That reminds me of the blond joke who came up to a house and said she would paint the porch for $20. She surprises the guy by coming back 15 minutes later, saying she's done. "Oh, and it's not a porch. It's a Lexus."
In spite of the good natured car banter going on here, I want to clarify a couple of things. One is a) I bought my 911 at 1 year old and saved about 40k (options never resell well). I paid cash. B) I could FIRE now if I wanted to with 35x annual expenses invested.
Much more importantly, the post was more about the relapse of material desire and becoming a pawn in an unwinnable game. The car thing was really just an example. I don't care if someone has an expensive car. Some cars are truly amazing experiences to drive and experiences are what life is about. If you don't care about driving (or houses or photography or travel or anything else that people spend a lot of money on), then it would never make sense to buy it. If you really (truly) love an experience with a material object, then there is value. If you can't afford it, get one that is close (e.g., a Miata). I have more recently discovered many experiences in life that require very little cost and bring me as much happiness as anything I could buy and occupy zero space in my physical life (travel, hiking, sports, talking with my best friend, music, hanging out with my wife and family, etc.) Buying something for show should land you in some circle of Dante's Inferno.
But my issue, dear psychiatrists, was about taking the bait from a person who has an effed up sense of materialism by wanting to make people jealous with stuff. My own selfish pride, as well as my stash, said I could easily out compete her financially, but why on earth would I want to do that? Vanity, competitiveness, ego. Wrong damn reasons to live. How to avoid falling in this trap was real question. I agree now with several posters that selective choices of our surroundings is key. But my overly optimistic philosopher wanted to be able to not fall for the materialistic three card Monty anywhere anytime. Shouldn't we meditate in a loud bus station instead of a quiet room? Isn't that what we are training ourselves to do with meditation? But I think now, that if I can create a quiet room, why not stay there?
Ok, back to cars!