The Cult of the Label: The Problem with Conspicuous Consumption Original Oratory 2024
I was in fifth grade when I first saw a girl bring her lunch to school in a Lululemon bag. She was ten years old—same as me, and comfortably surrounded by a group of laughing friends. I found my eye drawn to the bag, clasped in the girl's hand with a distinct look of pride. I knew what Lululemon was. I wasn’t living under a rock. In case you are, Lululemon is an athletic brand with leggings made of butter-smooth fabric in a rainbow of candy colors, and a price tag that will make you sweat. That bag was a symbol I subconsciously understood, even if the thought never came to mind. Within the month, the cafeteria was filled with dozens of identical bags.
As I watched this occur, possibilities swirled in my head; I knew I wanted one even if I couldn’t articulate why. And I'm sure most of us have felt the same at some point in our lives. In fact, this tendency is so common that American economist and sociologist Thorstein Veblen wrote an entire book on it. In The Theory of the Leisure Class, he defines conspicuous consumption as “the practice by consumers of using goods of a higher quality or in greater quantity than might be considered necessary in practical terms."
People care so much about conspicuous consumption. Even if we don’t think of the term by name, it’s a prevalent part of American culture to be “keep up with the Joneses.” We’re encouraged to spend.
But peer pressure to purchase luxury goods leads to unnecessary waste, all for objects we never wanted in the first place. So, today, let's first roam the aisles of social pressure, browse through waste, and finally, seal the deal with our societal emphasis on short-term gratification.
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We all hear about peer pressure when it comes to drinking or smoking. But people hardly acknowledge the social pressure to own name brands. Take my cousin, for instance: a few years ago, when AirPods had become the new fidget spinner, he decided he needed them. If it were me, I would’ve presented a PowerPoint about how the purchase would benefit me, the family, and the world at large, but my cousin didn’t go that route. I suspect that’s why his request was denied by his very reasonable parents, who argued that he already had headphones, even if they weren’t as trendy as AirPods. So he decided to create a convincing dupe: he took his functioning airplane headphones and cut them at the top of the cord. Satisfied, he took to wearing these “AirPods” around the home and the school, even though he couldn’t actually listen to anything through them.
Some of you might laugh this off as the antics of a pre-teen, but many adults demonstrate similar behaviors. My cousin was trying to keep up with the Joneses, which means, according to the Cambridge dictionary, “to always want to own the same expensive objects and do the same things as your friends or neighbors, because you are worried about seeming less important socially than they are.”
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Data from the U.S. General Social Survey found that “actual income is not important for the happiness of middle-income individuals.” Instead, they “compare themselves to other individuals from their own cohort who work in the same occupation and live in the same region.”
The thing is, people worry greatly about how they look in comparison to their peers. And so, consumers will pay large amounts of money for goods they see as status symbols. The Gucci logo or the Burberry plaid are ostentatious signs that a person belongs and is wealthy and successful.
Conspicuous consumption has an impact on us without us ever realizing it.
According to the Economic Times, “When the price of a good rises, it leads to a fall in the demand of that good. This is the natural consumer choice behavior” and is referred to as “the Law of Demand.”
Contrarily, many luxury goods aren’t expensive solely because of their inherent quality: When the price of a Veblen good increases, it becomes more desirable to status-conscious consumers. If the price of a Veblen good decreases, it loses its appeal as a luxury item and may still be too expensive for the average consumer.
Take a Rolex, for instance. If the price of a Rolex drops, there would be an initial rush in sales because middle-class consumers would grab the opportunity to get one for a lower price. However, sales would eventually drop because if everyone can afford a Rolex, it’s not a sign of being rich.
Conspicuous consumption is driven by comparison and insecurity, trapping people into spending money on goods they don’t need or want.
Now that we understand what conspicuous consumption is, let's talk about the harms of engaging in it. It’s not just about us as individuals but also the broader environmental impacts.
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Studies argue that we tend to attribute more status to non-sustainable luxury products compared to their eco-friendly counterparts.
Remake’s Transparency Manager, Becca Coughlan, explains: “While some luxury clothing may indeed be produced in ateliers in France or Italy, for example, by seamstresses who do earn a living wage, much of it is also produced alongside fast fashion in the global south—in the same factories and under the same working conditions.”
What’s more, in 2018, the BBC reported that upmarket British brand Burberry destroyed unsold products worth £28.6 million in one year instead of just lowering their prices. This move is becoming increasingly common rather than an exception for designer and fast fashion labels alike.
