The ERE Wheaton Scale

[ertyu]

The trick is to not get stuck inside it, because the table itself becomes a form of external motivation and you're isolated from what you actually desire as your own person.

good insight

[unemployable]

https://www.reddit.com/r/fijerk/comment ... r_wheaton/

Note that is a satire sub

[bostonimproper]

The r/financialindependence subreddit is also going through the ERE 21 day makeover right now, inviting similar commentary. My guess is that’s how some folks are discovering the blog/forum right now.

[PhoneticNachos]

Reminds me of Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions Theory.

[JenniferW]

We are like level 7, leaving out the public authority part..we're modest but we do offer suggestions/advice to relatives and friends.

[black_son_of_gray]

The table is based on more than a decade of observing what could be called the main road from consumerism to post-consumerism in hundreds of journals and interactions. There are other roads, such as growing up like this already, but these are less common. The table is therefore not normative. You don't have to use this road. It is pretty rare to see someone jumping levels though. This is because it's not only about what you do but also how you think about what you're doing and that kind of rewiring can take many years. Whether you do it from age 4-16 or from age 24 to 36 is no matter. None of this is particularly complicated. It is complex though. As such WLs also contains an increasing development of internal complexity---more things to think about and more ways to think about them. What e.g. WL7 understand by using systems-theory is not how WL5 would think of it when hearing the word "system".

Unless it has changed, I'm seeing (ERE Wheaton table v2, 2021 ed.) that Level 10 is described as "embodying philosophy, leading by example, virtuous fulfillment", "infinite games".

I have a few interrelated questions/observations.

• Progressing up the ERE Wheaton Levels may move a person from consumerism to post-consumerism, but it doesn't move a person away from capitalism. At least, not for the vast majority of people here--probably the opposite.
• Is capitalism an infinite game? (I'm not asking about "in theory", I'm asking about how it actually manifests in the world right now. Also, I doubt that companies being "going concerns" qualifies their outlooks/orientations as "infinite", but feel free to argue that point.)
• If ERE Wheaton Level 8 focuses on waste and "closing the loops", why isn't having a gigantic wad of cash/investment considered a flaw of the system? Nature abhors a vacuum. But equally, it also abhors excess. Why isn't having too much money considered waste?
• Is having a gigantic wad of cash/investment benign from an "infinite game", "embodying philosophy, leading by example, virtuous fulfillment" perspective? In particular, I mean to say a giant stack of cash invested* in a corporation engaged in extractive, environmentally degrading, unsustainable, "finite game" behavior? Especially since, by this point in the high ERE Wheaton Levels, money is "irrelevant"?
• In ERE Wheaton Level 10, are the "embodied" philosophy and "virtues" assumed to be of the "infinite game" flavor?
• If it is easily possible to "opt out" of a system that may have or likely does have nasty knock-on effects, why wouldn't someone? Is it "embodying philosophy, leading by example, virtuous fulfillment" if the answer to that question is largely, "because it's convenient" or "because I benefit"?
• Is it more likely for someone at ERE Wheaton Level 10 to have $1MM+ dollars invested in various broad-market funds or for them to be (nearly?) fully divested? If divested, how much cash do they have/keep? *It doesn't even have to be kept in a bank account (a bank could make loans based on that). It could be just be cash in a safe deposit box.
• People more than 2 ERE Wheaton Levels away from 8-9-10 are likely to find people at 8-9-10 to be absolutely nuts.

*Investment in e.g. stocks, after all, can be equated in some sense to partial ownership.

If these kinds of questions have already been thoroughly discussed, could someone kindly link me to those threads?