Just to be fair - I think these women are spending a ridiculous amount of money on purses:

[hedgehog]

Jennifer Anniston

http://www.purseblog.com/celebrities/jennifer-aniston-carries-a-tom-ford-bag-on-the-set-of-her-new-movie.html

Miranda Kerr

http://www.pursepage.com/handbags/celebrity-purses/

Jessica Alba, Miranda, Kate Beckinsale, Reese Witherspoon, Kate Bosworth, Nina Dobrev, Elizabeth,

http://www.fabsugar.com/Celebrity-Handbags-Pictures-Shopping-25029724?slide=14&image_nid=25029735

I can see someone spending up to about $250 for a purse they plan on using for 5 or 10 years - just as I can see spending that money on a well made pair of shoes meant to last that long!

What's really sad is the number of people making money trying to tell the rest of us that owning such expensive items should be our goal in life!

[quinnox]

1. any woman who considers spending thousands of dollars on a friggin' purse should be slapped silly

maybe that will knock some sense into 'em. (I'm joking, folks)

[KittyWampus]

37. What about all the guys who by Maseratis? Jay Lenos car collection?

[quinnox]

39. what?? Synchronicity, did you say Maseratis? My friend and I were talking about them yesterday

Personally, they are the car I would buy if I hit the lotto or a bag of gold landed on my head. They are beautiful cars. And guess what, they don't cost a ridiculous amount of money like other high end exotics such as Ferrari or Lamborghini, which can go for 500,000 and higher. You can get a Maserati for 126,000.

Here is a picture of the model I like:

[darkangel218]

2. I agree.

Its so freaking silly...

This money could be used for a good cause. For someone who is starving. Not making some jerk designer even richer!

Look at FLOTUS, most of the time, she is wearing pretty, but not expensive clothes. Purses or dresses don't make someone. You make the clothes, not viceversa.


Gah.. all this "fashion/designer name" is absolute crap!!

[hedgehog]

3. Excellent example!

[JI7]

9. FLOTUS wears both types of clothing , what does it matter ? i spend more

money than i need on many things which could go to the poor or be more useful and helping in other ways.

[darkangel218]

13. Thats your choice, and we have the right to disagree with this type of choices.

FLOTUS does wear some expensive ones at times, but most of the time she does not, even though she could afford them.

[tblue]

4. Buy a knockoff and sponsor a homeless shelter

Or just go ahead and flush it down the toilet. Like a fool. I never wear conspicuous designer labels. I'd be embarrassed to appear that vain and shallow.

[JI7]

6. most of the very very high end bags don't have conspcuous labels

[Bay Boy]

7. I can't advocate buying a knockoff

that is stealing.

I do wonder how many $35,000 purses are sold every year though.

[JI7]

5. who told you owning that should be a goal in life ? for many 250 dollars on a bag is a luxury

but many women who arne't wealthy like those celebs do buy many bags that are in the hundreds and lower thousands price range.

even if i was wealthy like those celebs i wouldn't spend 38 thousand or probably even a few hundred dollars on a bag just because i don't have much interest in bags.

i would spend more on other things i don't need though. i might actually buy those wayyy overpriced jeans and a bunch of other crap .

but mostly i would travel and i would buy first class tickets to make the flying part more comfortable. i would spend a lot of money on food.

[Throd]

8. I dunno. I spend money on stuff I don't need.

I think a 38K handbag is excessive, but Oprah can do what she wants with her money.

[DainBramaged]

10. ....

[mstinamotorcity2]

11. If thats what they want to spend

their money on then so be it. Designers become famous to sell their items with their signature touch on them. Some of it is ridiculous to the average person. But isn't every fashion designer's dream to be famous and have the whole world buying and wearing their designs.

[HappyMe]

12. It's their money.

They can spend it however they see fit.

[darkangel218]

15. They can indeed spend it how they want

Still doesnt excuse how stupid and wasteful this is.

[HappyMe]

16. People spend money on stupid

things every day.

[darkangel218]

17. Umm.. 36,000 on a bag?

Ok.

