One of the recurring data points in our ongoing discussion about social status, wealth, and consumption is the shocking prevalence of satellite dishes and Land Rovers on Graham’s drive through the projects on his way to U of H. Inconspicuous Consumption: A new theory of the leisure class makes some interesting assertions about how Americans differentiate themselves as more prosperous than their peers, and may just help explain the conundrum.

Conspicuous consumption, this research suggests, is not an unambiguous signal of personal affluence. It’s a sign of belonging to a relatively poor group. Visible luxury thus serves less to establish the owner’s positive status as affluent than to fend off the negative perception that the owner is poor. The richer a society or peer group, the less important visible spending becomes.

We wonder how this model might extend to emerging nations: Is conspicuous consumption a necessary growing pain in all nations with a disparity in the social classes? We can’t help but recall a tidbit we were told during our last visit to mainland China: Families save months of wages so their young, single female daughter/granddaughter can buy an exclusive designer handbag.

We’re back (actually 2 weeks ago) and only a little worse for the wear. Graham’s finally recovering from his “superbug” sinus infection and flu combo, the latter of which had his temp soaring to 104.1. Two antibiotics, some steroids, and some Tamiflu later, he’s almost as good as new.

There’s a joke now that we go every 10 months. By that count we’re due back early October 2008. We’ve promised each other we’ll visit something along the lines of pristine Switzerland or chi-chi Luxembourg before then.

Pictures on flickr.