I found out after checking my savings in a few months. Went to buy surplus grain from Sawhill farms and needed to withdraw 1000. thought ATM was broke until I check the Chase app and find a lousy 300 dollars left. I called her and just spoke for a bit before bringing it up and when I did she paused and just went “oh” and hung up. I got home she was already in bed and I ended up getting high and sleeping on the futon again. Next morn she tells me that I have to think about paying off some debt. Debt? I brought up the missing money and that’s when she broke down and told me she had been watching eBay live and buying a bunch of shit we don’t need. I checked out eBay life and shits bleak. It uses the short form media format so you can just swipe through live auctions. She got addicted to spending but using klarna because she thought it would cost less. Turns out I’m over 9000 in debt. There’s no way to return some of this shit. I think I’m going to pay it off but then have a serious discussion about the relationship because I don’t think I can be with someone who is financially unstable. But I love her and she helped me out when I was in a toxic relationship.
You literally just restated my whole thing back to me, just disagreeing with the language around "addiction" back at me. I disagree, because I view 'addiction' as a spectrum of behaviors. And even within your own definition, which I disagree with, the fact of the matter is that it is an auction house. You don't know if you are going to win. That is the thrill of the thing. Hence why it is in the spectrum of gambling addiction.
This is pretty irrelevant though, as even a drug addict is still responsible for their actions.
I get it though, you don't like the semantics. However, as you yourself said, "Adults need this kind of skill in order to survive capitalism." And the cause may be a lack of self-disclipline, brought on from potential mental illness (not going to diagnose the cause, however several large and sudden purchases can be a sign of a manic episode). Hence why, maybe, thinking about as a self-destructive and addictive behavior, in need of treatment, is a better way to think about it. Or maybe she is just a shitty person, as many people with and without mental illness are.
However, just because you can't do anything about capitalism doesn't mean you have to apply a neoliberal bootstrap ideology to mental health. However, if they are unwilling to engage themselves in self-crit, there is very little that can be done.
It doesn't really matter what you call it, as long as they are looking to solve it and correct the wrongs they have done.
Edit:Also I am not getting into sexual addiction or whatever, just because I literally don't know anything about it.