Lead:

Economists refer to the consumption of such extremely expensive products or services as conspicuous consumption, indicating that the purpose of this consumption behavior is not to have its practical value, but to show one's identity. By taking advantage of their income advantage and spending at a high price, high-income earners are often able to effectively separate themselves from their low-income counterparts.

The French Emperor Napoleon III was a man who liked to show off himself. He often feasted on his wife and entertained guests from all over the world. At each banquet, almost all the utensils on the table were made of silver, except for the bowl he used himself, which was made of aluminum. Why did the Emperor of France not use expensive and bright silver bowls instead of aluminum bowls with much darker colors?

It turns out that almost 200 years ago, in the Napoleonic era, gold and silver have been smelted and used for a long time, and silver abounded in the court. However, at that time, people had just learned that aluminum could be smelted from bauxite, and the technology of smelting aluminum was still very backward, and it was very difficult to smelt aluminum. Therefore, aluminum was a very rare thing at that time, not to mention that the common people could not afford it, even the ministers and nobles could not use it. Napoleon let his guests use silver cutlery, but he himself used aluminum bowls, just to show his nobility and dignity.

This must be ridiculous today, because today, aluminum is not only much cheaper than silver, but also far inferior in luster and performance. The reason why aluminum became cheap and affordable is because people later invented the technology of electrolytic aluminum, which can produce aluminum in large quantities. Aluminum is already so common, who would show it off like Napoleon back then?

Economists refer to the consumption of such extremely expensive products or services as conspicuous consumption, indicating that the purpose of this consumption behavior is not to have its practical value, but to show one's identity. In addition, consumer psychology research has shown that the price of goods has a good exclusivity and is a good indication of an individual's income level. By taking advantage of their income advantage and spending at a high price, high-income earners are often able to effectively separate themselves from their low-income counterparts.

Conspicuous consumption is an important socio-economic phenomenon, and this concept was first proposed by Veblen in his 1899 book The Theory of the Leisure Class: An Economic Study of the System. Veblen believed that goods can be divided into two main categories: non-ostentatious goods and conspicuous goods. Among them, non-conspicuous goods can only bring material utility to consumers, while conspicuous goods can bring vanity utility to consumers. Vanity utility refers to the satisfaction of being respected by others through the consumption of a particular commodity. He argues that wealthy people often consume conspicuous goods to show that they have more wealth or higher social status.

Nowadays, the young "post-80s" rich children are gradually coming into the public eye, unlike their parents, who were born rich and became a generation of upstarts in society. Some of them are even more criticized by the society for their lavish consumption, and "Brother Pants" is the "nickname" that people give to these people. The reason why famous cars and mansions, champagne wines, and brand-name clothes have frequently become the objects of pursuit of the "rich second generation" is, in the final analysis, their "showing off their wealth" psychology at work.

This kind of flaunting of wealth is actually very common in the daily life of ordinary people. Many times, people buy something not exactly because of its use value, but because they want to show their wealth, status or something else through such a thing. In our country, conspicuous consumption is growing much faster than economic growth.

Some people conclude that the biggest difference between the luxury consumption of the rich in China and the rich in Europe and the United States is that the main items purchased in China are personal daily necessities such as clothing, jewelry, watches, and leather goods, which are very superficial; In Europe and the United States, the most valued luxury goods are mainly cars, yachts, mansions, and art collections. Chinese consumers do not value the brand culture and connotation of luxury goods, but use price tags to distinguish luxury goods. Collective buying and co-buying are also characteristic of China's wealthy. According to reports, more than 10 Wenzhou businessmen spent 130 million yuan to buy 22 private planes, and Shanxi coal bosses bought 20 Humvees at one time.

The damage caused by abnormal conspicuous consumption is enormous. When people value their wealth, status, and status, they must do their best to show off and compare, and position the purpose and meaning of life to constantly meet the escalating demand for showing off. In many cases of corruption, in order to show their status and power, some high palaces engaged in conspicuous consumption, and in order to satisfy their desires, they abandoned principles and laws, traded power for money, and embezzled and accepted bribes until they became corrupt and degenerate.

In addition, conspicuous consumption leads to a waste of resources. Investing a lot of capital and consuming a lot of resources to produce conspicuous goods, and squandering them in order to make a big deal of money, this irrational consumption wastes resources and goods that could have been saved. China's resource situation has restricted economic development, and it is difficult to guarantee resources to meet the basic needs of social production and people's lives, and the consumption of resources, especially scarce resources, by conspicuous consumption, directly affects the creation of a conservation-oriented society and the implementation of sustainable development strategies.

Not only does consumption cost a lot of money to produce luxury goods, but these consumers turn luxury goods into waste with astonishing extravagance. Wasted wealth only satisfies the vanity of the rich, which is tantamount to a low growth in real wealth and a decline in the overall welfare of society.

In short, extravagant consumption can satisfy the vanity of the wealthy, but the damage caused by abnormal ostentatious consumption is enormous.