[HappyMe]

20. Ummm.. everybody spends money

on stupid things. I'm not only talking about an expensive purse. Some people would say that spending $10 on lottery scratch off tickets is stupid and wasteful.

[darkangel218]

23. Its a huge difference between what one can do with $10 dollars and $36,000

I just couldn't see it in my heart to do that.

To each their own I guess.

No wonder more people aren't outraged when companies pay their CEOs millions and the average worker cant afford heat.

[darkangel218]

19. Millions wasted on some pieces of clothes or leather

While millions of people are dying of malnutrition.

No, I will never think that is okay. Because it isn't.

$36,000 could have fed a village in Africa for a whole year. Or even longer.

[JI7]

21. but it's not always about lack of money in some places, with people like Oprah

they could continue buying these expensive things and still pay higher taxes which would make society better for all.

oprah does give a lot of charity.

[darkangel218]

25. Just like the CEOs who receive millions undeservedly

No big deal, they pay taxes on it. Who cares about the poor and starving, right??

Let me tell you something, J17 This world is not going to change, until people begin to care.

Until then, we are all doomed.

Because the next homeless, hungry person might be you. Or me.

[JI7]

27. no, they aren't paying enough taxes, but oprah is not like the ceos who get millions

after failure . we know how oprah got wealthy.

but she isn't one of those who is preventing taxes from being raised on the wealthy.

[darkangel218]

28. My point is I and many others disagree with this kind of silly spending.

Fashion is nothing but a monster created by the 1%.

[JI7]

32. i don't care for it, but i sometimes buy those overpriced cupcakes

or overpriced drinks and other food. i spend more than i need on some beauty/bath items like shampoo, lotion etc.

oprah has millions of dollars. she gives a lot to charity. but so what if she wants to buy some expensive bag ? you tihnk it's better if she spend it on some cheap item made in a sweatshop ?

[darkangel218]

34. Yes i do.

Because if the FASHION craze didn't exist, sweat shop trying to imitate designers wouldn't exist either!

If I had her millions I would put my actions where my mouth was.

[JI7]

38. i don't care for fashion but there is nothing wrong with it in itself, there is a problem with

sweatshops. even without the fashion industry people still need to wear clothes and buy other things.

[HappyMe]

22. How the hell do you know that any

of those people don't make substantial contributions to charitable causes?

[darkangel218]

24. Let me tell you something about Oprah in particular.

I received an offer for a free O magazine, and as someone who apreaciated her greatly, I accepted it. The offer was to call and cancel within 30 days if you don't want a subscription.
Of course I did cancel, I couldn't afford it as a full time student. Had confirmation # and everything.
Sure enough next month I receive another magazine and a week later an invoice.
I spent hours trying to get hold of someone who was able to straighten things out.

And even if this didn't happen, I would still think the same. There are still hungry children in the world. How can anyone in good consciousness spend so much money on a label???

[JI7]

29. that's often about politics of the nations, north koreans went hungry and starved to death

because of the piece of shit ruling over there, not because some wealthy celebs bought some expensive bag or other high priced item.

[darkangel218]

30. Yah, because aid would be denied in NK. How about the countries who welcome it??

Don't tell me that if someone would want to donate $36k they couldn't, because of the way the country was ruled.

LOL!!

[JI7]

35. and oprah does with the schools she build for girls in africa

[darkangel218]

46. Yah. and she could have built couple of other schools for that money.

[JI7]

48. and you could be volunteering instead of posting online

do you watch sports or go to the movies ? why not use the time and money instead to help out poor people ?

this is just silly.

[darkangel218]

49. Compared to what i make, i have donated A LOT of money and volunteer hours

Towards the homeless shelters here where I live.

I can no more, since I'm in school fill time atm. But once I finish, I will resume.

Life is too short to be dedicated to selfishness and turning a blind eye to those in need. We only have that much time to help them.

[SummerSnow]

14. the purpose of a purse..

1. carry your wallet

2. carry your cellphone


3. carry your cosmetics /feminine products


4. clobber a would be criminal



5. throw up in it

[notadmblnd]

36. never threw up in my purse

I have used it for wallet

cosmetics

personal hygiene products

lunch

spare shoes

and as a garbage can.

