On Demand
Spare No Expense
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
Virginia Postrel, contributing editor for the Atlantic Monthly, discusses the "wealth gap" and the links between income, race and spending habits in America.
- About the Brian Lehrer Show »
- Staff Bios »
- Contact Us »
- Tapes and Transcripts »
- Latest Episode »
- Show Archive »
Features & Series
Podcast
Stay up to date.
Subscribe to the Podcast
YOU PRODUCE The Brian Lehrer Show
Be a listener-producer with facts, questions and people you'd like to hear on the air.
More
The Brian Lehrer Show Scrapbook
Visit the scrapbook for daily photos and miscellany from The Brian Lehrer Show.
More
Shop at Amazon!
The Brian Lehrer Show picks
Start your Amazon shopping on WNYC.org and a portion of your total purchase goes to WNYC.
More
Comments
Refresh
Pocketbooks are also very popular in showing money- to the point where they have "rent-a-bag-" ala Sex in the City
Living in a huge and/or fancy house is indeed conspicuous consumption. After all, whose opinions do most people value more than their neighbors'? It's all about impressing your *peers*.
Uh, it tells us people are weird and have perverted ideas about what counts. And that is a value judgement, I make 'em all the time.
When I was working my way through college, an older coworker told me the way you display class and a certain level of sophistication is by the shoes you wear..
Aldo = joe regular; generic..
Allen Edmonds = classy
Interestingly enough, I'm never impressed and in fact I think Louis Vuitton's leather design with logo initials is really cheap looking.
The unfortunate relationship between cars & jewelry and the poor has become even more unfortunate in the current economy.
Gas is over $4 a gallon and shares of Cash America International, otherwise known as pawn shops, were up 16% yesterday.
this is very animal. look at me i have more stuff so i must be a better hunter
In the discussion on China's (along w Vietnam and other nations) new conspicuous spending habits (well, Gucci et al began selling there 10 yrs ago or so)...please also note that conspicuous spending is a bold political statement.
Mao jackets were not popular for their comfort. They were a statement: "I do not have $100 K in gold buried under my house so please don't look there."
That folks are taking that gold and spending it is practically a generational jump for joy that, finally, they trust their government not to lop their heads off when they stick them out.
Most of our lives suck anyway so if making your neighbor jealous gives a sliver of happiness go for it. Who cares
Is it me or is there a new trend of women on radio shows inflecting a rasp in their voice. I've heard it in many from researchers or writers on shows toting their new books.
Is it my imagination? I don't think so. It's contrived, silly and annoying. I can't concentrate on the subject. Drink a glass of water. Be yourself.
Antonio, remember "The Silence of the Lambs"? Dr. Lecter told Clarice Starling he could tell by her "cheap shoes" that she was a "hick."
bored
mabye most of our lives suck because some get happiness by making their neighbor jealous
What about the astronomical prices that have been seen in the art market. What about the countries / city states in the United Arab Emirates, South Korea, India and China engaging in over the top super building, instead of concentrating their new found wealth into uplifting their poorer residents. Everyone, everywhere is always trying to ‘keep up with the Jones’. It is weird human nature.
Jim, how do you know it's contrived? Maybe a raspy voice is just a raspy voice.
Dickens coined the phrase "portable wealth" in Great Expectations to refer to the importance of what is now called "bling" that you can "floss" (and re-sell).
I'm curious if (poor) public transportation in poor neighborhoods has anything to do with the bent towards autos?
(http://todayeye.wordpress.com/2008/06/29/piggy-benz/)
Further, I wonder if more substantial possessions act as any sort of a buffer against the myriad discrimination that the poor face daily?
Brian,
You should have Loretta Napoleoni back as guest for her Book Rogue Economics. She addresses the issues of knock off designer items such as bags and perfumes etc...
Virginia's article only talks about Blacks and Whites. Last time I checked Hispanics, East Asians and South Asians make up a portion of the wealth. Hispanics are targetted by almost every brand in this country. I also think that South Asians have a very high per capita income. What are their spending habits?
