stuck in the trap and starts typing 🙂
By the way, your words before the signup box says “Join the millions of others
who want to sign up but haven’t found this URL!” Is that what you wanted to say? Join? Leave?
That’s my cheeky way of saying millions of people want to sign up but don’t know it yet. Perhaps I need to re-phrase the language 🙂
I got that part, and liked it. But doesn’t it also say that by signing up, you join those people who haven’t signed up yet?
Perfect video!
It needs to be shown to every 18 year old who is leaving high school and entering the work force or college. If only we could teach these concepts to the youth in masses at very young ages, then our culture wouldn’t be in the financial state it is.
Thanks for the share!
Yeah this would be a great video for high schoolers, but I don’t know if they’d be able to relate to the rat slaving away on the keyboard. You probably have to experience 5-10 years of the working world to understand how it can grind you down.
Very cool piece of animation! I’m not quite so pessimistic about our world as the video but there is something about our society that makes certain people feel trapped in that search for happiness.
Glad you liked it, thanks for stopping by!
Thank you for a great laugh. I had to watch it a few times to catch some of the details. The prescription drug part and emergency room scene are so true. That and drinking himself silly with the booze. That short video has so much wisdom packed in. I especially enjoyed that the rat trap was also the cubicle desktop!
Glad you liked it Susan, thanks for the comment!
As others mentioned, the attention to detail was amazing. It’s unfortunate that so many people are in this rat race, searching for happiness.
Yeah I’m looking forward to more videos from that guy, great stuff. Thanks for reading!
Such a funny video, and then you realize it’s actually true which is just so sad.
As the saying goes… every joke has a bit of truth in it
Thanks for reading!
hey dear,
this info is very wonderful, thank you so much for sharing….
Glad you liked it!
While it was a good video and reminder about the dangers of consumerism, sometimes I wonder if it’s actually accurate for as many people as the media and community make it out to be. Over the holidays I was with family and friends and many of them aren’t trying to conquer the world, aren’t about getting the next new gadget, or following the latest fashion or fad and when I look back most aren’t about that at all. In general, many are and have been just looking to work a decent job, have a decent house, take a vacation once a year, and enjoy their kids and family. It’s not that they haven’t had hardships, it’s just how they have accepted their lives. One summed up his needs with, “I want to be warm in the winter, cool in the summer, have a pot to piss in, a place to shower, and food available.” You know what, despite it, with that minimal mindset, he’ll likely do just fine. Frankly, many of my friends and relatives have done just fine and by the odds will retire sometime in their late 60’s on something that will get them by. So sometimes I wonder if it’s more about hitting a point in life where you feel trapped versus are actually trapped, and if you never actually hit that point or feel that way and are content with what you have, then FI is less important as a primary driver to you. It think many FI folks are planners, look long range, but I see many of my family and friends as short range and living today figuring tomorrow will work itself out and they put little effort into it.
This is a great comment! I agree, the artist is creating a caricature. And by nature a caricature is an exaggeration. Is everyone like what he depicted? Of course not. Many folks are by all appearances doing fine, taking it day by day, and figuring it out.
But I would also offer that the average retirement savings for a 50 year old with a family in America (depending on whose numbers you use) is about $110,000. Not even close to what they need. Additionally, the average adults in that family are overweight or obese, and according to reports about 20% of them are on anti-depressants. So have we gotten to the point where the term “they seem to be getting by fine” has been lowered so much to assign that description to folks who haven’t saved adequately for retirement, who have a 20% chance of being on anti-depressants, and who have to work so much to pay for the stuff they don’t need that they don’t have time to take care of their own bodies?
Just playing devils advocate. 🙂 But yes, I agree with you that the picture in the video is obviously exaggerated.
I like your remark about felling trapped versus actually being trapped, lots to contemplate there…
Thanks for the thoughtful comment!
I’ve been in online retail for twelve years now. Oh did the market change. While you may be thinking of how to hack black Friday – how to get the best of the best deals or find those impossible to finds, the marketers – us, are figuring out ways how to hack you.
Many years ago, marketers found that this magical day brought in for some 50%+ of their annual revenue. What do all marketers want to do? Get more. So we went ahead and introduced Cyber Monday. Drum roll please… did it work? Oh hell yes it did. We now got two for one. We captured a given holiday time frame and now made it into two days long.
Interesting, thanks for the inside perspective. So what’s next, Wholesale Wednesday?