Meaningful Returns

You aren’t just asking “can we afford this?” and then answering it. I mean, that may be the only question you’re voicing, but it’s certainly not the only question. In fact it may not even be the most important question.

The other question that gets answered–whether or not you mean too–is, “can we afford to afford this?”

In other words, what are the second and third level consequences of your decision to purchase, or afford, that thing? Sure, you have the number of dollars required to purchase that thing, but what else could those dollars have gone to, and is that something else more important?

There are all kinds of people experiencing artificial poverty who have “afforded” all kinds of things, yet here they are feeling the pinch because it turns out that something more important got unafforded.

First-level thinking is really easy. Beyond that it gets messy. But of course shying away from messy is a Mess in a class of its own.