#status-signaling

#status-signaling

Our culture embodies mutually exclusive beliefs in tribalism and individual exceptionalism. Tribalism used to depend on family; over the past millennium, it increasingly has come to depend on wealth and status, with new elite groupings developing every day-now they're called "lifestyles." The economic stratification of America isn't dissimilar to the caste system of India, the main distinction being that Americans believe they have the opportunity to gain more and more status if they put their shoulders to the grindstones and employ good ol' fashioned industriousness.

Wearing a Loro Piana sweater on a yacht that's strategically anchored in international waters so as to avoid any criminal financial culpability. Organic blueberries. Buying organic blueberries from a weekday farmers' market. Buying organic blueberries from a weekday farmers' market after laying off half your staff via e-mail ("Sent from my iPhone"). A bottle of Aesop hand wash in your bathroom. A bottle of Aesop hand wash in your guest bathroom.

The last time such a dramatic transformation occurred in consumer payment behavior was about 50 years ago, during the transition to credit cards.