[PDF] Conspicuous Consumption And Inequality eBook

Author : Eric A. Schutz
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 419 pages
File Size : 43,58 MB
Release : 2011-03-21
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 1136811370

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This book is about the causes and consequences of economic inequality in the advanced market economies of today. It is common that in market systems people choose their own individual economic destinies, but of course the choices people make are importantly determined by the alternatives available to them: unequal opportunity is the critical determinant of economic disparities. This begs the question; from where do the vast inequalities of opportunity arise? This book theorizes that power and social class are the real crux of economic inequality. Most of mainstream economics studiously eschews questions involving social power, preferring to focus instead on "individual choice subject to constraint" in contexts of "well-functioning markets". Yet both "extra-market" power structures and power structures arising from within the market system itself are unavoidably characteristic of real-world market-based economies. The normal working of labor and financial markets engenders an inherent wealth-favoring bias in the distribution of opportunities for occupational choice. But that bias is greatly compounded by the economic, social, political and cultural power structures that constitute the class system. For those power structures work to distribute economic benefit to class elites, and are in turn undergirded by the disparities of wealth they thus help engender. Inequality and Power offers an economic analysis of the power structures constituting that class system: employers’ power over employees; the power of certain businesses over others; professionals’ power over their clients and other employees; cultural power in the media and education systems; and political power in "democratic" government. Schutz argues that a "class analysis" of the trend of increasing economic inequality today is superior to the mainstream economic analysis of that trend. After considering what is wrong with power-based inequality in term of criteria of distributive justice and economic functionality, the book concludes with an outline of various possible correctives. This book should be of interest to students and researchers in economics, sociology, political science and philosophy, as well as anyone interested in the theories of social class.

Author : Mahmut Zeki Akarsu
Publisher :
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 38,37 MB
Release : 2023
Category :
ISBN :

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This study investigates the relationship between conspicuous consumption and inequality in the United States by doing text mining in Google searches for luxury and comfort goods. The findings reveal a strong correlation between the pursuit of luxury items and levels of income inequality in states of the United States (U.S.). An increase in average income leads to a parallel increase in inequality, resulting in a heightened inclination for American citizens to demand luxury goods. However, this trend can have negative consequences, such as hindering wealth redistribution policies, affecting savings rates, and increasing criminal activities related to luxury items. The study highlights the influence of consumer behavior on socioeconomic disparities and the detrimental effects of the correlation between conspicuous consumption and inequality for society as a whole, despite being profitable for luxury brands.

Author : Jakob Kapeller
Publisher :
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 49,44 MB
Release : 2015
Category :
ISBN :

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This paper extends the theoretical concept of wage-led and profit-led demand regimes by incorporating relative consumption concerns. Specifically, it integrates the Veblenian concept of conspicuous consumption into the Bhaduri-Marglin model by assuming that relative consumption concerns matter primarily within the working class. If in such a framework the profit share increases and the corresponding decrease in workers' income is distributed unevenly, efforts to 'keep up with the Joneses' may increase consumption and, hence, lead to a consumption-driven profit-led regime.

Author :
Publisher :
Page : pages
File Size : 13,94 MB
Release : 2004
Category :
ISBN :

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An intertemporal decision model is presented in which subjects save less for retirement than the permanent income hypothesis predicts, signaling optimistic income prospects (and therefore high latent productivity) to possible partners in productive exchanges. Competitive conspicuous consumption (CCC), as it is called, is a self-defeating strategy, if followed by subjects simultaneously. Egalitarian policies (which have to be distinguished from pure welfare policies) tend to lower excess consumption. The CCC-hypothesis justifies a cross-sectional Keynesian consumption function with declining marginal propensities to consume. It is argued that the cultural context is highly relevant to the scope and importance of CCC. (author's abstract).

Author : Elizabeth Currid-Halkett
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 267 pages
File Size : 24,69 MB
Release : 2017-05-15
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 1400884691

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How the leisure class has been replaced by a new elite, and how their consumer habits affect us all In today’s world, the leisure class has been replaced by a new elite. Highly educated and defined by cultural capital rather than income bracket, these individuals earnestly buy organic, carry NPR tote bags, and breast-feed their babies. They care about discreet, inconspicuous consumption—like eating free-range chicken and heirloom tomatoes, wearing organic cotton shirts and TOMS shoes, and listening to the Serial podcast. They use their purchasing power to hire nannies and housekeepers, to cultivate their children’s growth, and to practice yoga and Pilates. In The Sum of Small Things, Elizabeth Currid-Halkett dubs this segment of society “the aspirational class” and discusses how, through deft decisions about education, health, parenting, and retirement, the aspirational class reproduces wealth and upward mobility, deepening the ever-wider class divide. Exploring the rise of the aspirational class, Currid-Halkett considers how much has changed since the 1899 publication of Thorstein Veblen’s Theory of the Leisure Class. In that inflammatory classic, which coined the phrase “conspicuous consumption,” Veblen described upper-class frivolities: men who used walking sticks for show, and women who bought silver flatware despite the effectiveness of cheaper aluminum utensils. Now, Currid-Halkett argues, the power of material goods as symbols of social position has diminished due to their accessibility. As a result, the aspirational class has altered its consumer habits away from overt materialism to more subtle expenditures that reveal status and knowledge. And these transformations influence how we all make choices. With a rich narrative and extensive interviews and research, The Sum of Small Things illustrates how cultural capital leads to lifestyle shifts and what this forecasts, not just for the aspirational class but for everyone.

Author : Punarjit Roychowdhury
Publisher :
Page : pages
File Size : 36,81 MB
Release : 2016
Category :
ISBN :

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If individuals care about their status, defined as their rank in the distribution of conspicuous consumption, a fall in the level of visible inequality is likely to cause them to spend more on conspicuous goods due to increased status competition. I examine this hypothesis using micro data from rural India. Employing an identification strategy based on instrumental variables, I find robust evidence that visible inequality has a negative and significant impact on household conspicuous consumption. Further, my results indicate that the increase in conspicuous expenditure in response to a fall in visible inequality is diverted from education spending which is perceived to have positive social externalities. This suggests that traditional redistributive policies that seek to reduce the level of economic inequality, by encouraging 'wasteful' spending of households, might have adverse welfare consequences.