Difficult listening here, i respect the woman's point but the painful pace makes me cringe, she's so out of sync with Brian. (speed it up, nothing profound said here, those trends are obvious) Not being nasty, just saying.
Regarding spending habits, it seems spending went crazy after everyone was offered credit cards regardless of ability to pay. Lax laws, high interest rates, basically an unregulated industry have created the phenomenon of modern indentured servants. Those who spend wisely, pay off debt quickly are a minority.
CC's were designed to do just that, get people owing, based on the psychology that the average person can't resist spending when they don't feel the pain of it coming directly from their pocket. A nice trick they've done, changing laws (via lobbying) limiting how the public spends money by channeling basic expenditures through one spigot where big CC companies make a cut off of each transaction. You can't do that with cash, which is why they hate it.
They love debt, +interest added to debt, then sell our debt as "credit" to financial institutions. A bizarre creation, so falsely rooted. I can't see why the educated public would accept such a scheme, but at this point society is steeped in this system (as of the 80's anyway).
CC's lead to irrational spending. Spending follows the payment method i say. Over spending by folks elsewhere in the world is also tied to plastic, as opposed to responsible cash or barter based economies.
Theresa-
As I state, I could be wrong, but I have heard this type of affect among intellectual women speaking on the radio recently (last few years). Maybe it's unconscious - but I've heard it - and it ussually sounds forced. Listen for yourself.
i don't know if the dollars spent on cars and rims are the problem. the real problem is that we are just far enough removed from the generation that lived through the depression and world war II that we (americans, all of us) have forgotten about thrift.
for every urban black guy with a jazzed up monte carlo, there is a white family swimming in credit card debt.
poor people, regardless of race, are probably disorganized. that chaos may not have caused their poverty, but it probably extends and deepens it. late payments, fees, loss of potential interest on savings, paying twice for something.
it would probably help to get some advice and training on how money works...corny as it sounds, one of suze orman's skinny little books revolutionized how i handle my money. i have zero revolving credit card debt and changed how i handle my 401K.
[[Posted by: RCJuly 08, 2008 - 10:53AM Virginia's article only talks about Blacks and Whites. Last time I checked Hispanics, East Asians and South Asians make up a portion of the wealth. Hispanics are targetted by almost every brand in this country. I also think that South Asians have a very high per capita income. What are their spending habits?]]
i've seen the whole range here in chicago, from very conservative pakistani families to young adults who are very well immersed in the consumer culture...the women more than the men. the men are just trying to keep up. i think there is tremendous pressure within the community to be family-minded, to save and to plan for the future.
I haven't listened to the segment yet (and I may not bother), but it sounds like Postrel is just rehashing an ancient racist, class-based stereotype---"welfare queens" driving Cadillacs, etc. When I was a boy, the racist joke was that all the poor black people in Chicago drove Cadillacs--and LIVED in them. Of course, as we all know, there are no poor white people.
I've read Postrel's columns in the NY Times. She's a right-winger.
[[BL Moderator Writes: This comment edited for violating the WNYC posting policy. Please remember to keep your comments civil, particularly in light of the fact that you even admit to not having heard the segment. Thanks.]]
Huh. This is *not* about impressing the peers of one's class, per se. It's about the oh-so-wonderful state of being a WASP. Or a WASP-wannabe. (Or WASP-wannaBee)?
WASPS have restrained taste, as we ALL know. They Don't pile on the jewelry or wear flashy colors, generally. Apparently, we are ALL supposed to be hankering after this divine state of Being A WASP. It's so gauche, otherwise, even if you Have $$. So tacky. Well, that IS a value judgement, dear lady. This woman is a WASP, for sure. I can tell. I'll still read her article, though.
Leave a Comment
Please stay on topic, be civil, and be brief.
Back to EpisodeEmail addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments. Names are displayed with all comments. WNYC reserves the right to edit any comments posted on this site. Please read the WNYC.org Comment Guidelines before posting.