Conspicuous Consumption In A Historical Culinary Context

Designer clothing, luxury cars, flashy handbags. These are just a few of the status symbols that differentiate the rich from the poor. These items are often used to determine the who’s who in today’s society by showing off wealth and status. Although others should not be based solely on their income, this judgement is sadly commonplace. The rich and the poor are segregated both by accident and on purpose in many situations and the lower class is the one that deals with the brunt of that discrimination.

This includes a story of her mother who waltzed into a social service agency dressed in an impressive outfit to set straight an issue that her elderly neighbor had trouble with over the past year in a single day (Cottom 1012). To elaborate, she justifies why poor people ordinarily make the choices they do, while conversely questioning them. In her text, “The Logic of Stupid Poor People”, Cottom declares that “We want to belong” (1013). I agree that we want to belong, if you belong you are safe. At one point, her first professional job manager decided she was accordingly “. . . too classy to be on the call center floor.” (Cottom 1014) This proves that putting money into a brand name suit can have a positive influence on others, in this case she gained a high pay raise and her workload was decreased. If poor people spend money on classy outfits, the rich people will perceive them as their own.

In consumption, it is believed trends travel from the upper classes to the lower class as those from a lower social status seek to emulate those of a higher social status, this is referred to as the trickle-down effect (Trigg et al., 2001).

Once upon a time, there was a kingdom divided into two classes. The rich and the poor. The king only allowed those who could afford the finest of silks and eat the most exotic foods. He expelled the rest to the outskirts of the kingdom. He let them do whatever they wanted, but occasionally took money from them to fund his dinner parties.

It seems to most that those who have money have it all. They should buy all the unnecessary “junk” that one might find pleasure in owning, take everything for granted and view lower-class individuals as a group of wanna-bes. Think again. S.E. Hinton’s novel The Outsiders, very important propositions are portrayed through the writing techniques which link to another piece of writing “Poverty and Wealth” written by Ella Wheeler Wilcox. Just because you have everything, doesn’t mean you understand it's worth. Different classes have different experiences, allowing elaboration on the different characters.

Such possessions are utilized in a competitive manner in order to display status and values “Whom we invite to dinner affects who marries whom, which then affects who inherits what, which affects whose children get a head start” (76). This reinforces the existence of social class and capitalism in the sense that bodies are used as machines to work and eventually gain money to spend it on objects that seems to impress people on the surface, but in reality it only validates the person’s status and social class. Using my family home as an example, each room is designed to host different kinds of guests for certain occasions. No guest will ever be situated in the family’s living room for the reason that the wood design on the walls, the green velvet couches, the simple picture frames and the fact that it is directly open to the kitchen does not scream fancy, but comfort instead. For that, the guests are always welcomed in the fancy guest room, which has the fancy purple couches that are perfectly suited with the expensive silver accessories, the silver vases that contains the weekly rearranged black flowers and the displaced silver see-through cabinets that contains the finest chinas, crystals and silverware. In addition, some people in the Middle East still hold on to their culture, and as a result, some guests prefer to

“It’s not what you own its what people think you own” (Ewen 183). Consumerism is fueling today’s “middle class”. Stewart Ewen’s “Chosen People” goes into detail about the rise of the materialistic middle class.

Bourdieu argues that although “snob” (Peterson, Kern. Oct, 1996, Changing Highbrow Taste: From Snob to Omnivore, pg.900-907, published by American Sociological Association) tends to be assimilated into “omnivore” (Peterson, Kern. Oct, 1996, Changing Highbrow Taste: From Snob to Omnivore, pg.900-907, published by American Sociological Association), people can still see the boundary between two classes because it is easy to go downward, but going upward is always facing difficulty. It illustrates that upper class people can enter lower class culture easily, however, lower class people are having difficulty to engage with upper class culture because from upper class position, they have enough money to spend in lower class culture. In contrast, lower class people still do not have enough money to spend like upper class people although they can access into the upper class culture. For instance, beer is not considered as an expensive beverage as compared to the upper class usually drink, however people who only afford to buy beer are not affordable to buy such as champagnes as many as they consume

The consumption of luxury goods in China is mounting sharply. Not only those born to elite families, but also many common people are greedy for luxury brands (China, a Booming

Americans practice conspicuous consumption all the time. Often times people spend more on luxury goods than life necessities. Luxury spending ranges from paying extra to buy a case of pop rather than a case of water to buying a BMW instead of a regular car to just get around. I feel almost everyone is guilty of conspicuous consumption at some point. Everyone will overspend on something they don't really need throughout their life. I don't really feel race, class, or region really have an effect on who does the conspicuous consumption. However, I feel younger people purchase more luxurious items than older people because younger people feel attracted to certain brands and items. Younger people also know what brands they have make them

In the United states, social classes is a controversial issue in terms of defining the actual nature of the classes themselves. Many individuals have categorized the society into three elementary groups that is the “poor”, “middle class” and the “rich”. Additionally, a more complex system of social classes is derived from the three elementary classes. In this regard, a four-class system includes “the capitalist/upper class”, “the middle class”, “the working class” and “the lower class” (Thompson, 2005). Moreover, sociologists have expanded the for-class system into a six class system includes “the capitalist or upper class”, “the upper-middle class”, “the middle class”, “the working class”, “the lower-working class” and “the lower class”.

They are the patricians, who pay a premium for subtly branded products only other patricians recognize. We test this indirectly in Study 1 by offering empirical support for the notion that, on average, less conspicuously branded luxury goods offered by the same brand cost

In 2007, the WWF-UK measured 10 luxury brands on their environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance – and the brands did not fair well (Bendell and Kleanthous 2007). In relation to the marketing of luxury brands in a world of rich and poor, the report states: “Luxury brands are experiencing rapid expansion in societies that contain both very rich and very poor people. Such societies can view displays of conspicuous consumption as a threat to social cohesion. This is true, for example, in China, where the authorities in Beijing have banned the use of billboards to advertise luxury products and services. In this context, the credibility of luxury products and services will be derived from their ability to generate wellbeing, not only for consumers, but also for those involved in (or affected by) their production, use, reuse and disposal.”

There are some economists who support a theory the U.S. economic system is without a social class system, in the typical sense. However, through many proven research methods, science leans in the opposite direction of that theory. It has been shown that humans have a natural tendency to not only roam in places where they feel as though they belong, but they also exhibit similar traits in spending based on their surroundings. The main idea of the article “Social Classes and Spending Behavior” by Pierre Martineau is to understand consumer spending behavior in different social classes in order to apply a specific research design, created by Lloyd Warner, to several different market models. When a consumer of visibly lower social class walks into a expensive department store, the clerks inside will treat her considerably different than they would if a different customer from a noticeably higher living standard walked in (121). By having the difference between them, people who have the same standard will be treated differently in subtle ways (121). Apart from how others from separate social classes are treated, there is also differences among consumers of the same income level, which serves as a better indicator of their social class, as opposed to income level. It is said that Middle-class people do not hesitate when buying refrigerators and other appliances which is durable goods, also no hesitation when buying things in discount houses and making purchase in bargain stores

Luxury is artificial definition and cannot be easily transferred into real life. It is a notion of anything that is useless and superfluous in real life. However, it can be often associated with beauty (art, entertainment, design, décor or trend) and remains one of the driving forces behind society’s spending. It is true that luxury speaks and renown’s itself by big spending and indeed, outlandish expenditure is often associated with it.