Rob Henderson on Luxury Beliefs and Class Dynamics

Video via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Slm6K8XsYwk

Description

"Rob Henderson is a PhD student at Cambridge University studying Social and Evolutionary Psychology. He coined the term 'luxury beliefs' and writes regularly on Substack (robkhenderson.substack.com). He is also a veteran."

Discussion

Luxury Beliefs

Rob Henderson:

"Throughout my experiences traveling along the class ladder, I made a discovery:

• Luxury beliefs have, to a large extent, replaced luxury goods.

• Luxury beliefs are ideas and opinions that confer status on the upper class, while often inflicting costs on the lower classes.

In 1899, the economist and sociologist Thorstein Veblen published a book called The Theory of the Leisure Class.

Drawing on observations about social class in the late nineteenth century, Veblen’s key idea is that because we can’t be certain about the financial status of other people, a good way to size up their means is to see whether they can afford expensive goods and leisurely activities. This explains why status symbols are so difficult to obtain and costly to purchase.

But distinction encompasses not only clothing or food or rituals. It also extends to ideas and beliefs and causes.

Today, because material goods have become a noisier signal of one’s social position and economic resources, the affluent have decoupled social status from goods, and re-attached it to beliefs.

The upper class craves distinction."

(https://robkhenderson.substack.com/p/status-symbols-and-the-struggle-for)