Once watching the classic comedy film named Breakfast at Tiffany’s, you must not forget the starring role Holly Golightly, a provincial pretty girl who had craved for ever setting foot in the noisy and gaudy world in New York. Early at six every morning, she patiently hailed a ride to Tiffany Co. to look into the shop’s luxurious jewelry. By this way only, every sense of insecurity in her would fade away.
Holly Golightly is one of millions of millions of “luxury good addicts” in the “global village” where every citizens’ behaviors are controlled and directed by such desperate craving for luxury goods.
Nowadays, when luxury goods are no longer an exclusive privilege that demonstrates the social class or status of any individual, high-net-worth individuals have shown a new trend called inconspicuous consumption.
In 1899, the economist Thorstein Veblen observed that silver spoons and corsets were markers of elite social position. In Veblen’s now famous treatise The Theory of the Leisure Class, he coined the phrase “conspicuous consumption” to denote the way that material objects were paraded as indicators of social position and status. More than 100 years later, conspicuous consumption is still part of the contemporary capitalist landscape.
Yet today, that luxury goods are significantly more accessible than in Veblen’s time makes it no longer an exclusive privilege. Given that everyone can now buy designer handbags and super cars, the rich have taken to using much more tacit signifiers of their social position. Oligarchs and the superrich still show off their wealth with yachts and Bentleys and gated mansions, but they switch to use organic products, wear TOMS shoes, carry NPR tote bags, or even ride a bike to protect environment.
The dramatic changes in elite spending are driven by a well-to-do, educated elite, or what is called the “aspirational class” (those who are highly educated and defined by cultural capital and consumer habits rather than income bracket), which was introduced by Elizabeth Currid-Halkett in her book called The Sum of Small Things: A story of a Aspirational Class.
The rise of the aspirational class and its consumer habits are perhaps most salient in the United States. The US Consumer Expenditure Survey data reveals that, since 2007, the country’s The One Percent are spending significantly less on material goods, while
middle-income groups are spending the same. Eschewing an overt materialism, the rich are investing significantly more in physical health and wellness — all of which are immaterial, replacing luxurious Hermes and Louis Vuitton handbags or supercars. In short, the high-net-worth individuals are spending on the immaterial instead of material goods as a new indicator of social position and status.
In fact, The One Percent demonstrate their interest in acquiring knowledge from reading New Yorker and The Economist to investing in their children’s education by selecting high-class kindergarten and Ivy League schools. They are spending over millions of USD to acquire living spaces in the vicinity of the US’s top state primary and high schools, or others are paying nearly USD 60,000 for a university tour by a personal helicopter to seek for a perfect educational environment.
The American super rich now devote the greatest share of their expenditures to inconspicuous consumption, with education forming a significant portion of this spend (accounting for almost 6% of top 1% household expenditures, compared with just over 1% of middle-income spending). In 2014, the top 1% in the US spend on education more 860% than average. Unlike material goods, education has become more and more expensive in recent decades. According to Consumer Expenditure Survey data from 2003-2013, the price of college tuition increased 80%, while the cost of women’s apparel increased by just 6% over the same period.
Perhaps most importantly, the new investment in inconspicuous consumption reproduces privilege in a way that previous conspicuous consumption could not. Inconspicuous consumption is a means to a better quality of life and improved social mobility for one’s own children, whereas conspicuous consumption is merely an end in itself – simply ostentation, which is not sustainable. For today’s aspirational class, inconspicuous consumption choices secure and preserve social status, even if they do not necessarily display it.
According to a survey named Health is the new wealth by Bain & Company,
a majority of 1,200 the rich asked in New York, Munich and New Delhi shown their special interest in health from nutritious food, knowledge about health to healthcare technologies.
The survey further indicated that 9 out of 10 people surveyed were willing to purchase healthy products while 8 out of 10 said that significant difficulties arising in their daily life prevented them from leading a healthy life such as stress, lack of time and bad habits. More than half admitted that they could meet WTO’s minimum requirements on physical activities. And more than 70% wanted health insurance companies to focus on maintaining health for everyone. Similarly, Luxury Insights 2017 survey by Agility carried out in China, Hong Kong, Singapore and the US shown that Asian rich consumers are becoming more and more aware of health amidst ever-increasingly unstable world.
In the book named The next trillion, Paul Zane Pilzer stated that 30 years ago, social origin could create the social position and status, but success now lies in their healthy figure. Thus, according to the author, Wellness will emerge to account for 10% of the US’ gross domestic products.
Therefore, high-net-worth individuals are investing in both health and wellness ranging from buying membership card of high-class fitness clubs like Performix House in Manhattan or fitness chains like Equinox; eating healthy food, buying organics in high-class restaurants like Whole Food and drinking organic juice; choosing living space in buildings with healthcare facilities; and joining retreat sessions such as Golden Door spa course of USD 10,000 per week.
It is highly likely that the elderly visitor wearing an Absolutely Bear organic cotton T-shirt and TOMS shoes, sitting opposite to you in Saffron restaurant of Banyan Tree Lang Co Eco Resort might be indeed a famous billionaire. They are getting rid of the ostentation to find the life’s true values for themselves and the whole planet.