Conspicuous Consumption Write-Up

Herald Tribune(source article)
Remi Vales

Same as last week, no explanation should be necessary.

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[Summary]

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Conspicuous consumption seems to be on the rise again among the top of the Upper Class tax bracket, as spending on luxury services and items are on the rise among Southwest Florida citizens.

[Attention-Catching Element]

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A little thing that caught my eye was how it seems that the rich, who “suffered” the most from 2008, are suddenly flashing their wallets around with a great big smile. Perhaps they have realized that corn-holing their money will do nothing for them, so why not spend it on something nice? The article shows fairly strong evidence that this is the case, and furthermore, that the rich are investing heavily in vehicles, despite current fuel costs.

[Evaluation]

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One of the positive things about this recent increase in spending is that businesses will perhaps have to hire more workers, at least for the time being, in certain cases, such as with the upturn in boat orders. Insert usual “spending means slight chance of jobs” rhetoric. In addition, it means that those employees who earn income based on quantity or commission will see a possible bonus in pay for the time being. Finally, it clearly shows that it's becoming “safer” to invest in the stock market yet again, which may catch on among lower-earning people in the near future.

Now for some cons. All this new revenue will stay within the companies, and since they're already fairly big, it's not going to cause a new smaller company to swell up and start competing. It's also just a big way of saying “Haha, we can blow a huge chunk of our cash and not have to scramble to pay bills” to everyone else.(“Everyone else” referring to the 90% not mentioned n the article.) Finally, this new burst of cash for these luxury companies will only help more luxury providers, who will only be able to cater to these same customers, which probably suits them just fine.

[Opinionated Banter]

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Personally, I see no real cons to this. Let the rich blow their money because they desire attention from the public that badly. It won't affect us directly in any way. However, it may cause envy, or possibly some good ol' destruction. I could easily see some “less affluent” people burning Mr. Welltudoo's yacht, purely out of envy or hate. There's nothing wrong with buying something nice for yourself, but doing it in such an obnoxious way is just disgusting.

[Relation to last Article]

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There is only one thing that really links these two articles, and that would be money being squandered so one can get noticed. After that though, they are not at all similar. Luxury spending and buying ad time on TV are two different things. The funds come from two different places,usually fund-raised and from private contributions for political spending, and typically smart business ventures and investments[or spoiling inheritance] for luxury spending. Really, the two articles are not related in any defining way.