God’s Antidote to Gloom and Doom

Thinking about a shopping spree to boost your mood? Try purchasing some Pentecost power.

Doom spending. People do it when they are concerned about the economy and foreign affairs. Feeling stressed by the state of the world, they soothe themselves with shopping sprees.

Here is how it works: A young man might feel that he can never afford to buy a house, so he splurges on a dream vacation. An older woman feels that she cannot do anything to bring peace to the Middle East, so she buys a new outfit. Enjoying luxuries like travel and designer clothing feels so much better than worrying about the future.

Attending a Taylor Swift concert in Paris is an amazing experience, no doubt about it. But is it worth the airfare, the expense of hotels and restaurants, and the cost of tickets that run from $187 to $11,603?

Apparently so, since about 20% of Swift’s Paris tickets were purchased by Americans in 2024.

According to Psychology Today, doom spending is when people shop to self-soothe because they feel pessimistic about the economy and their future. And because we often...