In a world with resource scarcity, conspicuous consumption can strain the already limited availability of raw materials (like water) and support unethical companies. These luxury objects are valued less for their utilitarian value (what they can do for you) than their qualitative value (how they make you feel). Everyone has fallen into this trap before: we want things without needing them. This is not inherently a bad thing: we wouldn’t have music, art, culture, or anything beautiful if we cared only about what we needed. However, conspicuous consumption encourages wastefulness not for any joy one might derive from an object, but simply for the sake of appearances.
This brings us to the third issue: conspicuous consumption places a societal emphasis on materialism and short-term gratification.
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The U.S. General Social Survey found that “Per capita income in the United States has risen very dramatically in recent decades, but the proportion of people considering themselves to be ‘very happy’ has fallen over the same period.”
Imagine you're buying your first pair of $500 shoes. The anticipation of the purchase is overwhelming. When you finally swipe the card, the initial rush of dopamine is as satisfying as you expected. You might find yourself delaying wearing them because they look so perfect in the fabric-lined box. Once you finally put them on, you might stop to admire them while you’re out and about. You bask in the compliments and thank the people who offer them in a way you think of as humble. But then people move on. And after that, how long is it until your mind starts to wander? The rush from the original purchase begins to fade. And you know, the only way to get it back is to buy something else. Something bigger. Something shinier. Something that will capture their attention and capture their respect.
And so the cycle continues.
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In our current society, there is often an emphasis on material possessions and social status as a means of achieving happiness. However, this approach can be misguided and ultimately lead to disappointment.
True happiness comes from cultivating meaningful relationships and experiences that give us a sense of purpose. By prioritizing these things over superficial measures of success, we can create a more fulfilling life for ourselves and those around us.
So, before you add that crocodile leather Gucci bag to your cart, you could consider an eco-friendly option, or perhaps you don’t even need a new purse at all. If you find yourself coveting the newer, cooler Tesla just because everybody seems to have one, remind yourself that they could have been saving up for the purchase for years, and it doesn’t give them any inherent superiority.
If we don't change our mindset and priorities, we risk continuing to waste our time and resources on things that don't truly matter. Conspicuous consumerism is a cycle of buying objects not because we like them, but because we want others to perceive us as better, wealthier, and more important.
We live in a world where everyone, from children to the elderly, is impacted by and engages in conspicuous consumption. However, this is a practice individuals can choose to stray away from. But in order to do that, we need to be aware of the reality and repercussions of conspicuous consumption to come to an informed decision.
So next time you see a girl with a Lululemon bag in hand, close your eyes and walk right past. I promise you, you don’t need it.
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Work Cited
Bagwell, Laurie Simon, and B. Douglas Bernheim. “Veblen Effects in a Theory of Conspicuous Consumption.” The American Economic Review, vol. 86, no. 3, 1996, pp. 349–373, www.jstor.org/stable/2118201.
Cambridge Dictionary. “Keep up with the Joneses | Definition in the Cambridge English Dictionary.” Cambridge.org, 11 Dec. 2019, dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/keep-up-with-the-joneses.
Frank, Robert H. “Conspicuous Consumption? Yes, but It’s Not Crazy.” The New York Times, 22 Nov. 2014, www.nytimes.com/2014/11/23/upshot/conspicuous-consumption-yes-but-its-not-crazy.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare.
Guven, Cahit, and Bent E. Sørensen. “Subjective Well-Being: Keeping up with the Perception of the Joneses.” Social Indicators Research, vol. 109, no. 3, 20 Aug. 2011, pp. 439–469, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-011-9910-x. Accessed 23 Aug. 2021.
J. Phillips, Ronnie. “Conspicuous Consumption | Economics & Social Impact Definition | Britannica Money.” Www.britannica.com, 22 Apr. 2014, www.britannica.com/money/conspicuous-consumption.
Kerviler, Gwarlann, et al. “Research: How to Position a Luxury Brand as Sustainable.” Harvard Business Review, 10 Sept. 2021, hbr.org/2021/09/research-how-to-position-a-luxury-brand-as-sustainable.
Ordabayeva, Nailya, and Pierre Chandon. “Getting ahead of the Joneses: When Equality Increases Conspicuous Consumption among Bottom-Tier Consumers.” Oup.com, Oxford University Press, 2023, academic.oup.com/jcr/article-abstract/38/1/27/1799810?redirectedFrom=fulltext.
