"The Affluent Have Decoupled Social Status from Goods, and Re-Attached It to Beliefs"

"The economist and social theorist Thomas Sowell once said that activism is 'a way for useless people to feel important, even if the consequences of their activism are counterproductive for those they claim to be helping and damaging to the fabric of society as a whole.' The same could be said for luxury beliefs. They are similar to luxury goods, but present new problems. Attaching status to luxury goods or financial standing meant there were limits to how much harm the leisure class could do when it came to their conspicuous displays. For example, fashion is constrained by the speed with which people could adopt a new look. But with beliefs, this status cycle accelerates. A rich person flaunts her new belief. It then becomes fashionable among her peers, so she abandons it. Then a new stylish belief arises, while the old luxury belief trickles down the social hierarchy and wreaks havoc." 

Rob Henderson at Quillette discusses conspicuous virtue.

"We Use Products to Create and Experience Community"

"When a group feels unfairly deprived of material wealth, respect, rights or freedoms relative to other groups, that relative deprivation mobilizes political action. The proliferation of consumer choice helps explain why today's Gilded Age hasn't sparked as much outrage as the last one. Money may not buy happiness in the long run, but consumer choice has gone a long way in keeping most Americans reasonably content, even if they shouldn't be."


Steven Quartz and Anette Asp in The New York Times discuss the "neuroscience of consumerism."

"The Lives of an Earlier Generation’s Elite Were, Indeed, Far More Restrained, More Seemly If You Like, Than Those of Today’s Masters of the Universe"

"The point is that while chiding the rich for their vulgarity may not be as offensive as lecturing the poor on their moral failings, it's just as futile. Human nature being what it is, it's silly to expect humility from a highly privileged elite. So if you think our society needs more humility, you should support policies that would reduce the elite's privileges."


Paul Krugman in The New York Times compares America's wealthiest today with those of sixty years ago.

Waste Not, Want Not

"We have managed since Benny’s heyday to get a little carried away. Alan Greenspan and the Chinese gave us too much credit, unfettered bankers chose greed over sobriety, and consumers snapped up McMansions financed by loans they could never repay. In 1980, American household debt stood at what must have seemed the enormous sum of $1.4 trillion. Last year the figure was 10 times as large, only 24 percent of us were debt free, and more than half of college students carried at least four credit cards. Is it any wonder there were more than a million consumer bankruptcy filings last year? Or that the nation’s banking system came close to collapse? The result of all this excess is a people hung-over from its recent intoxication with spending and flabbergasted by the bill from the wine merchant."

Daniel Akst at The Wilson Quarterly heralds the return of thrift.