Hi. I wanted to share this funny thought I had earlier really quick.
So I am shopping around for a camera and headphones and I live in Finland and there's this meme going around. Basically if you live in Finland you can often get things cheaper from abroad.
I think it has to do with the taxes in this country that stuff here costs quite a bunch. For example if you compare to Germany, electronics such as cameras costs usually like 10-20% more here in Finland than in Germany. But due to international shipping laws and we both belong in EU and are Shengen countries, if I recall correctly, you can actually buy electronics for cheaper from Germany than in Finland.
So it ships to Finland in 7 days or so.
So there's this meme going around that we Finns should support local businesses and not buy stuff from foreign countries all that much, but I believe this is an untrue myth.
So if you want to buy from Finland you've got choices like Verkkokauppa.com which sells a camera for 2000e. So I should support the local entrepreneur and buy it for a little bit more and not save 200e-300e for food and rent?
Well. Then I did some math and I realized that Verkkokauppa.com is actually owned by it's founder mostly along with some companies who hold most of the shares. The guy who owns Verkkokauppa.com is actually worth 47 million USD.
So that made me realize something. I was going to think that my contribution matters a lot to Finnish economy and I was going to make a sacrifice to help the poor guy out, right? To buy from him rather than a German shop that sells the same headphones for 100 euros less.
So of course you have to take it with a grain of salt still. It's actually a good idea still to support local businesses, I am not claiming that. But in my specific case, I am actually a 29 year old living on social support and the guy I was going to help out with my money is a guy who is worth 47 million USD.
He doens't really need the financial support of someone living on social support. So I am graced by this and able to actually buy my equipment for a little bit less this time, and do financial welfare for others and do good with my money when I also am a little bit more wealthy myself.
Because I definitely am not that wealthy, living on social support. That is simply the case.
The moral of the story? Give what you have. If you don't have a lot of money, you don't have to do financial welfare all the time. It simply doesn't make that much sense for people who make less than 50k/year to give money away freely all the time. That is my view now.