[SummerSnow]

45. I threw up in my purse when I was pregnant

[Siwsan]

18. I just don't understand the need for 'conspicuous consumption'

I work with women who spend hundreds and hundreds on shoes, bags, clothes and hair, drive cars with every conceivable gadget. And they live from paycheck to paycheck and have some pretty significant debt. I've never quite figured out who they are trying to impress, or what the hell they are going to do, down the road.

I may not be stylish, but I'm financially solvent and should be able to retire when I want to, instead of when I have to.

[unblock]

33. poor self-esteem, stoked by the very purveyors of such overpriced nonsense.

the salesperson for gucci bags will compliment a customer on her cartier jewelery, and the cartier salesperson will compliment a customer on her gucci bag.

some customers just live for those compliments, even from strangers; or rather, people who are briefly chummy with you only because you're paying them huge amounts of money.


me, i can smell a sales pitch a mile away. i shove my puny little money clip deeper into my pocket, turn, and run.

[unblock]

26. personally, i think a bag shouldn't cost more than its contents

but then, i'm male, so what do i know....

[darkangel218]

31. Im a female, and you Sir are right on!

+10000.

[reformist2]

40. The older I get, the stupider rich people seem. Meritocracy, my ***!

[bigwillq]

41. It's their money. They can spend it how they wish.

It's none of our business what they do with their money.

[reformist2]

43. Actually, it is if they brag about what they bought. We have every right to laugh at them.

[bigwillq]

44. You're free to laugh

I just don't get why folks focus on what other people do with their money.

It's kind of a contradiction.

We, as DEMs, don't want others to tell us what to do with our bodies or in our bedrooms, but yet we're always the first ones to be concerned about what folks do with their money.

Why?

No one really should be concerned with what others do with their money, be it $10 or $40,000.

[RebelOne]

52. Ditto. I agree. But even if I had the money, I would not pay $38,000 for a purse. n/t

[LanternWaste]

42. we're much better at criticizing those who make more than we ourselves do, and even better at ration

I imagine the wife of a subsistence farmer in Rwanda feels the very same about my recent purchase of a new lap top computer, or the new bookshelves I bought and assembled, and with the same critique of my useless extravagance which was the equivalent of seven months of work by her and husband...

I'd guess we're much better at criticizing those who make more than we ourselves do, and even better at rationalizing our own excesses...

[BainsBane]

47. So being virtuous requires subsidizing outsourced sweatshop labor?

Because your cut off for a purse means that is exactly where they are going to come from. Buying something made in the US or Europe by craftsmen making a living wage is disgusting, but subsidizing a global system of low wage sweatshop production is virtuous?

What about limits on expenses for electronics, computer games, etc . .. Or is that kind of consumption okay because you choose to spend your money that way? Is it just women who don't have a right to spend the money they earn?


This moral outrage stuff is hypocritical. This whole poutrage is about people wagging their fingers at others while reflecting not one iota on their own consumption or role in the economy or what it is they are even advocating. Some people don't share your desire to subsidize near slave wages in places like China and Bangladesh--modes of consumption that actually produce poverty.

[Walk away]

50. One of my best clients is a bag designer...

She charges a fortune for her bags. She is generous to charity and her employees. She pays me well for the services I provide for her.
I hope she keeps selling to whoever want her bags and for as much money as she can get. She isn't hurting anyone and she makes a natural product while providing jobs for many happy people.
I think it's sort of sad that folks hate people who spend and make money. They aren't taking anything from you. You are being robbed blind by big banks and people who make and sell nothing tangible or even remotely useful.

[dorkzilla]

51. I buy vintage!

$50 buys me a vintage coach bag, hand stitched and made in the good old USA. I have about 10 of them, one which was a gift, and one I bought for a whopping $1 at a rummage sale. I also have a good deal of American, English and French handbags from the 1950's. My go-to bag is a 5 year old Baggalini, made from recycled plastic bottles.

And I think I'm stylin'!