In this impromptu video, Chelsea responds to some of the comments left on our November video essay, Why Everyone Is Suddenly An Adult Toddler, which is a deep dive into convenience apps and our culture of convenience spending.
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How Rich Dad, Poor Dad Became The Ultimate MLM
Rich Dad, Poor Dad Is Completely Unhinged
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Why Everyone Is Suddenly An Adult Toddler
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Why Nothing You Buy Feels Good Anymore
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I’ve been loving this recent series and it’s making me rethink a lot of my spend habits. Thank you 🩵
Hey! I would like to add that this is not only bleeding your pocket, it can affect your mind and life experience. The constant notifications of discounts keep you craving food and objects that you don’t need, it constantly puts your decision making abilities to the test. Therefore, peace and contempt with your own life gets questioned many times a day. Snow ball effect. 🙅🏽♀️
100%
C-you can not please all the people all the time. You bring up valid issues people need to take what they like and leave the rest…cheers
SINCERE APOLOGY for the radiator noise at the beginning of this video, it stops early on but it’s very annoying. Combination of living in New York City and wanting to record/get this video out quickly. Love you guys <3
-C
I thought what you were trying to say in the video was incredibly clear and nuanced however people rather get mad immediately than think and reflect
Period
Exactly. It was so ironic, the people throwing a tantrum in the comments. Like how are you gonna complain about the system and then not reflect and change your own actions, even if it can be uncomfortable.
Interesting topic. I like these spontaneous comments. You rattle my cage this way.
On the topic of disability, I think that the argument that these services are helpful and life affirming for many disabled folks really leaves out the greater context that these same services actually CAUSE disabilities in many of their workers. Poor working conditions, no bathroom breaks, horrible pay, no sick leave, etc are all directly related to poor health outcomes (mental and physical) and that leads to higher levels of disability and illness overall. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy, and we have to be able to hold the “yes and” of it all.
As a disabled person, I was waiting for someone to comment on this exactly! Yes, deliveries and such help disabled and the aging, but when worked get screwed over, get no worker’s rights basically, and become disabled themselves, this is NOT a win!! The disabled community has had a history of being neglected and denied worker’s rights, so these poor conditions are stripping worker’s rights…how is it supposed to be of ANY help to gaining worker’s rights for the disabled community? Seriously people need to look outside of themselves and have empathy or others.
You could also argue convenience culture is leading to even more sedentary lifestyles for able bodied people which we know breeds medical and physical problems the more and more you remain in that lifestyle. Helping disabled and elderly people is awesome but you are so right that this does create a cycle of more disability and more health issues on the worker and consumer side. 😢
Furthermore, it highlights the severity for which disable people cannot rely on their surrounding community and must pay out of their personal pocket to receive necessary services.
I can’t speak for US, but in my country disabled and elderly people simply don’t have the money to order delivery from supermarkets, let alone restaurants. If they do get a delivery, it comes from charity organisations.
Very well said!
I can tie some of my disability directly to my experience in the workforce.
I love the title of the video. That’s really what it boils down to over consumption and convenience equals entitlement people get so defensive when you call them out about how they’re killing the planet. I wonder if the over consumption and convenience somehow bleeds into why there’s so many people going no contact with their parents maybe because we’re so used to the convenience. We just put up with peoples mess less.
Those comments did my head in….like OBVIOUSLY these convenience services help people who are disabled and aged, the video was clearly not arguing that we shouldn’t be helping vulnerable populations. I feel like a lot of these negative comments come from people who are able-bodied and quite privileged who want to use the argument as a loophole to not check their own privilege and make changes that may make their lives SLIGHTLY less conformable…Changing the system WILL BE UNCOMFORTABLE!!! Not to mention, why can’t we build community with people who are disabled or aged to help them with these sorts of errands? If we know our neighbor has trouble leaving their house, can we offer to pick up food or help them with basic services? Like come on. The tantrum comments perfectly illustrated the thesis of your video – which was excellently executed btw!
All valid. Also, it won’t really be THAT uncomfortable unless you’re very out of touch with reality for most other people. We’ve only had UberEats and pals for less than a decade. We did just fine finding takeout before they existed and we will continue to be able to find it without them. Also, local competition for delivery services and apps will be hugely beneficial in knocking all the megacorporation apps down a few notches.
Yes, 💯. People use the elderly and disabled as a shield to push back on any arguments that make them uncomfortable.
Reminds me of the joke that suddenly everyone cares about the disabled when it comes to parking removal but not the rest of the time.
I’ve been on and off listening to financial audit and while the show and Caleb himself aren’t perfect, many episodes highlight the over reliance that people have on these services. People who don’t even have the income to afford services like food delivery feel like it’s a necessity and can’t comprehend life without them, and lots of guests will get particularly defensive about their use of these services. They will use excuses such as the rising costs of groceries to defend their habits, even when the rising cost of convenience is higher than the rising cost of groceries. These apps have brainwashed people’s understanding of necessity vs convenience.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on the impact convenience culture has on the environment. There’s been a lot of talk about how the increasing consumption of disposable, unsustainably made, non-degradable products has negatively affected our ecosystems. There are so many (Western) countries that are scrambling to find places to dump their trash, much of it being fast fashion and single use plastic items. Most of it ends up being dumped in Africa, Latin America, and South Asia. Western convenience consumerism has had a devastating impact on much of the environment in the global South.
I would also highlight that these services are very expensive and the vast majority of people with disabilities live in poverty as it is… its great that those who need it and have the money to spare can use it, but I honestly believe the majority of disabled people aren’t benefiting from these services because they aren’t able to afford them, and I think we should be seeking better publicly funded access in these areas rather than being satisfied with a system that only aids those with the money to spare
(and as a disabled person, I appreciate your re-acknowledgement of the issue in this video but I also thought the way you addressed it in the video was perfectly adequate)
I feel like the disability argument is a strawman in this discussion, using an appeal to people’s compassion towards the disabled as a way to justify their use of convenience services
yeah i definitely can see that
instead of like looking at the system as a whole
So many folks wanna bring up disability justice issues as a defense to convenience products and services, but don’t wanna wear a mask so that disabled people can engage in public life with greater safety.
And like, how is buying a 4$ shirt made of reusable shopping bag material from Shein helping anyone with accessibility requirements? It’s largely though not entirely a bogus argument.
Thank you for responding to people’s critiques with understanding and nuance! I think that people were also offended and therefore defensive about being referred to as “adult toddlers”. The nuance was kind of lost with the title, so people clicked on the video already feeling attacked. I know video titles are intentional for a myriad of ways, but I just wanted to throw that out there.
Chelsea, well said. You continue to set the bar for nuanced financial conversations.
100%
I would suggest that the majority of people saying “what about disabled people?” are not themselves disabled and are using disabled people as an excuse to assuage their conscience about benefitting from an exploitative service. People are ridiculous. As if calling out the exploitation of low wage workers is somehow ableist. In no universe are accessibility and good labour conditions mutually exclusive.
Amazing response to comments!
“a serfdom”. YES. it is the word I was looking for. Thank you.
If nothing else, I’m thankful that my parents never paid for food delivery and would go drive to pick up pizza or Chinese food. I’ve kept up that habit.