The richer you are, the fewer things you can afford not to own.

Something I discovered a while ago, minimalism is the new elitism. What I mean by that is that you can actually show off your social class by how few things your own.

For example, the biggest aha I had was when me and Cindy were living in Vietnam, and we went to the airport with essentially no luggage, just one carry-on backpack each. The Vietnamese Uber driver immediately knew that we were rich, because of how few things we owned. Compare this with the immigrant, poor mentality, where you pack lots of stuff because if you’re that you cannot find or buy it abroad.

Poor people live in the suburbs?

Even nowadays with suburban homes, typically poor people have so much hoarding tendencies in the garage, because of money consciousness. If you grew up in a poverty mentality, you cannot throw away things, or give away things. Because your wealth is tied into material things.

I believe if you are really really rich, you would prefer to live in a minimalist apartment somewhere very central and very downtown.

Crypto is minimalist

For myself, this is where cryptocurrencies is interesting, it is a new form of elitism and wealth accumulation. For example, physical things hold you back. I would rather just own 10 bitcoin, and live lightly and freely, with maximal independence and freedom.

Luxury is less

For example, if you go into the high end and luxury boutique stores, they have very little inventory in the display cases. Also, luxury boutiques tend to be very small in square footage.

Compare this to cheap stores. Cheap stores carry tons of inventory. Even the downside of going to a Goodwill or Ross is there is so much inventory for you to sort through. Luxury places do the sorting for you, only displaying a few items, which reduces decision-making fatigue in your purchasing behavior.

Apple Store is used to be like this, with a very little product and inventory. I preferred when Apple had fewer choices. Now Apple is losing their way, they have too much inventory and too many options, and too many different color options.

Even Nietzsche said this — the elite ruling class of the future will be less rich, but with more power, control, and influence. Even one thing I’m starting to think is that money is not equivalent to power and control in your life. For example, if you’re a Silicon Valley programmer making $500,000 a year, but working 120 hours a week, you are technically just a really well paid slave.

Also, once you get the expensive house with expensive mortgage, and you get the expensive car with the expense of payment, you’re essentially stuck with your job. Silicon valley is golden handcuffs version 2.0.